Cosmetic procedures are of increasing interest to millennial men, a new industry report found.
Thirty one percent of men said they were extremely likely to consider a cosmetic procedure, either surgical or noninvasive, according to a survey conducted by the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Among that 31 percent, 58 percent were from 25 to 34 years old and 34 percent were aged 18 to 24 years. Both age ranges are members of the millennial generation.
The top reason cited by respondents pursuing cosmetic procedures to appear younger was wanting to feel better about themselves, followed by the desire to appear less tired or stressed, and then to please their partners. In the 25- to 34-year-old range, 42 percent cited wanting to remain competitive in their career as a reason to go under the knife.
The most common procedures for men are rhinoplasty (nose jobs), otoplasty (pinning back the ears), and treatment for gynecomastia (a surgery that reduces male breast size), according to Clyde H. Ishii, a surgeon and president of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.
Part of the reason young men are increasingly interested in cosmetic procedures derives from social media, said Dr. Fred G. Fedok, president of the academy that conducted the survey. "People are more aware of their looks from different angles," he said. A growing interest in health and self-care also plays a part. "It's sort of like exercise," Fedok said about cosmetic procedures.
Apparently man boobs have gone out of fashion.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday June 23 2017, @11:15PM (21 children)
Piercings are so 2000s, tattoos are so 2010s, time for the next step in body mods to become mainstream.
Either that, or someone forgot that they can filter their selfies before posting them, and that having a thick enough wallet for useless surgeries does cancel the need for them.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday June 23 2017, @11:25PM (1 child)
My finger magnet implants are triggered by your electromagnetic emissions.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @12:42AM
-- 256 shades of gray, 2316, pg. 39
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 23 2017, @11:38PM (18 children)
In the United States, men have long been shamed for their natural bodies—so shamed, in fact, that society surgically alters their bodies.
Circumcision is the most common surgery in the United States; as usual, it turns out that men have it worse than women.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @01:00AM (16 children)
That's just weird. As an owner of a penis, I can confidently state that all other penises on the planet are disgusting, stinky, ugly lumps of flesh. Mine, of course, is glorious and simply named Emperor. I assumed that all other men felt the same, excepting the gay ones? As the owner of an Internet connection, I can also quite confidently state that the uncircumcised penis is well represented. No cock too small, or too clownishly gargantuan, is missing from the Internet. That, and anything is a dildo if you are brave enough. It's like a buffet of all the body parts you do, and sincerely do not, want to see. Of course the implication of diverse cock on the Internet, is that females in general are not the ones body shaming cocks. They're taking all of it, and then once it is spent, moving on to the hardware. That, being incredibly diverse. You want alien penises? Amazon.com
To my knowledge, circumcision was made mainstream because of health arguments related to Head Cheese. Personally, after having explained what that was, I didn't mind being circumcised (thank God at an early age). Nothing to do with being ashamed about the extra skin. Perhaps anecdotal, but I love my penis just the way it is. Proud of the little guy, actually.
There is no war against the natural penis, or the penis in general. You can calm down mate, nobody is coming to chop of the tip of your Jolly Roger.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @01:08AM (12 children)
If you were born male in the USA, you were raped of the human right of “my body, my choice” at birth. If you were born male, there certainly is somebody coming after your foreskin. If you were very unlucky, you might have been raised as a girl and forceably injected with estrogen. If they didn't go that far, perhaps somebody goofed and used a laser cauterizer, completely burning your penis off. Other men experience skin tearing and bleeding during erection because there is not enough skin on the shaft.
Why do you wish these fates on others?
Circumcision is said to prevent the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases. Do you have a lot of sex with male infants?
(Score: 2) by KGIII on Saturday June 24 2017, @01:36AM (11 children)
I am male, was born in the US, and have my foreskin.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @02:10AM (10 children)
Good for you. I understand you're disproving my point by counterexample, which is fair enough. I was using hyperbole. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics' 2012 report, there was a crisis in the USA. Ritual infant male genital mutilation had fallen to be used in only 50% of male births.
The practice must be made illegal. Even in cases of phimosis and paraphimosis, there are alternatives to bringing out a butcher knife.
