Men’s Shapewear: Control Yourself

Two companies, Spanx and Equmen, have recently come out with shapewear for men, and it’s selling incredibly well.  However, they did have to overcome a big obstacle—how do you sell something to men that everyone thinks is only for women?  The New York Times explained, “Just as it took time for men to embrace beauty rituals they considered effeminate — remember when moisturizing used to be a metrosexual thing? — so has there been a learning curve for shapewear.”  The President of Freshpair, a website that sells underwear to both men and women, pointed out, “The biggest obstacle is to get a guy to understand it’s a new category, and it’s O.K. to wear it…It is still a little taboo.”

The marketing to women is straightforward: this product will make you look thinner.  Spanx products for women have “compression zones” and “tummy-taming panels” and “control tops.”  This is because women want to be compressed, have our tummies tamed, have our bodies under control.  (But who is really controlling it?  Think about that.  And while you do, I will be eating this delicious sandwich.  Just kidding. I haven’t had bread since 2006.)

Advertising has exploited (and helped create) women’s anxieties for many years.  At this point, we know we’re fat, so that assumption can be used in advertising without insulting us—or at least, no more than we’re insulted by most things directed at us, like razors or the movie Leap Year.  We also respond well to words such as “youthful,” which we know means smooth-skinned and thin, just the way we know that the opposite of “youthful”– “womanly”–is really a nice way of saying “fat.”  It’s almost as bad as “healthy.”   As a friend put it, “When people use [womanly] …I think they are really saying that I’m thicker than the average girl—it’s a nicer way of saying it.”

The marketing for men has less emphasis on how slim these will make you look, because men haven’t been desensitized to the accusation (hello, reality).  If an ad implies men are fat, men might be a little insulted.  So instead of talking about how this product will make you less fat, Equmen and Spanx for Men talk about how it will make you more confident (because you are less fat.)  It improves your posture.  It was even reviewed in Golf Today, which said, “When you rotate through the [golf] swing there is a definite ‘core stability’ improvement.”  As the Times pointed out, “While women tend to gush about what has been called the ‘flesh-compressing miracle of Spanx,’ men are more likely to point out how super-tight tees relieve their back pain.”  So instead of “fat off,” the slogan is “game on.”  With this shirt you are getting ready to face the world and take on its challenges (including, apparently, the challenge of buttoning your pants.)

Equmen’s website claims their “helix mapping technology focuses on core body mechanics—optimizing support, improving posture stability, and slimming at the same time.  This makes Equmen compression clothing ideal for any man, whether he wants to slim his body under a suit, reduce back pain, or improve performance in any sporting activity.”  This sounds like an ad for either a car or that pull-up machine you hook up to your door frame.  They use the language of things men already love—driving around and doing pull-ups in the house—to make a formerly feminine product sound masculine and scientific.

This product is also relying heavily on what Mark Twain calls The Equality Racket.  Equmen stands for Equality for Men. As the Chicago Tribune put it, “Men are under a lot of pressure right now to perform financially, socially and romantically. Why shouldn’t we have the same products that women have had for years to make us feel better?”  (I just mimed throwing up.)  Nothing inherently makes you feel better, except for massages and Smartfood Popcorn.  The things the Tribune refers to are less things we do to make ourselves feel better, and more things advertisers have spent years making us feel bad for avoiding.  However, they are correct in their use of the word “us”—these products women have been using to make men feel better.  No one wears a push-up bra because of the convenient resting place it makes for beer or a book (if you are reading in bed.  And are incredibly nearsighted.)

Not having anyone care about your looks is one of the perks of being male.  If you’ve ever been to a comedy TV show’s writers’ room, you know what I’m talking about.  (Except for my dad, who is awesome and would obviously never be fat.)   It is easier for men to get ahead without having to dress up or lose weight.  Women do not get to wear these things; they feel they have to.  Equmen and Spanx have turned pressure into privilege, and everybody loves privileges.