Joshua Rosenau spends his days defending the teaching of evolution at 
While many things about the promos for "Starter Wife" bother me (the plot and the cast, for starters), I find myself simply confused by a scene in which Debra Messing's husband opens his robe and she reacts with disgust. All we can see is his hairy chest, though it's possible she's reacting to something off-screen.
I fail to understand how a certain amount of hair on a man's body is supposed to be a bad thing. Everything from The 40-Year-Old Virgin to Queer Eye suggests that men ought to be hairless. Can anyone think of another prominent secondary sexual characteristic which people voluntarily suppress?
Comments
Men shave their faces; women shave their armpits and their legs.
Posted by: Elf Eye | April 29, 2007 1:20 PM
Women remove hair from their underarms, and increasingly remove pubic hair as well. I think hairiness in men is still much more accepted than hairiness in women.
Posted by: kristi | April 29, 2007 1:53 PM
I share your puzzlement. I find the whole "hairless" thing very strange.
I shifted from growing hair on the top of my head to growing it on my face instead some years back, and have never regretted it. This is called Making the Best of a Bad Thing.
And as for my preferences for my wife ... well, let's just say that hair is, after all, a sexual characteristic.
Posted by: Scott Belyea | April 29, 2007 3:09 PM
Some men shave their faces. A beard is understood to be an acceptable choice. A hairy chest or back is not.
Posted by: Josh Rosenau | April 29, 2007 3:36 PM
According to who? And for what reason??
Posted by: Scott Belyea | April 29, 2007 4:23 PM
By the tastemakers of the fashion, cosmetic and entertainment industries. Especially fashion and cosmetics because they stand to make money.
Hirsutism is a "primitive" trait, y'know like those Geico cavemen. I.e. evilution is to blame.
Posted by: tourettist | April 29, 2007 6:00 PM
Our fashion industry and marketing has geared our ideals of women and men to 12-year old boys with boobs and 16 year old boys w/o indications of puberty, respectively. This beauty ideal seems unattainable by the vast majority of the breeding population.
fwiw,
Posted by: Keith Sader | April 29, 2007 6:41 PM
Silverbacks like me have a rather different view of things. How can anyone find hairless people sexually attractive? How do they groom?
Posted by: John Wilkins | April 29, 2007 6:49 PM
I really don't mind hair on my husband's body. But he feels self-conscious about it. So come bathing suit time he has me man-scape his back.
Posted by: Spyder | April 29, 2007 8:56 PM
Frankly, I find a lack of hair on any feline disgusting. But then, I am extremely hirsute. Oh, are you talking about human beings? Who cares, as long as they feed me?
Posted by: Mousie Cat | April 29, 2007 10:38 PM
Why waste perfectly good testosterone to grow hair when there are much more enjoyable pasttimes . . .
Posted by: happy wife | April 30, 2007 6:34 AM
Women: shaved everywhere. Idealization of the prepubescent form encompasses suppression of hips (how rare are genuinely childbearing hips in media representations?). Labioplasty is more primary than secondary, but still.
Posted by: M | April 30, 2007 9:34 AM
"Can anyone think of another prominent secondary sexual characteristic which people voluntarily suppress?"
I thought I would find more people giving answers to ANOTHER characteristic, but it seems everyone got stuck on hair, and or the removal of it. One other secondary sexual characteristic that I think many people voluntarily suppress is the need for sexual exploration at any age. Personally I blame the religious people that think sex is only good to make mini me's.
Posted by: Nightmare | April 30, 2007 1:22 PM
Wilkins, are there albino gorillas that aren't silverbacks?
Posted by: Josh Rosenau | April 30, 2007 4:23 PM