Two years ago, Vice President Annette Lu, an icon of the women's liberation movement in Taiwan, turned her consideration to the less gentle sex. Noting that the Western-style suits--originally fashioned for far chillier English climes--that are de rigueur amongst Taiwan's business drones hardly suit the torrid climate here, she offered up some alternative clothing styles made of environmentally friendly materials designed with a more realistic appraisal of what could look smart and yet be comfortable to wear.
While Lu's innovations have yet to catch fire, and talk of the Taiwanese "metrosexual" might be a little premature, the image males have of themselves and the way they cater to this is subtly evolving away from the Spartan idea of yore and, as it does so, is creating a potentially huge new market for clothes, cosmetics, fashion magazines and other staples of what was formally thought to be of interest to women only.
For example, when at the end of last year, Sogo opened a men's department in a new store, the retailer found revenue an astonishing 20 times its expectations, with NT$2 million in 10 days from men's skincare sales alone. The lion's share of skin care products was bought by men in the 28-35 age group, while men in their late 30s and 40s accounted for the bulk of the rest. A promotional sign on the men's floor reading: "Work hard. Dress smart. Aim high. Have fun--for the man at his best," spread the new, for Taiwan, at least, gospel that there is more to being a man than being a workaholic. Suddenly men are supposed to pay attention to how they look.
And there is plenty of advice out there to help them. Ten years ago almost the only magazine that paid attention to style for men was the localized version of GQ. A glance at the magazine racks in a chain bookstore today will locate at least 13 such publications as Men's Joker, Men's Uno, FHM, Cool, Men's Styles.
Let's Get Physical
This new male interest in appearance is not just confined to clothes and personal grooming. Unsurprisingly gyms are seeing more men enroll with the idea of getting into better shape. But cosmetic surgery, hitherto thought of as an exclusively female province, is, in the wake of its use by a number of male celebrities, seeing interest from men soar. Some 20 percent of cosmetic surgery patients are now men, according to a recent report, with botox, hyaluronic acid and laser treatments being the most popular. The China Times recently reported the results of a survey showing that 54 percent of males questioned thought of cosmetic surgery as a good way to improve their looks. The survey found that the two principal reasons men considered surgery were to improve their chances on the job market or to make them more eligible for marriage. The survey found that 85 percent of the men questioned thought that looks were important in work, while some 54 percent wanted to look more attractive to women.
Meanwhile more cosmetics companies are starting men's skin care product lines--there are at least 20 brands now available. Major outlets for men's personal care products, such as convenience stores and supermarkets, have become aware of male consumption power in this area and have started to set up separate retail areas for men's personal care products. Market analysts expect to see some NT$1 billion worth of turnover in such products this year, double that of 2006.
To grasp how great a change this is, it is important to understand that until recently male appearance was a largely feminine concern. Whatever their age, men relied on their mothers, girlfriends or wives to buy clothes and then tell them what to wear. As for male cosmetics, the very concept was regarded as virtually synonymous with gender disorder. But such thinking is fast becoming a historical memory. Men are becoming just as interested in style and their appearance as women.
If a revolution is occurring in male image consciousness, the office of Men's Uno, a men's magazine currently circulated in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China, is its Smolny Institute. In contrast to the western or Japanese styles promoted in Esquire and Men's Non-no, the only magazines dealing with men's fashion before Men's Uno debuted in 1997, this magazine is attempting not just to introduce Taiwanese males to fashion ideas from abroad but to promote a specifically home-grown sense of style. Ismail Liao, Men's Uno's managing editor, thinks Taiwanese males have radically changed their concepts regarding appearance management over the past 10 years. "In the past, fashion for men was all about what shoes or bags were a must-have. Now, men are far more aware of the entire fashion package."
Liao says that Taiwanese men have gone from ignorance of international trends, through a phase of brand-name fetishization, to the emergence of metrosexuality, an image of masculinity which combines a strong aesthetic sense and the willingness to spend a great amount of time and money on appearance and lifestyle. The degree to which men care about image varies with age, Liao says. Men over 40 seem to be less aware of the idea of image presentation, while those in their 30s are more aware and willing to spend the time and money to do something about it, including the use of cosmetics and plastic surgery to enhance their looks. Men in their 20s, inundated as they are with fashion hype, tend to prioritize their personal style over other concerns.
If men's attitude toward personal appearance shows a significant shift, a question still remains as to whether this is the result of clever marketing and consumer culture, or whether it involves a deeper restructuring of ideas about what constitutes masculinity.
Certainly the consumer pressure is immense. Television, newspapers, buses and mass transit railways, anywhere, in fact, where there is advertising, men are subjected to constant informational assault, the gist of which is that success in one's career or love life depends on improving one's style and grooming. And judging by the willingness with which men are reaching for their wallets for the advertised products, such marketing works.
