A male model shows off designer clothes

Beauty has lost its exclusively feminine gender and turned unisex. It’s no longer a woman’s world out there on the ramp with more and more men participating in ramp shows than ever before.

The aspiring male model has never had it so good. By the time beauty contests for men came to India about nine years back, they had already been long overdue because most of the other countries were hosting male pageants.

These beauty contests provide an excellent platform for showcasing oneself and getting noticed in the modelling circuit.

In the west, the move had begun earlier. In Asia the Manhunt contest was flagged off in Singapore in 1987. India followed suit less than a decade later with the Grasim Mr India contest and the Gladrags Manhunt competition. But the real impetus for the contests gathered steam when the required minimum height for qualifying was decreased from 6 feet to 5 feet 10 inches, thus opening the door to many aspirants.

Close on the heels of beauty invariably comes the issue of marketability. And a beautiful body is one which has myriad uses in the advertising world. There would be 50 really beautiful girls for every 10 average looking passable guys. But now the ratio is levelling up both in terms of count and beauty.

In a female-dominated world, where men are only just making an impact, money is definitely a criterion. And it can only go up. The prize money for the various national contests has gone up over the last couple of years. And yet it’s not the prize money that really counts. It’s the money that modelling assignments bring when a man wins these beauty contests that actually make the difference.

Thus from a time when the country’s first internationally well-known model, Milind Soman, was rejected by people during the initial part of his career, today we have a cluster of male models to choose from.

There are handsome men like Khalid Siddiqui and John Abraham, chic boys like Dino Morea and Jas Arora, the cutting-edge Rahul Dev and Arjun Rampal, classically perfect males like Bikram Saluja, Hrithik Roshan, Aryan Vaid and the latest heartthrobs of the ramp, Muzammil Ibrahim and Upen Patel.

Today’s women would like to see more biceps and abs on the models than just good looks. Although earlier, too, fitness always figured high in regarding the concept of male beauty. There are two definite no-nos when it comes to women appraising men — a paunch and a slouch. And so men today work hard at doing away with both.

John Abraham, a winner at the Gladrags Manhunt contest, may well remark flippantly, “The only difference between a male beauty pageant and a female one is that guys have to put on weight while girls have to lose weight.” But reality shows that it is not so easy to put on a few extra kilos, especially since all of it has to come specifically in the form of muscles. It requires months of disciplined workout to get in shape. Then there are diets, facials, manicures and pedicures. And even waxing, once considered a female domain, as a good body does not show a lot of hair on the chest. Some use a razor, some prefer waxing while others reach out for Anne French. The target of these contests is finally the body.

After achieving a beautiful body, the next course of action is its display. Sometimes in print and sometimes on stage is what is known in the world of beauty contests as the swimsuit round. Does it embarrass men to swing to music on stage in swimming trunks? Your answer should be no if you have really worked hard to make your body perfect. Then why not show it to the world?

The Indian man today uses his income on grooming himself. Clothes, shoes, colognes and other accessories are endorsed by the best bodies in the market. And promise the best response from women.

The writer is a fashion designer and choreographer