"Not so long ago, what the average man did mattered more than how he looked. Since the 1970s, however, projecting the right look has become more and more essential. Men once dreaded being accused of vanity; today they are spending millions of dollars on fitness training, bodybuilding, hair replacement, and cosmetic surgery in the relentless pursuit of physical perfection." "What has caused American men to fall into the beauty trap so long assumed to be a special danger for women? Have they been so addled by the women's movement that they are responding by becoming more like women? This book goes beyond facile explanations to look at a confluence of social, economic, and cultural changes that have shaped the new cult of male body image in postwar America. In this journey through the brave new world of male vanity, Lynne Luciano explores what men are doing to themselves, asks why they are doing it, and discovers what this new world tells us about American society today."--Jacket.