Personally I don't care what somebody does to their body when they're of the age of majority. However, it is wrong to take that choice from somebody when they are unable to even protest for the flimsiest of reasons.
I'm glad you were given a choice. Many of us were not, and some of us have suffered life-altering problems. There is no way to get any kind of justice if a problem doesn't manifest until puberty.
In some African genital mutilation rituals, they at least wait until the organ is mature before taking a knife to it. If ritual male genital mutilation were really about STDs for example, then there would be no reason to perform the procedure until the patient is sexually active. However, that's not what it's about.
(Score: 2) by KGIII on Saturday June 24 2017, @02:25AM (8 children)
If your view is logically sound, you don't need hyperbole.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @12:55PM (3 children)
So do you deny that there is a high rate of male genital mutilation in the US?
(Score: 2) by KGIII on Saturday June 24 2017, @03:34PM (2 children)
Are you mentally handicapped?
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @07:15PM (1 child)
>>> If your view is logically sound, you don't need hyperbole.
> Are you mentally handicapped?
KGIII, why troll?
(Score: 2) by KGIII on Saturday June 24 2017, @08:26PM
Quotes taken out of context, assumptions made, position assumed, and I'm the troll?
LOL Thank you for your confidence in my trolling ability. However, I'm quite serious.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @04:05PM (1 child)
Found the 9th grade English teacher!
(Score: 2) by KGIII on Saturday June 24 2017, @04:45PM
LOL Nah, retired mathematician.
It seems that the other AC may be a little bit unhinged. They've decided to just assume my opinion for me. What a crazy world we live in.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @06:38PM (1 child)
You're correct. Hyperbole weakens one's case, doesn't it?
Then allow me to use clarity without hyperbole.
If somebody is seeking cosmetic surgery for an infant's genitals (male or female, since I'm being clear now) in order to reduce the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases, that person is presuming the infant is sexually active. That person is a child molester and a pedophile. They should be tried, and if found guilty by a jury, they should be required to register as a sex offender.
Here is my reasoning:
1. The only possible, credible medical reason not related to STDs in the literature for performing infant genital mutilation is urinary tract infection. However, UTI is a routine condition that is easily dealt with by administering antibiotics. Amputating a body part because of a routine infection that can be treated with antibiotics is insane, and it would be the only routine infection medicine recommends amputation for. That right there should make it suspect. We do not amputate the patient's ears to protect them from the risk of ear infection.
1a. Penile cancer is a disease that develops in old age, and the literature is uncertain whether a foreskin is an organ that is at some special risk for the disease. Penile cancer occurs in circumcised men the same as intact men. This is not a credible reason to amputate body parts from an infant.
2. The remainder of the reasons involve STDs such as HIV (GRID/AIDS) and HPV (cervical cancer). In order to treat a patient for a condition that they can only contract by being sexually active, the patient must be sexually active. Therefore, anybody who is recommending male or female circumcision for infants is implying that they believe the infant is sexually active. We call people like that pedophiles.
2a. Additionally, recommending amputation of a body part in order to prevent a type of cancer that can only manifest in a body part they do not have is insane. It requires several presumptions. i.) The infant is sexually active (see above); ii.) The infant is heterosexual; iii.) The infant is engaging in promiscuous sexual activity with women.
2b. As concerns HPV (which can cause cervical cancer), there is a vaccination available. Let's examine the logic that tells us that we cannot vaccinate teenage girls against HPV. The fear is that offering them protection against an STD is implying they are sexually active. Many people are uncomfortable with that. How is it that these same people are comfortable with the notion that infants are sexually active? (As argued above, in order to protect a patient from a disease transmitted through sexual activity, that patient must be sexually active, especially since the larger point we're talking about here is amputation, not vaccination.)
I could go on into a 3rd point that stipulates that the foreskin serves an important protective function for the glans, analogous to the clitoral hood in females. I'll just say that I'm the AC who suffers from intense pain without wearing an artificial foreskin.
There could be a 4th point that in cases such as these where medical benefit is dubious and the main motivation is cosmetic, because this is a body part that is not normally exposed to the public, informed consent from a patient of the age of majority should be required. (If I'm going to state “my body, my choice” then I would be the last person to stop an 18 year old man who does not wish to have a foreskin from obtaining medical assistance in amputating it. People do stranger things to their bodies. Age of majority and informed consent are the key.)
