Today, I discovered the existence of something called “brotox,” the apparent new trend of men getting Botox and other cosmetic surgeries.
I say “apparent,” because if you actually dig for the sources of the information, you’ll discover that, while the number of men getting Botox has increased by 10% in the previous year, they still represent only about 6% of the people getting Botox. This is hardly what one would call gender equity. So the evidence here is that the idea of “brotox” is not exactly rooted in anything that people actually do.
I think you could call them “bromanteaus”– the portmanteaus that the writers of every single terrible trend piece about men on the entire planet feel the need to invent. Bromance. Metrosexual. Manorexia. Guyliner. Mancession. Mancave.* I even heard of mancation once (it’s a vacation, except more dudely).
Trend pieces are not exactly known for what one would call sterling research: in general, as far as I can tell, the author gets three anecdotes, bashes out a story, and spends the rest of the day masturbating and watching Firefly. Nevertheless, the sheer popularity of bromanteau pieces says something– not necessarily about whether men are actually using Botox, but definitely about our societal insecurities around men and their place in society.
One of the favorite topics of trend piece writers is The Demise of the Real Man. Unfortunately, this does not refer to a secret plot by supervillains to replace all men with androids, no matter how cool that’d be. Instead, it’s about how the cage of the male gender role is widening one tiny inch, and that means American civilization will fall because no one will be able to mow lawns and change lightbulbs and hang pictures anymore, or something.
Trend piece writers love that shit. Are women unable to get married now because guys are playing video games, getting drunk, and having casual sex? (No.) Will Tim Allen’s sexist new sitcom turn back the waves of political correctness and its fascistic attempts to remove privileged people’s God-given right to be assholes? (No.) Does Don Draper herald the rise of the old-fashioned retrosexual who wears suits, drinks whiskey, and flirts with everyone? (Despite the existence of Noah Brand, no.)
Which explains why trend-piece writers are so interested in brotox. It’s a whole new opportunity for them to have heart palpitations about whether Real Men are, in fact, facing their Demise, this time at the hands of people injecting botulism in other people’s faces in order to prevent wrinkles.
I’m now going to digress and talk about marked cases. Think about nurses: we assume that nurses are female, so if there’s a dude who’s a nurse we might describe him as a “male nurse,” while “female nurse” sounds bizarrely redundant. The male nurse is a marked case. Bromanteaus embed the marked case in the structure of the word. Women don’t have “guyliner,” they just have makeup. Women don’t have “bromances,” they just have best friends. Women don’t have “mancaves,” they just have rooms.
Which is why trend-piece writers love them so much, of course. It lets them say that Real Men are not, in fact, facing their Demise. Eyeliner and friendships and private spaces are still girl things, even if there are a few dudes participating. Because when men have intimate friendships, they’re “bromances,” which are clearly a completely different thing from the best friendships women have. Because… um… there’s bro in the name!
Becky CK, in an excellent blogpost about manorexia, says:
For me, “metrosexuality” is just another term we use to trivialize expression of male sexuality that is deviant from a straight, cisgender, and physically dominant narrative about what it means to be a man. Being “metrosexual” means one takes way more interest in his appearance than a “normal” man would. It follows a faulty line of reasoning that gay men inherently have more interest in their appearance (read: are more feminine), and any straight man who does so is just a little more towards gay on the scale.
I think her use of the word “trivialize” is telling. Bromanteaus make men’s gender nonconformity less threatening: it’s really dudely, after all, even if it looks like it isn’t. We’ve even given it a silly name so it doesn’t threaten us anymore! It’s the last, pathetic gasps of a dying sexist system.
*”Brony” is allowable, since it was not invented by the writer of a trend piece and is not gendered unless you are one of those terrible people who calls female adult MLP fans “pegasisters.”
Botox for men, huh? What will they come up with next? Bro-ginal implants?
Hmm, as this thread was resurrected right now, I wonder why “mansplaining” isn’t here … Just sayin’
I’m really not sure i see why Brony gets a free pass.it seems to be exactly the same as the others even if it wasnt coined in exactly the same medium. men cant like things designed for girls – put bro in front, now its totally masculine, and any previously femininity is erased. yea that seems exactly the same to me. i get that you might have a problem with the femininity that’s involved, but you just have to wrestle your head around the fact, that being feminine and liking feminine things is ok regardless of your gender, and the… Read more »
Sometimes I idly wonder if there’s a very old form of this in the word ‘handsome’. I struggle with it because while I love the word, it’s pretty and it’s flattering and it rolls off the tongue and looks very, very good in text…it’s existence sometimes ends up cutting out all the other words I could be using. When I describe a male character as ‘handsome’, I resign myself to it and feel obligated to find more ‘masculine’ adjectives, which is frustrating because to me, it is a very specific form of the word ‘beautiful’. While ‘beautiful’ has a ton… Read more »
@havebookswilltravel, I disagree with your logic. Ancient women who fashioned tapestries in the home did so because their families needed clothes to wear. But the men who created textile empires were probably all in a position of already having had their basic needs met. President Carter, as a woodworker, is doing something that isn’t strictly necessary, but it does create something very valuable. Anyway, it seems to me that you view the idea of men having a personal space that they have control over as a largely negative phenomenon. Men should work because they don’t have a choice, right? Because… Read more »
“working garages and wood shops and dismissed them as being insignificant.” Sure, but there is a massive difference between working garages and the garage-as-man-cave, and it’s an important distinction. I don’t think it’s possible to conflate the two spaces. The “man cave” is, in it’s most well-known and popular conception, a place free from the constrictions of the outside world. The working garage is a space that creates products vital to the survival of the family or the individual and in no possible way can be an escape or shelter. Normally the products of a garage or workshop don’t have… Read more »
There’s a place in my town that advertises “Broga” — Yoga for men, open to all.
