Limelight: Vanity, thy name is man By Lubna Abdel-Aziz With the political season in full swing, from Australia to Afghanistan, Iraq to the United States, the image of politicos looms larger than ever. Comedians have had a field day over US Democratic nominee for president, John Kerry, and his apparent use of cosmetics in order to improve his appearance. The face is redder and ruddier, the hair less grey and more peppery, and the wrinkles plumper and less evident. He even took time for a manicure before his first debate, commented the observers with eyebrows raised; imagine! Welcome to the new macho world of male cosmetics! It is hard to imagine Abraham Lincoln or Benjamin Franklin stopping for some extra bronzing gel. But this is the 21st century. It is the age of male beauty. No more does it suffice for clothes to make the man, or his many colognes. Gone are the days when rugged men scrubbed their faces with after shave, and proudly smiled at their distinguished wrinkles and grey hair. Were Edmond Rostand, French dramatist (1868 -- 1918) alive today, he would have never conceived of a Cyrano de Bergerac. In this era of youthful beauty for males could Cyrano have boasted about his oversized nose: "I am proud of such an appendage, since a big nose is the proper sign of a friendly, good, courteous, witty, liberal, brave man such as I am." That nose would have been taken care of by the knife of a plastic surgeon, post-haste. New statistics show 2003 was a banner year for all products enhancing male beauty, hair dyes, fragrance, designer clothes, and aesthetic procedures or plastic surgery. Yes! Plastic surgery is becoming more and more common among men with a steady increase of 10 -- 15 per cent each year. What do men do? Everything! Face- lifts, neck-lifts, eyelids, brows, forehead- lifts, chin implants, ear tucks, or lesser invasive procedures such as laser resurfacing, face peels, hair transplantation, liposuction or fat injections to plump up sunken skin. The upward curve shows no signs of falling as the stigma of plastic surgery is slowly eroding. According to statistics of the American Society of Aesthetic Surgery, surgical procedures for men have jumped 87 per cent since 1997, non- surgical ones soared 471 per cent. Men are responding to a consumer culture that is less forgiving to those who are not young, trim, and attractive. Men's grooming supplies are increasing 12 per cent each year totalling more than $8.6 billion worldwide. Who are those men walking proudly into plastic surgery clinics, or buying all those male cosmetics, from tinted moisturisers to puffy-eye cream? They are called "Metrosexuals" -- "urban, heterosexual men who have the incurable urge to wax, exfoliate, primp and pamper their vanity". Men who are unafraid to reach out to their feminine side. The term was first coined by a British journalist, Mark Simpson in a 1994 article in Salon Magazine. It immediately became popular amongst writers, advertisers, designers, radio and TV commentators. "Metro" indicates the urban lifestyle while "sexual" embodies the heightened aesthetic sense often associated with homosexuals. Nowadays there is no escaping the "metrosexual" phenomenon, submitting to a new-found male desire to be pretty. Borrowing a page from gay men, they are unafraid of using cosmetics to conceal blemishes, dark circles under their eyes and oily shine. They dress better, smell better, remove unwanted hair "and they have never looked so good or felt so confident". The typical metrosexual is a young man with money to spend, living in or within easy reach of a metropolis. His sexual orientation is immaterial because "he has clearly taken himself as his own love object." Soccer star David Beckham is the metrosexual icon with painted fingernails and pony tail, unafraid to embrace his feminine side. Young men are encouraged to go for the "Beckham" look, and Beckham himself has his own line of make-up since 2002 which has been selling briskly in Britain and the European continent. Other sport champs are hawking traditional female products as bronzes, eye creams and make-up. A decade ago they would have seemed ludicrous, today the average fan takes it in stride. For many years men have enjoyed the great privilege of never having to wear makeup, while women spent good time and money on cosmetics. No more are brains, brawn and bank accounts enough to win his lady love -- a man has to look as good as she does whatever it takes. Besides, 84 per cent of men surveyed in Canada thought that physical attractiveness was important for power and success in their jobs. Is the taboo truly gone? Not everywhere or with everyone, but it is only a matter of time. The number of men under the knife of the cosmetic surgeon is on the rise. Apart from facial surgery, men in general are more likely to undergo those procedures that "are less obvious and easier to hide". Liposuction, especially for what is referred to as the love-handle is very popular, but the surprise is the "gynecomastia" procedure, a condition where fat accumulates around the male breast area, so that the pectoral muscles appear flabby and enlarged. These muscles do not respond to work-outs. The procedure for pectoral implants is similar to a breast augmentation for women. A London clinic for cosmetic surgery boasts of 40 per cent male patients, 60 per cent of them from the business world. The positive results are the same for virtually every person; greater self-esteem, a new level of self-confidence and an improved self-image. Once the hush-hush domain of aging society-women, the fast growing market for cosmetic procedures is out in the open. Over the past five years the number of men submitting to liposuction has tripled, the number of face lifts have doubled. As for nose reshaping or rhinoplasty, it is one of the most popular procedures for men, women and teenagers in almost every country around the world. What do women think of this boom in male make-over? Delighted, I'm sure. For decades they have been derided for their shallow vanity and focus on their looks, hair, make-up, figure. Now the tables are turned and men are no longer satisfied with their beer-bellies, wrinkled faces and grey hair. They too want to look as good as women. With women's power and status on the rise, they are looking for more attractive men. It used to be that men responded to physical beauty and women to power status. Now women want it all. "Why can't a woman be more like a man?" Or is it the other way around. There is definitely more emphasis on their looks, bodies and weight than in any time in the last century. The effort to look young and attractive is going beyond gender and culture. Obsession with appearances is nothing new and what we do about it depends highly on our pocket book. While economic recession is causing a slowdown in France, the French cosmetic market rose 50 per cent in 2003 reaching 11 billion euros. The plastic surgery industry is booming and it is not unhealthy or unbecoming to wish to remove a few wrinkles here and there. But neither surgery nor make-up could be a substitute for good health. Diet and exercise have better long term results, and high self-esteem is far more effective than a surgeon's knife. Feeding the frenzy of male vanity may prove more profitable for the market than for the men. Try to resist the onslaught of the sell, the ladies have been doing it for decades. Men still fear the appearance of vanity, while secretly trying to turn back the clock. It cannot be done. The clock keeps ticking. We all wish to live long, but not grow old, we keep inventing ways of delaying the onslaught of age. Maurice Chevalier said it best: "considering the alternative, it's not too bad at all!" So we continue to powder and puff, nip and tuck, cover and camouflage, feeding the vanity of men and women alike, but we must keep it all in perspective for, "if wrinkles must be written upon our brow, let them not be written upon the heart." The spirit should not grow old. Laughter is the best medicine and a smile is the fastest and easiest face-lift available -- besides, it costs nothing!