I believe these points will establish that somebody wishing to perform this surgical procedure on an infant is a child molester and a pedophile. In order to recommend this procedure, one would need to believe that the infant is at immediate risk of being sexually active.
I hope that helps.
(Score: 2) by KGIII on Saturday June 24 2017, @07:07PM
I agree with your idea/premise. I didn't have it done to my son, either.
My only objection was to the dishonest approach of claiming "all." It's not all. I'm not even sure if I find it acceptable for religious reasons.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday June 24 2017, @04:35AM
What it's really about is masturbation. Dr. Kellogg hated masturbation and promoted circumcision as a way to get boys to stop jerking off.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @01:56AM
You don't have much of a choice: You either face some disconcerting facts about having had a valuable part of "your" sexual organ surgically removed, or you pretend that everything is just fine or even fantastic!
Also, the Internet is a recent phenomenon; Americans (and others in the Anglo-Saxon world... maybe you're Australian, where the practice is still in its death throes) were circumcising long before the Internet—your rebuttal is completely nonsensical.
(Score: 3, Informative) by FatPhil on Saturday June 24 2017, @07:23AM (1 child)
Were that true, circumcision would be an alternative to good hygiene. It is not. As long as you have good hygiene, you don't have knob cheese.
The real reason it became mainstream was because some wankers who didn't want people wanking decided that they should physically make it both less convenient (by having no "give" in the skin when not totally lubed up) and less enjoyable (by removing fairly nerve-dense bits of the cock). It also has the later side effect of exposing the bell end to sensations almost constantly - clothing, pubes - which desensitises it as the "there's something making contact" signal burns in and burns out, but I suspect that additional anti-sex bonus wasn't in Kellogg's mind when he forced his flakey religious beliefs upon that rationalism-forsaken country.
When I was typical US prick-hacking age, the child mutilation rate was about 95% amongst WASPs, there most certainly was a war against cocks. Even today, that rate is still apparently over 90%. Blacks and hispanics have got more sense, so the national statistic is lower, or course.
Aside - if anyone wants to feel good about their todger, I can highly recommend the "documentary" /Dick/. It's a useless documentary, it's just some women talking about fucksticks, but that is accompanied by so many stills of utterly horrible wangers, that you really will think you've got a masterpiece between your legs once you've seen it.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @07:07PM
Heh, if you're lucky. Well, most people are lucky compared to me. I'm not even cisgendered! However, I doubt the American Academy of Pediatrics has any desire to find out why I developed debilitating pain instead of numbness.
The whole this is massively disingenuous. Especially the part where justice is denied.
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @01:03AM
There's no argument here that circumcision is a travesty. I wear an artificial foreskin because my glans never lost sensitivity as it's supposed to. None of the cut men here would be able to imagine (I imagine) but the intact men might be able to imagine how painful it would get with an exposed glans constantly rubbing against clothes.
I find it strange that men would want to look younger. Wouldn't men want to convey maturity and experience? When I present as male, my natural ability to appear 10–15 years younger than I am tends to backfire. People are shocked to find out that I'm not in my early 20s. It does irritate me in that regard, because a man's position and the amount of respect he commands come from the evidence of experience in his appearance. Appearing younger is only an advantage when presenting as female.
I tend to present as either gender regularly, so I have a bit of experience in these matters. I admit though I'm just not very convincing at presenting as male, but unfortunately we live in a world where feminism has declared that ritual infant male genital mutilation is a better way to combat cervical cancer than HPV vaccination and that gender is a caste assigned at birth instead of a natural part of being human.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Friday June 23 2017, @11:21PM (3 children)
Finally, something millennials aren't killing!
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @01:12AM (1 child)
I was thinking that this might give me an answer to my conundrum. We found out that millennials aren't eating out enough. Now we find out millennials are having too much plastic surgery.
So, it must go like this. Millennials can't afford to buy a house because they're eating out too much, and they can't afford to eat out enough because they're having too much plastic surgery!
