Letter to RedEye: Manly Hair

In response to a horrendous article about several men who remove their body hair for various reasons and detailing the numerous ways that men can remove their body hair and posing the question, "Should men be removing their body hair?" or something like that:

I think it's time for hairy men to be proud of who they are. I remember a time when there were huge uproars over supermodels and their effect on women and teenage girls who were destroying themselves with diets and plastic surgery. So why is it that nobody is batting an eyelash when men are being just as vain with diets and fashion and "manscaping" just to look like the Abercrombie & Fitch catalog models? It's a double-standard!

There are only two situations in which it should be socially acceptable to remove your manly hair:
1) You are a model or actor or another profession in which the absence of hair naturally accents toned muscle mass and that's how you make your livelihood/paychecks.
2) It is a hazard for you to have this hair for aerodynamic or flammability reasons.

Aside from those, manly hair is manly and should never be looked down upon. What should be looked down upon is the continued persistance of "metrosexuality" and other effeminate trends. For the love of beer and steaks - they even have pantyhose for men now! I may not know a thing about pantyhose (being a manly man and all), but I'm guessing if you fall into the "man leggings" category, you've already shorn off your leg hair.

I find it depressing that most screen time that male body hair can get is when it's the butt of a joke (see: 40-Year-Old Virgin). I'd like to think that maybe Hollywood can grow up and let men be men and that includes having body hair. Hopefully the recent trend of beards coming back into popularity may suggest an eventual turn AWAY from smooth and back TOWARDS the roughness. I love having a beard and I get compliments for it, too.

I feel confident that your reader response has turned up a majority of females who like the body hair on their partners. That's how our brains are programmed. Plus, I didn't spend several years of puberty waiting for a bumper crop of manly hair to sprout just to wax it all away!

Oh, and sorry, ladies - this hunk o' man meat is spoken for.

Aaron Samuels, 24, Bridgeport

(As always, I'll bold anything if this gets posted. I even got to send a picture with it because they're trying to lure in more reader response with the promise of posting your picture if they print your "mini-article" reader response.)

Do you agree about men and body hair being manly and not something to remove?

UPDATE!

"Hi Aaron,

Thanks for your letter. We appreciate the feedback!"

(Maybe they'll post it?) Read more!

Lost? Ask the Gas Pump!

This is a very interesting new technology that will be made available throughout the country starting next month. Rather, the technology itself isn't very new, but the placement and application of it is quite remarkable. It's one that makes you stop and think, "Why hasn't anyone done this before?"

Google Maps will soon be located on gas pumps. You can get directions to landmarks, hotels, restaurants or hospitals. You can even print out those directions before heading back out on your way - now sure of where you're going and how you're going to get there.

The pumps, made by Gilbarco Veeder-Root, will include an Internet connection. The Google Map feature will be available (in color!) on a small screen located on the pump. So far, the technology being used is simply a scrolling menu through various categories and choosing pre-selected destinations. Think of it more as a very-helpful travel guide of sorts. In the future, Gilbarco Veeder-Root hopes to include the ability to enter in an address to get directions, making the feature genuinely invaluable. For now, if you're lost on your way to the party, you'd better hope you know of a local landmark located nearby and hope for the best.

This is mostly geared towards travelers and road-trippers who might be looking for a place to crash for the night, grab a bite to eat, find the Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota or possibly just to reattach a severed thumb. I'm hoping that "local landmarks" includes the nearest highway - which is what my mind envisions a lot of lost vacationers would want to know, and would be more likely to ask a gas pump than a human being.

Which brings me to the question: Is this un-manly?

After all, we've all grown up with the supposedly-antiquated notion that "real men don't pull over and ask for directions" - admitting that you are lost is like admitting defeat in the great game of Manliness. So does this count? Is the fact that you're not pulling over specifically for directions (since you're probably in need of gas anyway with your low-mileage manly vehicle), and it's not like you're ASKING for directions. That implies an element of speech, and very loosely implies you're expecting a verbal response which would mean you're asking a human. Will the Man Code be violated if, while filling up the Manmobile, you test out some new technology by verifying the correct route to your hotel (which you of course already know, but you want to see if the GAS PUMP knows as well) and maybe printing out the results as proof that you were indeed right about the route that needs to be taken and you weren't lost after all?

Let me know what you think about the manliness of pump-based mapping and whether or not it breaks the Man Code about pulling over to ask for directions.

And don't forget to vote at the top of this page, if you like what you've been reading here at my BlogSpot.

(The article about the 3,500 advanced gas pumps coming out next month)







Read more!