Male Vanity: The Death of the Kiwi Bloke?

There was a time in New Zealand's recent past when a black singlet, an undersized pair of nylon stubbies and an old pair of rubber jandals could be considered acceptable attire for the Kiwi male. 

Not to forget the roughly cut, mullet-esk hairstyles, maybe covered by a simple bucket hat coupled with some dirty stubble. Bar a few old boys clinging on to the good days found in the odd rural pub, you'll be hard up to find a good old "Kiwi bloke" these days. Just like how the now extinct Neanderthals were replaced by the homo-sapiens, the Kiwi bloke is becoming an endangered species, slowly being taken over by a new threat. By whom you ask?

Well, venture out on the town this weekend and you'll find it hard to avoid the ever present sight of what I would call the modern New Zealand pretty boy. Yes you know who I'm talking about, their heads too small for their bodies, their shoulders wider than a doorway and we can't forget the strategically placed tattoos on the meticulously sculpted biceps. Usually found fist pumping their way from club to club flanked by their clone-like "wingmen", they have no concept of subtlety and they don't care. Okay, yes I am talking in extreme terms, although it does seem to be an increasing trend. I'm only 23 and even in the time that I've been alive; I have noticed a definite rise in 'male vanity', with an augmented focus on ones appearance.

In fact, men are giving women a run for their money when it comes to spending on looking good, with latest figures from the U.K revealing that record numbers are opting for a shot of Botox for example to keep the wrinkles at bay. They showed a 30 per cent increase in men choosing the treatment, followed by an explosion of interest in men's grooming products, which now make up a £800m-a-year market (over NZ$1.6b) which is growing annually at 13 per cent.  I would imagine the same is true for New Zealand. With these sorts of figures it seems we as men are all a little guilty when it comes to vanity, surely it's not just the pretty boys. Joking aside, there can be a serious side to male vanity.

Studies have found narcissism, or self-love, is on the rise in men and is causing them to suffer stress-related illnesses like high blood pressure, which can lead to heart disease. Psychologists asked 106 men and women to take personalityquestionnaires and took two saliva samples from them to measure levels of cortisol (a stress-related hormone) and found men who showed "unhealthy" levels of narcissism in the survey also had high levels of cortisol, even in a relaxed situation. In the women, this was not the case. "Even though narcissists have grandiose self-perceptions, they also have fragile views of themselves, and often resort to defensive strategies like aggression when their sense of superiority is threatened," says co-author David Reinhard of the University of Michigan. These kinds of coping strategies are linked with increased cardiovascular reactivity to stress and higher blood pressure, so it makes sense that higher levels of maladaptive narcissism would contribute to highly reactive stress response systems and chronically elevated levels of stress."

I think it's a going a bit far to say that all men are turning more narcissistic but it could be said that male vanity can be harmful to more than just our wallet…