The media plays a crucial role, not just as an advertising medium but as a proselytizer and stylist, both drumming up interest in the idea of men's fashion, grooming and accessories and providing large quantities of information on trends, "looks" and what is "in" or "out."
"Taiwanese males' ideas about fashion come from two different directions. There are European/American styles or Japanese styles," says Liao. "Those who prefer the European or American styles tend to have higher brand loyalty and look to catwalk fashion shows for inspiration. Those who prefer Japanese styles usually find it easier to choose from a larger range of commoditized goods because the physical features of Japanese and Taiwanese are much alike," Liao says. Media campaigns have generated a lot of these styles.
In Touch with the Feminine Side
Hung Wen-lung, a co-author of the book GQ Men are Feverish, compares his generation, born in 1971, with their predecessors. "When I was in senior high school, I paid a lot of attention to my hair. My classmates also showed a great deal of interest in their appearances--small mirrors and combs were always at hand," Hung recalls. "My brother-in-law, who is 10 years older than me, would say that making money and building a career are the most important things." Not only do a growing number of males around Hung care about how they look, but there is also a noticeably more "feminine" element to their masculinity. Hung himself thinks that this trend might be affected by the mainstream appropriation of gay style, for instance, and that the media has played a role in the social recognition of this shift, but that the shift is more apparent in television dramas than in the real world.
Body-building at gyms has become more popular among men. (Photo by Huang Chung-hsin)
As more men go to beauty salons, once deemed an exclusively feminine domain, to get a haircut or manicure, women are aware of the changes and can themselves become proselytizers for the new male style. Yet many women still find themselves looking after the appearance of men in their families.
"The visible changes in dress or appearance are so eye-catching that people tend to think a lot of men are changing in this regard," says Wang Chung-kwei, a sociology professor at Soochow University. "Actually the majority of men remain unchanged," Wang says. In other words, do not believe the hype; a desire among men to consciously differentiate themselves by personal style and appearance management is still a peripheral phenomenon.
"Dismal" Origins
Wang thinks that economic changes have given rise to the pursuit of a greater degree of individualism. In an agricultural society a man's social position is fixed by his land and his family, and is well known among the small community in which he revolves. But rapid economic change has made modern Taiwan an urban society in which neighbors are usually strangers. People feel a need to differentiate themselves from the herd. Increased openness awakens them to the method--fashion--and increased wealth provides them with the means to do so. As office work, where gender is not important to job performance, becomes the norm, and creativity and originality become more highly valued, the demarcation between the sexes becomes less rigid, and men have an incentive to try to stress their own creative abilities through fashion and style.
Corresponding to a more liberalized socio-economic structure, young adults are freer to construct their own sense of style, toward which there is a more respectful attitude and greater tolerance from society at large. A declining avoidance of femininity in men's appearance is widely seen. But Wang also points out that the degree that attitudes have shifted varies between urban and rural areas and between different occupations.
"Actually there are a multitude of models for masculinity among Taiwanese men, though common traits are visible," says Yang Ming-lei, an associate professor of educational psychology and counseling at Ming Chuan University. "Success is still what most men are longing for," Yang says. "For different generations, what constitutes success may vary, the symbols of success may differ," says Yang. "But, intrinsically, men have not changed. Men's pursuit of success is unchanged, too. Some time ago, a fast car might be a symbol of success. Now expensive stylish clothes might qualify as a status symbol," Yang says.
As society becomes more varied, more people want to live life as they choose, especially among the urban bourgeoisie. Yang points out that changes in lifestyle involve many factors, but there is one huge constant, namely competition in the marriage market. As most Taiwanese men still believe that a career must be established before marriage, they tend to delay seeking a spouse and then find it harder to get one. Yang believes that if men want to stay competitive, they have to change their ways of dealing with the opposite sex. Stylish dressing and careful appearance management is one new way, albeit not the only one that men should heed.
Missing the Point
Botox treatment might make a man look younger and brand-name clothing make him feel more powerful, at least that is the idea that the media purveys. But a major problem is that this media-driven consumer culture, concerned as it is with stylistic superficialities, fails to address male anxieties that cannot be alleviated by appearance management. Yang has had many years' experience as a marriage counselor, during which he has witnessed time and again that men's real frustration in marriage derives from their lack of skill in intimacy. "Taiwanese men know how to court, but do not know how to make love last. Being intimate with people requires an attitude of straight talk, but our culture emphasizes the importance of harmony and avoidance of conflict," says Yang. "There are too few channels available for men to learn the nature of intimacy." The problem then with rising male image consciousness is that it stresses superficial values, which might be useful in selecting plumage for courtship rituals, but provide nothing for the longer-term goal of nest-building.
Obviously a man free from anxiety is more able to choose what kind of lifestyle really suits him. "Success has multiple faces," Yang says. One can see some kind of success in the window of Armani but also see another in that of Hang Ten. Some define success by the size of their bank account, while others think more about inner happiness.
Write to Zoe Cheng at zoecheng@mail.gio.gov.tw