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday June 24 2017, @02:37AM
New buzzwo.... uh, oh, sorry... it's called trend nowadays:experience economy [google.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @04:07PM
Oh ho! You speak too quickly sir.
The millenials are "killing it" with their new plastic surgery fetish.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday June 23 2017, @11:45PM (7 children)
Hahah, reminds me of back when I was in Air Force basic training. We were all in the bay with the T.I.'s (drill sergeants) doing mail call or something when my T.I., a funny-as-fuck jive-ass old-skool Black man, said, " Where's that muthafucka with them big-ass ears, mothafuckas be like satellite dishes and sheeit, bet he can hear me from all the way out at the drill-pad with those big-ass satellite dishes! " We all erupted into riotous laughter, except that the big-eared guy in question was not out at the drill pad, he was sitting with us and was now crying to himself.
The T.I. was a ruthless fucker too, he got in that guy's face and straight-up told him to shut the fuck up, get on his feet, and pull himself together.
I have a personal policy to never be romantic with any woman who has had, or wants to have, any kind of plastic surgery other than that of a reconstructive nature. Though I might be a hypocrite, because if my fitness program doesn't get rid of my manboobs, then I'm going to have them sucked out.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @12:27AM
If the exercise doesn't get rid of those moobs, just get your current (or next!) ladyfriend to suck them out for you. Or y'know just advertise it to the ladies as 'I've got three things you can suck on instead of just one!' :)
(Score: 4, Touché) by KGIII on Saturday June 24 2017, @01:40AM (2 children)
It could have been worse. They could have turned your air conditioning off or make you do five minutes of PT.
AF is tough like that. ;-)
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday June 24 2017, @08:54PM (1 child)
Yeah, they just started "warrior week" right before I went in, so they tell us that we're gonna spend a week roughing it in the boonies ("Fuck yeah, a camping trip!") only to discover air-conditioned tents seated on nice concrete slabs with down sleeping bags on cots. The comfort was pretty cool, but that's no field experience.
The final combat simulation was pretty cool though. We were all in BDUs with camo paint and were allowed to improvise ghillie suits from the local brush, then given deactivated M-16's and played a war-game with the cadre. They would use techniques like hiding in the bushes to snoop verbal passcodes, or they would sneak into our perimeter and infiltrate us (often lingering undetected for awhile to get intel). They were combat veterans (one of whom was actually shot a few times) and they curbstomped us. That was over 24 hours of solid awake exhaustion and by the end gulping down handfuls of smuggled caffeine pills had no effect at all.
But in those goddamn MRE's man -- that little bottle of Tabasco sauce is such a goddamn joy to see everytime you open the package.
(Score: 2) by KGIII on Saturday June 24 2017, @10:30PM
LOL Fuck you...
Eight, as a Marine. *sighs* Yeah, I have pics to prove it.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 2) by rigrig on Saturday June 24 2017, @02:47AM (1 child)
I assume that policy also includes any women with tattoos, unconventional clothes, or piercings.
No one remembers the singer.
(Score: 3, Funny) by KGIII on Saturday June 24 2017, @03:28AM
I assume it's a choice they don't have to worry about. ;-)
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 3, Informative) by realDonaldTrump on Saturday June 24 2017, @03:04PM
Buy yourself a pageant. Let me tell you, beauty pageants are great. When you own a pageant, they let you do what you want. The locker room is the best part. You can really see what you're getting. Sometimes the knife is necessary, just a little tweak. I never overdo it. And the prenup, always get a prenuptual agreement. Always, always. Look at what happened to Jamie Dimon. Enjoy!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday June 24 2017, @12:31AM (26 children)
an ethical surgeon would refuse to perform the surgery, but instead refer the patient to a psychotherapist.
A woman with the very finest breasts I ever fondled wanted to "get a boob job someday". It was simply not possible to improve on nature.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Funny) by driven on Saturday June 24 2017, @01:43AM (1 child)
Dear Miss: I am a surgeon and would like to provide a free evaluation at no charge to you.
