(Cue "Psycho" theme music here.)

But we must remember that the female preoccupation with advanced technologies in hair removal are a fairly recent phenomenon too. It could even be argued that all this attention to grooming is a minor rebellion against the major rebellion of the 1960s and '70s, when hair did double duty as a personal statement and political act. Unshaven legs and armpits might have been an eyesore to some people, but they were highly efficient means of identifying one's place in the culture. You did not, for example, approach a woman with hairy legs and ask her to greet you at the door with a martini and wearing a Saran Wrap dress.

As women have known throughout time, even the smallest personal grooming choice (shaving the eyebrows and drawing them back in with a pencil, for example) has the power to express what we might not say out loud ("I'm certifiably insane").

But men, some of whom are only now starting to realize that bragging about their ability to withstand a back waxing isn't exactly tantamount to recounting a mortar attack, haven't yet figured out how to politicize their body hair. Whereas women once fought off the patriarchy by throwing their razors at it, men still seem confused about the semiotics of the whole movement. Does hair removal imply a vanity that makes them less masculine, or does the pain of waxing connote a machismo that overrides the girlie factor?

But if there's anything women have figured out after eons of beauty tyranny, it's that one of the best things about getting older is being able to ignore the opinions of teenagers and twentysomethings. So maybe it's time men realized it's OK to grow up. Of course, gentlemen, if you're older than 40 and still trying to date very young women, a little pain may be in order.