Let's switch gears and talk briefly about ideals of male beauty. It's hard not to notice that many business leaders and celebrities recently have sprouted a lot of facial hair. beards were a no no for over a century. In the early to mid 1800s, people commonly associated them with socialists and others on the margins of society. Frederick Engels, who co authored the Communist Manifesto, with Karl Marx, one sponsored a moustache evening to taunt the clean shaven members of the boardwalk class. Then, in the latter part of the century, the so called beard movement came into fashion as the gold rush and the Civil War made shaving optional.
And some rebelled against a world of so called Women faced men, as robber barons like full bearded Jay Gould and Andrew Carnegie. flouted there millions. beards now became linked to capitalists. The pendulum swung yet again. However, as workers rebellions evoked images of bearded men committing violent acts against their bosses. King Gillette invented the safety razor in 1901.
And the clean shaven look was back. But now the pendulum has moved again. Google's co founder Sergey Brin, Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein and Marc Benioff, the billionaire founder and chief executive of salesforce.com. All sport prominent facial hair. As this brief history of facial hair illustrates a society's ideals of beauty for men change as well. Who could confuse Justin Bieber with Johnny Depp man Ideas involve length of hair, musculature and of course clothing styles and accessories.
Anyone for a murse or man bag. We distinguish among ideals of beauty for men in terms of facial features, musculature and facial hair. In fact, one national survey that asked both men and women to comment on male aspects of appearance found that the dominant standard of beauty for men is a strongly masculine muscle body. The women tend to prefer men with less muscle mass than men themselves strive to attain. Advertisers appear to have the male's ideal in mind. A study of men who appear in advertisements found that most sports the strong and muscular physique of the male stereotype more than 40% Have boys in middle school and high school say they exercise regularly in order to increase muscle mass.
Perhaps more troubling 38% say they use protein supplements, and nearly 6% admit they have experimented with steroids. The takeaway is that your customers are constantly trying to calculate their self worth by comparing their bodies to yardsticks that society provides. They rely on brands they trust to help them achieve reasonable goals.