(Score: 3, Touché) by KGIII on Saturday June 24 2017, @02:27AM
And they say romance is dead.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday June 24 2017, @01:51AM (1 child)
This was the problem I had when I wanted to get hard dick pills under Obamacare. Actually, I got them until it was no longer profitable for big med to dole them out. Then it was a referral to the local shrink, so the doc could kick the can downwind, but I had no interest in that.
Now I just listen to metal [youtube.com] and purchase for 14-15 American dollars a Tommy Gunn Penis Extender. [amazon.com]
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday June 24 2017, @03:48AM
Google for "research powder".
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @01:51AM (16 children)
Breast implants not only don't look right, but I understand there's a good chance of losing sensitivity in the nipple area. I would have gotten implants if I had the money when I was younger, but really I'm not sure. I simply haven't had the free money to have the choice in front of me.
I've been trying a device called a Noogleberry with some limited initial success along with oil massage. I don't know if there's anything to natural breast enhancement. I suspect not, but it costs a fraction of surgery and seems completely safe. It seemed at least worth a try, before I'm not young any more.
It's a conundrum because I know that men like my body the way it is. I'm only unhappy with my natural size because Hollywood and Cosmo say that I should be.
I wonder if the same effect is happening to men. The best I've been able to understand masculinity, not being a man myself, is by using the movie Fight Club (not the book, which gets longwinded about the various ways to put bodily fluids in soup) and a book called Iron John: A Book about Men by Robert Bly [wikipedia.org].
The Iron John archetype shows up as Tyler Durden in Fight Club. One other place I spotted a good Iron John archetype was Old Man Zangetsu in the anime Bleach. However, for anime, I would recommend Gurren Lagann, where the Iron John archetype manifests as Kamina.
Perhaps men are having a crisis of masculinity. They're no longer looking to their inner Iron John. The old men have failed to teach them how to be men.
I think it would be good to have some kind of coming of age ritual for men. Many cultures have them, but no such thing exists in Western corporate consumerist culture. A quick example is present in the beginning of both versions of Roots.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday June 24 2017, @02:28AM (10 children)
What does "teach them to be a man" mean, exactly? What is it that makes someone "a man?"
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 4, Funny) by c0lo on Saturday June 24 2017, @02:47AM (2 children)
You must be young, Azuma.
From quite a long time ago it is known that the internet is the place where men are men, women are men and kids are FBI agents. The emphasis highly likely apply to the post you replied.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday June 24 2017, @03:39AM
Unless given a reason to suspect otherwise I take people at their professed gender online. The tells are usually fairly easy to spot..though, people have said type like a guy sometimes, so I know how it feels to be mistaken and try not to do that to other people.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @07:11PM
Haha. Almost.
If you saw me IRL you would conclude that I were a woman, even to the point of becoming aggressive with me if I needed to take a leak and headed into the men's room. Unfortunately folks, bathroom laws! The men's room is where feminists and Christians want me, so the men's room is where I take a leak. Deal with it.
Unless you want a very interesting court case after you assault me because I entered the men's room. Those bathroom laws gotta be tried in court somehow!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @02:42PM
You're over thinking. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that teaching is what makes a man.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @03:36PM (1 child)
I think the idea is that the old men take a boy away from his mother and then teach him the things he needs to know to be self-sufficient. Maybe something like survivalist training that the militias do. (I don't think there's anything wrong with survivalist training... just everything else about militia groups.) A more modern idea may be an initiation into an apprentice system for skilled trades.
My view on the matter may be distorted since it's based on a failed attempt to change my own mental sex. Truth be told I'm not an anthropologist, and it's been a long time since I read Bly's Iron John.
(This is something that could be offered to everybody but would only interest men. So men will also need to find a way to shut down the inadvertent screeching... concern trolling?... from 3rd wave feminism when women aren't 50% of the enrollees. Another thing men need to learn how to do: grow some balls and tell 3rd wave feminism to go fuck itself. I know you don't want to hear that, but it's gotten beyond ridiculous when somebody who knows some HTML thinks they're a full-fledged computer programmer just because they have the same organ between their legs as Ada Lovelace. Add in the double-whammy from the 3rd wave that transgendered people are bathroom rapists that need to be legislated against, and feminism needs to go soak its head already.)
