Sunday, February 03, 2008

Because you asked for it: new content

You know how you sometimes see the same word or phrase crop up in multiple, disparate places in the same day or two? That's what this is about. In my younger days, I would have called this "plate o' shrimp", but these damn kids today, they would look at me like I was quoting Al Jolson or something.

Word o' the day (or: Fun with the Dictionary)

In fact, it's not just a word, it's a concept:

Boyzilian n. A Brazilian bikini wax applied to a man. Also: boyzilian, boy-zilian.

Let me me be the first to say AIEEEEE!




Anyways, it looks like the word goes back a couple of years, but just in the last couple of weeks it seems to be cropping up everywhwere. Who's to blame? David Beckham and his latest set of Armani underwear ads appear to be the culprit for this mini-meme, but I blame porno in addition to rampant* metrosexualism, for which Becks is the poster boy. It seems like everybody in porno shaves, bleaches or enlarges every part of their body, and young men being large consumers of porno, well...

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[As a side note, I remember seeing an unintentionally hilarious article a while ago in the NYT (I think) about how porno producers were despairing of the new HD formats because they show too much detail. I believe there were some quotes from actresses complaining about how they had to work hard to camoflague the razor burn or ingrown hairs, (which must cover 40% of their bodies.)]
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But I think it has more to do with how fastidious soceities get the more advanced they are. Think back in terms of centuries about how each new level of technological/soceital advance seems to bring with it more punctillious hygiene. Three centuries ago, westerners might not take a bath more than once a year, some maybe almost never, due to the lack of clean plentiful water, a place to bathe, etc., now, if someone in the US only bathed once a week, we would suspect them of being homeless.

I have read a lot of science fiction, and one thing writers like to explore, usually as a background to the story, is what might be soceities norms in the future: nudism? polygamy? kids raised by robots? all that stuff.

I remember reading a story (no idea who the author was) where a guy winds up a couple of hundred years in the future somehow and when he sits down to the table at a big dinner party, he realizes that nobody has any teeth! Everybody is using little devices plugged into outlets at the table to chew their food. Seems that people have decided that chewing food is "icky" and polite people don't do it, so everybody gets their teeth pulled. When you think about it, it's probably not any stranger than the fact that we don't use our fingers to eat in polite western society, and even Kings didn't use a fork until, what? the 18th century?



OK- how did I wind up talking about table manners when I started out with male bikini waxing? Ugh. THAT'S an unfortunate juxtaposition.



Basically, I think my point was we geezers may laugh about boyzilians as the product of silly Manscapers Gone Wild, but our grandchildren may think differently. (but I still ain't getting one)








*OK, so I am making a lame-ass pun here:
ram·pant adj.
1. Extending unchecked; unrestrained
2. Occurring without restraint and frequently, widely, or menacingly; rife
3. erect, upright, vertical - upright in position or posture

2 comments:

  1. There we go! Christopher Hitchens underwent hair removal for a Vanity Fair piece. I think they called it the "Back, crack and sack." Re: civilizations. Ancient Rome was fairly advanced and they smushed oranges on their bodies to smell nice rather than bath. Discuss.

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  2. Chris says he did it for a magazine article, but I think we know better...

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