Entering the Conversation
Introduction
Manscaping has become a common thing amongst men, according to Matthew Immergrut. Immergruit explains that initially, hair removal was mainly common in women as a hairless woman’s body seemed normal while one with hair seems messy and grotesque. Also, manscaping is associated with gay men who love their bodies beautiful and hairless. Chest and pubic hair in men represented the masculinity and beauty of a man. However, as time went by, the men began practicing hair removal until the women began to demand the same of them. The body, in this conversation, represents nature, while manscaping represents the new regime of control and dominance. Immergut reasons that the understanding of the mundane bodily practices provides an opportunity to understand how the human being relates to the environment (Greene & Lidinsky, 2012). With the increase in demands of nature’s goods, the human beings have introduced practices that portrayed their dominance on the environment but has since caused ecological destabilization and climatic changes because man cannot entirely control the biosphere.
The audience
The audience of this conversation could be the students of a sociology class or other sociologists who seek to understand the link between human behavior and their impacts on the environment. The audience has to be able to interpret the metaphorical language that is used through the conversation. The author states that in the traditional society, hair was pride in one sex but shame to the other. Women would be ashamed of hair, but it was a sign of pride in men; however, currently, hair is a shame to both female and male, prompting all to seek hair removal practices. The main reason prompting the men to practice manscaping is the introduction of the male body to the cosmetics market. Here, the author represents the valuable aspects of nature with the body, and the audience must be able to tell this symbolism if they are to understand the conversation. This will help the audience to understand the primary point made by Immergrut that increased demand from the market led to unsustainable practices such as cutting down of trees and increased pollution, which distorts the ecological balance and environmental hazards begin to penetrate the world, threatening the safety of basic utilities such as food, clean water, shelter, and gases (Greene & Lidinsky, 2012).
Joining the conversation
The body is a representation of nature, where people tend to value some practices more than others. According to Immergrut, the valued side of nature can be associated with the “Male, mind, reason, and spirit,” while the devalued side can be linked with “Female, bodies, flesh, fluid, emotions, and animals.” Once people fail to value something, they legitimize their subjugation. For instance, women and indigenous people were hardly valued in society, and this explains why they were dominated by the men and the white settlers, respectively. Manscaping in this conversation represents a practice that is adopted to establish dominance in nature. That is, it is within human nature for the male body to have chest hair, facial hair, and pubic hair. Men demanded hair removal in women but maintained theirs. However, currently, the man’s body has been introduced to the cosmetics and fashion industry. Also, the current perspective towards male hair is that it is gross as it reduces body hygiene, causes people body odors, and increased sweating and is not attractive for commercial shows. As a result, this demanded a modern regime of dominance, which manscaping (Greene & Lidinsky, 2012). In the same case, the market and demand for nature’s goods are increasing, prompting people to seek means to gain more control over the environment and extort the benefits (Vitousek et al., n.d).
Hair removal is a means to show that a person has control over nature. Immergrut states that “Hairlessness, therefore, became a type of external sign that expressed an inner self-containment and, more importantly, a mark of being under the control of a man’s “civilized” dominion.” This means that when men demanded that women shaved their hair, it showed that they were dominated by the men. When men shave their hair, they exhibit their control over nature. The desire to control the environment is what has led to climate destabilization. As people seek to control the environment for their own selfish gains, environmental hazards such as deforestation, GHGs, and pollution increase, thus threatening the safety of our sources of basic needs (Vitousek et al., n.d). However, people forget that they cannot entirely control the biosphere, and this leads to environmental and climatic changes. This does not mean that manscaping, or rather control over the environment, should stop. It means that as human beings seek to benefit from the environment, they should be careful enough to avoid interfering with the ecological systems. Sustainability measures should be practiced to oversee that the sources of water, food, shelter, and air are safeguarded. Human beings should remember that the same way they cannot have full control over their bodies; the same concept applies in the environment (Kawa, 2016).
References
Greene, S., & Lidinsky, A. (2012). From inquiry to academic writing: A text and reader. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins.
Kawa, N. (2016). The irony of the Anthropocene: people dominate a planet beyond our control. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/the-irony-of-the-anthropocene-people-dominate-a-planet-beyond-our-control-64948
Vitousek, P., Mooney, H., Lubchenco, J., Melillo, j. (n.d). Human domination of earth’s ecosystems. Retrieved from https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/population_and_sustainability/oceans/pdfs/HumanDomination.pdf