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday June 25 2017, @02:56AM
Hm...something similar had occurred to me (though for everyone, not just boys), re: the self-sufficiency/apprenticeship idea. I think everyone should know how to balance a checkbook, cook healthy meals at a decently low cost, bottlefeed and diaper-change a baby, etc. There doesn't need to be some gendered mystique about it though, as those are just plain old life skills.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Soylentbob on Sunday June 25 2017, @03:31PM (3 children)
Manners, [youtube.com] of course ;-)
Actually, I'd like the same question answered by you. You mentioned in some other thread [soylentnews.org] that, if it was a matter of choice (which it isn't), probably all women would decide to be lesbian, so you seem to have some firm convictions what the behavioural differences between women and men are.
Since this is social minefield, I'll make a fool of myself first by trying to give an explanation. I think that expectations and roles are based on a mix of evolutionary advantages and social rules in society. Some of the evolutionary advantage loses its edge because most societies takes care of the basic needs nowadays.
The evolutionary aspect is that women have less opportunities to procreate. Usually they are biologically limited to one child/year over a period of maybe 20 years. This is not practical, though. Realistically, I think having more than 5-7 children is already very demanding for the female body. This means, for women the choice of a mate is a huge investment. Also they are weakened during pregnancy and might not be able to provide for themselves / their offspring after delivery. What they need is a strong male, able to provide for them and to protect them, and hopefully faithful enough to do so in the long term (although, evolutionary the task is fulfilled when the offspring is old enough to build their own family). Successful men can theoretically procreate on a nighlty base and have 36 offsprings a year (with an estimate of one pregnancy out of 10 opportunities; probably a matter of careful selection of fertile women etc., and if he has to dominate the other men to keep their genes out of "his" women.) Note that the "successful" part only applies to men here. A woman doesn't deed to subdue other women to get a chance to get pregnant, she just needs to advertise herself. The biological investment for a child is therefore much less for a man, and probably they can afford go for good looks instead of character traits. There is apparently more to it, as some men and also some other primates form life-long relationships, and in these cases the investment of the men is also becomes quite substantial. But while for a woman (before invention of contraceptives) sex had always a high risk of long-term liabilities, for a male casual sex was relatively risk-free, and not necessarily related to the goal of a long-term relationship.
Nowadays the changing social context thwarts lots of the evolutionary aspects and gives women lots of new freedoms. To give some examples from German law (I just googled them, I wasn't aware before): Only since 1959 are women allowed to get a driver license without asking permission of their husbands or fathers. Only since 1977 are women at liberty to sign a working contract without permission of their husbands. Only since 1997 is enforced marital sex considered as"rape", until then the law defining rape contained "extra-marital" as part of the definition (although, to be fair, it was prior to that law-change already punishable as sexual assault). Women who spent years to raise the children are nowadays in case of a divorce entitled to get half of their husbands pension-claims, and to be alimented. If the children are still young at the time of the divorce, usually the women get full custody of the children and the former partner has to provide for them. Basically, this means that men are nowadays also taking a huge risk by having casual sex. Partially now even more so, since there are cases of sperm theft where women took e.g. the used condom to impregnate themselves, or agreed to give a blowjob and went to the bathroom. (I know personally a woman, not a friend of mine, who boasted about such practices, and how she deceived her former boyfriend. It is even publicly encouraged [youtube.com] in some takshows.)
Traditionally, women were called the weak gender. This had some implications, like men had to pay special attention to women. Like, when a ship sinks, it is "women and children first!". Hitting a woman or a girl is considered the bottom of human behaviour. Being hit by a woman is like bad fortune, you don't fight it, you don't complain, you don't talk about it. Current shift in social paradimes generates, at least by law, a far more balanced situation, and since the narrative of the weak woman is still quite active, in court-decisions often even a position of superior power for women. "The Red Pill" is a nice documentary on this topic, although probably one-sided.
Societies actualities and historical evolutionary development are therefor very contradictive, which is often confusing for men (and I assume for many women as well). So, what is expected from a man? Society tells us that the role of a provider cannot be officially advertised anymore, since it belittles the women. Showing off professional skills is also no good, since it belittles the women. Logical conclusion is that men try to be what they are looking for in women as well. They start using more makeup, putting more store into their looks and whatnot.
