Me: The New Fairer Sex?

Is it my imagination or are guys getting softer nowadays? Whenever I’m out and about, I look around the Mall or around the workplace and I'm struck by how our males are wearing their hair and the way they are dressing.

To be blunt, there seems to be an ever increasing number of guys who look like girls!

I don’t know if it’s down to current fashion trends or merely individual preferences. It might be the celebrity influence and the charm of stars like Jay Chou whose popular long-hair-over-one-eye-look still manages to attract girls in droves, though I can’t imagine why.

From many a traditional point of view, there’s no doubt that guys who favour the fluffy haired look are more boyish, than manly. I’m pretty sure that long hair on a weedy frame never got female hearts a-fluttering during my time.

While today’s men may not be “switching over” in the personal orientation sense, they sure do appear more effeminate on the surface.

Gone, are the short back and sides cut, that men and boys everywhere, back in the day, would get from their barbers whether they liked it or not. Nowadays, men are frequenting hairdressers and asking for the kinds of perms and styles, that are the envy of most women!

And as if men weren’t happy enough looking like us, now they’re stealing our act too! Not that long ago, handshakes and thumps on the back were as far as men went to show their affection for one another. Nowadays, while they won’t go so far as to do the kiss-on-both-cheeks act whenever they greet, guys saying hello to each other with affectionate hugs, doesn’t bat many eyelids.

Back then, we had men who were seemingly impervious to any disaster, big or small, that may befall them. On TV, as a reflection of real life, it was always the woman and never the man who would cry. Real men wouldn’t dare to open up and talk about their feelings for fear of being branded sissies.

Nowadays, guys will start to blubber in front of their friends because of a girlfriend crisis or whenever their favourite football team loses. Relationship advice swapping is gradually replacing the usual sport, car and work banter.

Men donning lip-gloss, sporting glowing complexions, hair bands and carrying “man bags” are a sight rarely seen 10 years ago.

Of course, it doesn’t mean there’s anything “wrong” with the guy. Far from playing for the other team, it’s called being “Metrosexual”.

Today’s man is a man who knows how to take care of himself, as he will fiercely testify. And no doubt, his girlfriend surely appreciates it.

David Beckham helped kick off the metro craze that so many of our men are falling victim to nowadays, when it became news headlines that he would pinch Victoria’s moisturizer and wear her sarongs.

Now it seems, more and more non-celebrity men are taking a leaf out of Beckham’s book and doing the same thing. A worldwide spurt in men’s skincare and cosmetic industry sales is proof of this.

To say it poses some confusion to the opposite sex is to be expected. I feel sorry for the single-and-looking girls out there, who are no doubt left scratching their heads, wondering where have all the good men gone?

The saying that all the decent ones are either married or taken is probably an overstatement. They are out there.

They’re just harder to spot nowadays..