I don’t know, I just don’t think the analogy quite works because the man cave, at least in most of pop culture such as TV, refers to a place of sheer enjoyment and relaxation from the world at large. It’s almost an opposite space than Woolf’s Room because it is a place where the man and his friends can escape the world of work and become invisible. Even when the man cave is working garage or wood shop, the products of that space are not connected to the daily economy of the individual. Ok I got it now. Man Cave… Read more »
Noah: I’m not sure the connection to Woolf really works, they’re two different spaces. Woolf’s essay reflects a space where women can do work and be productive, in this case writing or even just thinking. The essay, and much of Woolf’s fiction, hints at how physical freedom is a central part of intellectual and personal development because the author must write “with the whole person.” For Woolf, this space was central in making women visible, of becoming a visible person in both society and history because normally they (women) were the anonymous people of a society. I don’t know, I… Read more »
I feel like bromanteaus are mainly used in a sort of ironic sense. @superglucose, I think it was invented by people who also celebrate Festivus and the comic genius who wrote the episode about The Bro (a bra for men). I think you’re correct in pointing out that coining new words for things helps people move away from the stigma associated with the old words. I would also point out that Ozy is conflating a lot of different people’s intentions when they coin those words. As I pointed out, metrosexual was coined by Mark Simpson, who is a masculinist and… Read more »
@ hugh, I know and I cringe whenever Mal says something about the inherent evils of government, but I still prefer Firefly over many many tv shows that are currently on the air. Also to get back on topic, (too late), I suspect this may be related to the “dudebro” subculture as much as it has to do with the slight progress american society has been making.
Good post, but “man cave” doesn’t translate to “room”. It means something very specific and women do not have the equivalent.
Good post, but “man cave” doesn’t translate to “room”. It means something very specific and women do not have the equivalent.
A room of one’s own, one might say?
I feel like bromanteaus are mainly used in a sort of ironic sense. It’s “brotox” when a guy does it because it’s ironically pointing out that botox can be a guy thing too. I feel like these “bromanteaus” are GOOD for gender equality because it’s the first step in making something acceptable. Before, anyone who would be described “metrosexual” was simply “faggot.” Since the term “metrosexual” came around, guys could wear flamboyant button-down shirts and look faaaabulous without having their sexuality questioned: they were still straight, they were just “metro.” Isn’t that a huuuuge leap forward? I would much much… Read more »
Mark Simpson coined “metrosexual” and I highly doubt that it was meant to degrade men. Just saying… Whether or not the neologism makes sense as Simpson explained it is a different story. I think that Simpson recognized a real trend… that women traditionally controlled the vast majority of consumer spending, but men are staying single longer, have more disposable income under their own control, and that this was turning these men into a very powerful and trendy new consumer group. So one of the things that people do when they have a lot of disposable income is they spend it… Read more »
Botox does have its uses. A woman was pulled over for driving erratically and ordered to take a breathalyzer. She refused and was arrested; but was later acquitted in court after offering evidence that the Botox injections she’d had before being pulled over had so totally deadened her facial muscles that she could not move her lips to blow in the ‘dang’ machine. Call it the Botox vs. Intox defense… Wonder if a guy could similarly get off with the excuse “Gee, occifer (slurring for effect), I’d take yer ‘dang’ test, but what with all those beers I had (loud… Read more »
Re: Botox. “Looking good” on camera (stills or video) is much different than “looking good” in real life. A lot of professional beautiful people (like actors, models, etc) do what they do to look good for the camera though their appearance in person, on the street, in daily interactions may be weirdly altered. I find the “no facial expressions” Botoxed look to be rather disconcerting in person…yikes.
Botox: Can anyone point me to an example of a person who looked better after having been botoxed than before? (Pictures would be appreciated …)
Actually what I meant was plastic. He was a plastic surgeon (his own description I might add) who also performed cosmetic procedures. the fact that he offered to perform a cosmetic surgery does not change anything. Please stop being so pedantic. it is not appreciated.
As a portmanteau of metropolitan and heterosexual (no man, guy nor bro there) I’m not sure I agree metrosexual should be considered a bromanteau. Although if grouped on implication as outlined in your article it certainly fits with the rest.
BTW as a lurker for a couple of weeks now I’m getting heaps out of your website. Kudos.
Please do not say “plastic surgery” when what you mean is “cosmetic surgery”.
I actually had a plastic surgeon in a building where I worked try to convince me to get botox injections once. I just told I didn’t need them since my hotness was timeless. He stopped bothering me after that
“There’s a reason that Ronulans like it, you know.”
The Operative needs fans, too?
It’s a truly laughable state of affairs Ozy Mark Simpson has had their number for a while now witness
http://www.marksimpson.com/blog/2011/02/20/manly-strap-ons-and-fear-of-the-fag-within/
“Okay besides the fact that I have to share my enjoyment with the kinda folk that think Ron Paul is some sort of exceptional politician.”
There’s a reason that Ronulans like it, you know.
If I had the money, I’d deck myself out with cosmetic surgery. Nothing wrong with using technology to make yourself look hot.