Interestingly, my impression is that many women miss the old-style "real men". Maybe thousands of years of evolutionary pressure are not overcome by four decades of changed social context. According to surveys, most women are still looking for a rock in the breaking waters, a strong provider, expect the potential partner to be career-wise at least as successful as themselves. Talking to women and men, the feeling of jelausy is often distinctly different as well. While many women appear to be more concerned about losing their partner than about the question if his penis penetrated another woman, many men appear to be more concerned about their wifes sexual faithfulness, which makes sense following the evolutionary thoughts: If the woman gets pregnant with another man, her husbands heavy investment is in vain. The woman knows the child is theirs, even if the man might have been less than faithful.
As a good lady-friend of mine once said: "Equal rights are absolutely essential for society, and fundamental for practical aspects of a relationship. But unfortunatley they are not at all erotic." She was a strong women, didn't take any shit from anyone and was a successful business-woman, but on a date had very clear notion of who had which role. Interestingly, she (catholic) lives for ~15 years with her liberal-muslim boyfriend, with whom she has 5 children. She earns the money, and should they ever separate, it is clear the (catholic baptised) children would stay with her in her house.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday June 25 2017, @08:20PM (2 children)
This is a long screed of evo-psych BS that assumes what it wishes to prove. You're essentially saying "I doubt a straight woman would choose to be gay, because (insert a bunch of stuff we know, or think we know, about straight women)."
Nooooooo kidding. This is the same error Uzzard committed up there when he says he knew a guy who "chose" to be gay. No, he didn't. That is a bisexual. If there is any choice involved, it means you swing both ways.
The entire damn *point* is that there *is* no choice. I didn't choose to like women. My own mother says she knew what I was at age 4 somehow. It's not from trauma or dislike of men as men, they just don't "do anything" for me.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Soylentbob on Sunday June 25 2017, @08:37PM (1 child)
I think you got me wrong. I *know* (and also confirmed in my post) there is no choice of being gay or not.
1. I asked you about your opinion, what you think what makes a man. You seem to have an opinion, because you wrote that if there was a hypothetical choice, women would chose to be gay rather than putting up with men. This implies to me that men are, all things considered, the worse companions and therefore must have some distinct negative traits in your view.
2. I tried to answer, why it might be difficult for some men to define their own manhood. Society is changing fast. Expectations are changing fast. And for some reason we are not able to simply decide what we are attracted to, but have some attractions that cannot be by current needs and context. The type of women I'm attracted to is not necessarily the type of women which would be best for me or even the type of women I want to be attracted to. And the same holds true vice-versa.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday June 26 2017, @03:33AM
In response to point 1) please let us NOT kid ourselves here about how much it has sucked to be a woman in a relationship with a man throughout virtually all the world and all history. And in a lot of places it hasn't improved that much. Even here in the first world you'd be surprised how long it took, for example, for courts to admit that marital rape is a thing. Straight relationships are *dangerous* for women, and I'm saying this with full knowledge that it's f/f couples who have the highest REPORTED rate of DV incidents (reported is not the same thing as actual, mind; I would guess the numbers for straight DV are a lot higher).
Do you know why so many of us, yes, even gigantic looming six-foot me, cross the street if it's late at night and we're alone and we see men? Why so many of us carry pepper spray?
Why some of us (granted, only one data point here, me) carry knives? Because enough men are the kind of person that would commit rape. Enough men are the type that would injure or kill a woman for rejecting his advances. I don't even want to think about how bad all the tiny skinny women I know must be frightened of stuff like this.
Yes, it's true, Not All Men. Not Even Close To All Men. Only A Very Few Men. But *we* only need to get unlucky once. You can think of this as "Schroedinger's Rapist." There is simply no way to know. My sister was violently raped at 14--guess what, she's still straight.
And despite all this, the vast majority of women still pursue men and only men. And why? Because this is how the vast majority of women are wired. I have had straight friends tell me to my face they wish they were gay, had at least two I can remember say I'm *lucky* to be a lesbian, and you know, I've been agreeing with them for the last several years.
