Salon.com Arts & Entertainment | Meet the smoothies!

Salon.com Arts & Entertainment | Meet the smoothies!: "Metrosexuals, move over. The small towns of America are churning out macho, high-maintenance pretty men who love women and Budweiser -- and have perfectly waxed privates."

Good lord. As straight American men start manifesting their anxieties about masculinity in the demonstrative methods espoused by reality television, we apparently have some interesting cultural collisions along the way. It will be interesting to see if this phenomenon is a trend going somewhere or if it will fade out and die as people stop being able to be bothered.

There's also the question of whether men are doing it for themselves (which I would tend to think seems to be what's hinted at here largely) for the fame or for some sort of narcissistic enjoyment, or if it's about getting laid. If it's the latter, then it seems that straight women have a role in determining what they want. Market forces, right? So it will be interesting to see if women agree with Heather Havrilesky that "it's more than a little unnerving to feel disheveled and style-less and hairy in comparison to a man."

All in all, though, regardless of how Havrilesky defines smoothies in opposition to metrosexuals, both seem like extremely consumerist phenomena. It would be interesting to note how much of this comes down to class differentiation in the end. Can you be a smoothie on the cheap? Possibly, but it seems like it would take all of your time and resources...