|
Asia's metrosexuals: Mirror, Mirror...
By Ling Liu (Time)
Updated: 2005-10-28 09:04
Women are supposed to be the fairer sex, but Asian men are spending a lot of
time and money on their looks. Why? Because the girls like them that way.
SOFT SELL: Beauty
products are hot items in the post-macho world of Asia's massaged,
moisturized men. [Time] |
Pity any friend of
Park Sung Mok who must wait for him to get ready for work in the morning. Park,
a 35-year-old designer with a Seoul clothing manufacturer, has a daily grooming
ritual that consists not only of showering, shaving and hair styling, but also
includes the careful selection of a sharp outfit to wear and the application of
a special skin moisturizer that blocks ultraviolet rays. Preparations can last
up to 40 minutes, and it costs Park more than time to look good. He says he
spends, on average, $500 a month for new designer clothes. Then there's the gym
membership and the $100 a month that goes for cosmetics such as eye creams,
facial masks and two kinds of moisturizers, for day and night. None of this
strikes Park as unusual. "Some of my female colleagues think it's weird that I
use a facial pack once a month and that I moisturize," he says. "But I've got
nothing to be ashamed of."
Not anymore, he doesn't. A few years ago, it may have
been considered sissy for a guy to be fussy about his clothing and appearance.
Real men demanded the world accept them on their own uncouth, unkempt terms. But
in Asia nowadays, the definition of masculinity is undergoing a makeover—and
narcissism is in, thanks to economic growth, higher disposable incomes, shifting
gender roles, and fashion and cosmetics industries eager to expand their
customer bases. No longer content to be the drabber sex, Asian males are
preening like peacocks, perming, plucking and powdering themselves to perfection
in an effort to make themselves more attractive to their bosses, their peers
and, of course, to women.
|