Regarding 2): Society poisons our boys and men. It tells them impossible things about what being manly means. It tells them never to ask for help, never to have (or at least show) emotions, not to bond to people, not even other men, except in shallow, ritualized ways lest they be perceived as homosexual (i.e., woman-like...). We still mutilate our baby boys' perfectly healthy sex organs at a hideous rate. It must sound really weird hearing this coming from a gay woman, especially since society paints us as violent misandrists, but I really, really hate what society does to our men and boys.
This is also what gets me in trouble with a lot of...er...less self-aware feminists, even to the point of being called traitor: because I recognize that plenty of this is more about class than sex or gender, and that the elite are pushing this toxic trash on non-elite men to turn them into disposable cannon fodder. This is what is meant by "the patriarchy hurts men too."
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday June 24 2017, @02:43AM (1 child)
inner Iron John? (no, that doesn't sound right, lemme try again)
Inner Iron John? What's wrong with the outer one?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @03:43PM
There is no outer one. A man's strength comes from within.
Well, if you want an outer one... then you need to watch Kill la Kill.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday June 24 2017, @03:50AM (2 children)
there are plenty of women who are attracted to bald men.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by aiwarrior on Saturday June 24 2017, @10:02AM (1 child)
Man, I think that being attracted to a bald men is a myth in most cases. Some men do look good being bald, like for instance the football trainer Guardiola, but they always look older if the age is still in the early 30's, and this is the problem. This is what I think millenials think about (millenials are about 30 now?).
I myself am balding and it really costs me in terms of self image of my body. I feel at the top of my life in terms of success so there is a huge dissonance between how I feel regarding my body and well being, and the new image on the mirror.
(Score: 2) by rondon on Tuesday June 27 2017, @02:18AM
This sounds really fucking stupid when spoken aloud, but you have to like you before they will like you. Take a look at that balding head, decide how you want to look (shaved, buzzed, maybe even a tonsure if you are into that) and then rock that shit. If anybody gives you trouble, tell them to stick it up their ass and like it. I guarantee that if you start to genuinely like it, people will notice in a good way.
(Score: 2) by rigrig on Saturday June 24 2017, @02:56AM (4 children)
You mean in this wonderful age where people can finally decide how they want to look, you've conducted an exhaustive study that conclusively decides people are happier, more productive, more valued, and "better" in any aspect of their lives if they are persuaded to retain their current looks instead of the ones they'd like to have?
No one remembers the singer.
(Score: 3, Informative) by KGIII on Saturday June 24 2017, @03:34AM (3 children)
The folks who have gender reassignment surgery commit suicide at a higher rate than is seen in the overall averages. That is after the surgery. John Hopkins, I believe, tracked the data and now don't do those surgeries n their hospital.
So, maybe?
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 2) by rigrig on Saturday June 24 2017, @11:52AM (2 children)
Not all that surprising, given they were unhappy enough with themselves to undergo this kind of surgery to begin with.
Or did they actually have a control group with people that also wanted to go through with gender reassignment surgery, but were told they couldn't have any?
No one remembers the singer.
(Score: 2) by KGIII on Saturday June 24 2017, @03:36PM
No, the number is compared with the general population. I didn't dig further.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @04:13PM
Unless life suddenly changes after their surgery then it would be kind of a let down. Still get harassed most likely, still have a hard time dating, and after such a dramatic change I imagine that could all pile up even more. Plus, such a massive body change is likely to have some regrets even if overall it is positive.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Snotnose on Saturday June 24 2017, @01:14AM
You have to have surgery to make yourself look even stupider than you could achieve with tattoos?
Yeah, you won't pass my job interview. Good luck at 7/11 night shift.
My ducks are not in a row. I don't know where some of them are, and I'm pretty sure one of them is a turkey.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @01:13PM
Younger generations have been exposed to so much male homosexuality in their environment and have had traditional masculinity taken out of them.
It's only natural that after pink slacks, man buns, and the like they eventually take up gay appearance standards and turn to plastic surgery. Boy-faced forever!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @07:06PM
> "It's sort of like exercise," Fedok said about cosmetic procedures.
Sure! Both change your body? I ... guess? Wow.