Back in my days in the Marine Reserves, my comrades and I partook in a cheesy mustache contest during annual training. The tradition antedated me, so I don't know its exact derivation, but my sense is that whoever started it did so in tacit acknowledgment that mustaches, particularly ones unaccompanied by its sidekick the beard, look silly. "Why can't the mustache have its comeback?" Wesley Morris asks in the Boston Globe. "The answer lies in something deeper than maintenance. It's about manliness. There's an unapologetic ruggedness to the mustache that's been gradually chastened and civilized out of popular American culture. Americans just aren't as comfortable with masculinity as they were 30 years ago. Today, men wax their chests. They do yoga. As one barber I spoke to erupted, in a robust Russian accent: 'There are no mustaches anymore because there are no real men!'" The author blames the Village People, Ron Jeremey, John Holmes, and Tom Selleck for killing the mustache. When men wanted to exaggerate their masculinity, in an X-rated movie, at a gay bar, or on primetime, they did so by not shaving their upperlip. This trivialized the grooming style to the point where it now serves as comedic relief or identifies the Hollywood villain as effectively as the black hat once did. "The mustache survived Hitler," Morris writes. "It could not survive porn, disco, or Magnum P.I."

I'd say mostly that it's a style issue: th@y come and they go. Because of this, I could see the caterpillar making a comeback at some point.

But with the chickification of our culture, manliness is becoming an endangered accessory to being a man.

I only object to the inclusion of Selleck.

www.asdf.com

Very few men can pull off the mustache sans beard. The best one I can think of was Kurt Russell's Wyatt Earp, and that was a prop for a different age.

As I type, I've gone over a week without shaving. The cold weather beckons the facial hair!

I have to object with the inclusion of Selleck,if you've ever seen him without the stash you'd agree he looks better with it.

In regards to beards, guys still have them but even those have become chickafied. Instead of just a having a beard that's kept traditionally groomed we now see all these weird cuts and don't get me started on the whole soul patch thing.

Yes, that would be like ask.com. For sure. ;-|

I grew up having a beard as early as I would grow one back in the days when wearing one was fashionable and completely acceptable. And through the 80's had various forms of porn mustaches when the shoe fit.

Howevaagh, in my advanced years, it drives me nuts just having a day's worth of growth. So I've been clean shaven through the 90's and 00's.

Just not a muy macho as I once was I guess.

The days of the mustache contests...brings back memories. I'm sure I have pics somewhere...Semper Fi, Flynn!

Excellent article. Especially the quotation from the Russian barber.

Tackett, after writing this post I happened upon a picture of me, taken from atop an LAV (maybe by you!) of me sporting a mustache at 29 Palms! I was not looking for it, but cleaning a room when I came across it. Semper Fidelis.

And what about the lack of snatch hair? i miss the days of flossing down there. Just say'n

women seek out men who are feminine, as the recent articles about the mate-selection impact of the birth control pill bear out.

men are just adapting to the economics of mating, where being too manly means women lie and say they're attracted to you, and then go and hook up with the Jim from the office metrosexual lookalikes.

"women seek out men who are feminine". Yes. These days that's true but more accurately: women seek out men who they can push around.

Funny though, the complaints I hear from them is that there are no real men around. So how is that control thing working out for them?

I came across a picture of you on our way back from New Orleans many years ago. It was a "morning after" picture and it was not good to you. Can't remember the name of the Marine who is sitting behind you giving the thumb's up sign...

I have such a picture--the result of my quick thinking in handing my camera to a travelling companion (you?) to take a snap during my moment of misery, that in our hungover mood we all found funny. Was the other Marine's name Luebecker (or something along those lines)? There were six of us, I think: Christ, Lubecker, you, SSGT Farrell, and maybe Yablonski. Alcohol is a helluva drug.