GOING HAIRLESS TO ATTRACT WOMEN? YAH RIGHT

This is a major change in body image for men. For those who can still remember the lush, hairy chests of stars like Sean Connery and Burt Reynolds -- thick pelts a gal could curl up against -- these new developments are somewhat chilling. Psychologists have their concerns as well. New studies suggest that media-driven images of what the new man should look like are having potentially harmful side effects on some people. Eating disorders, body obsessions and low physical self-esteem are becoming almost as common in men as they are in women -- the gender most affected by advertising portrayals of body perfection.

"Some weigh 280 pounds of pure muscle and they still can't take their shirts off at the beach because they don't feel like they're big enough for the girls."

Jamie Farquhar, a fourth-year psychology student at Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B., has recently completed the first stage of a research project looking at the role of the media in male attitudes towards their bodies. Farquhar, who will be presenting his findings in January at a psychology symposium in California, looked at 30 years of advertising in magazines such as Sports Illustrated and discovered a marked change in how the male body is presented. He says today's male advertising images are more nude, more posed and with more emphasis on body parts and the presentation of the male physique as an object. "If the media is teaching us to look at the body as an object, then it's no surprise we're being more critical and less satisfied with our bodies," Farquhar says. MacKay has seen people go too far with the Adonis complex, including friends who use steroids -- something he has always avoided. "I have a lot of friends who do steroids," he says. "Some weigh 280 pounds of pure muscle and they still can't take their shirts off at the beach because they don't feel like they're big enough for the girls." Clinical psychologist Roberto Olivardia of Harvard's McLean Hospital in Massachusetts and co-author of the groundbreaking book, The Adonis Complex, says he has treated boys as young as 12 for steroid abuse.

"A lot of people hinge their self esteem on the way they look,"

"I think young boys, just like young girls, know what the cultural scripts are as to what is the ideal," Olivardia says. Olivardia believes that increased access to steroids has helped fuel the change in male body image. He says the drugs, which pump up muscle mass, used to be the exclusive reserve of body builders. Now kids in junior high are getting hold of them. He says some men are using the drugs to help stake out their territory in the war of the sexes. "As gender roles start to blur, men are almost on a socio-cultural level striving to assert their masculinity through their bodies by looking big and muscular," he says. Olivardia says it's a doomed effort, since the ravages of time and age eventually will erode any body, no matter how pumped up. "A lot of people hinge their self esteem on the way they look," he says. "That can become problematic because trends can change and certainly our appearance will change. We'll all get old, wrinkled and grey ... and if you have rested your self esteem on looking good, at some point you're going to be in trouble." But for his part, MacKay is already girding his streamlined loins for the battle against time, as are many other young Adonises. According to the latest figures from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the number of men seeking minimally invasive procedures such as Botox injections and laser hair removal grew by 43 per cent from 2000 to 2004, compared with a 35 per cent increase for women. "This is an area that's evolving," says MacKay, adding that he already uses moisturizers and skin care products. "I know that down the road I'll be looking at something like Botox." By Chris Norries

"By the time you see the damage on the outside, the problem has been brewing inside for years,"

Leaky homes do not a career launchpad make, unless the owner of that home happens to be a fibre-optics engineer with a flare for invention. Dave Vokey, with his wife Patricia Vokey, built a waterfront retreat along the shores of Satellite Channel in 1991. The house was the culmination of a years-long search for an island refuge. "We came to the Island over and over again looking for the right property," says Patricia. The property slopes toward an arbutus- and cedar-forested shore. Offshore, boat sails shine crisp white against indigo waters, with Saltspring Island's rugged silhouette as a backdrop. The couple had a three-level home built, but during the planning stage, Dave had reservations about certain design elements. He let his concerns go when he was assured that his worries were for naught. That turned out to be a mistake. Within a few years, water problems spouted in the house. Dave attacked the problems with numerous structural solutions, all the while contemplating how large-scale repairs could have been avoided." By the time you see the damage on the outside, the problem has been brewing inside for years," says Dave. "I wondered if (fibre-optic) technology could be applied to this problem." If necessity is the mother of invention, disaster is its midwife. Dave fused his fibre-optics knowledge with the house's moisture woes and came up with a structural moisture monitoring system that he christened "Detec." The system applies remote sensing detectors inside the walls that feed into a computer that monitors the moisture content in the wood, a system that is taking hold in multi-family units and larger buildings up and down the coast.

"If you catch these things early enough, you can solve your problem,"

A bedroom, full of natural light and for cooler evenings, a fireplace.

"If you catch these things early enough, you can solve your moisture problem with a caulking gun, instead of a contractor," says Dave. Although the Vokeys repaired the home to resolve the water issues, they didn't install a Detec system. "It's too expensive to install on a single home, especially after construction," says Dave. "It's suited to multi-family units that share a system." Locally, the system has been installed at the new Aberdeen Hospital, a 45-unit seniors housing complex. The Vokeys called in interior decorator Sheri Peterson to design a home that reflects their down-home friendliness and sociable lifestyle. The result is an energized home environment with more entertainment zones than it has bedrooms. "Pat loves colour and shock -- tasteful shock," says Peterson of the house's rich colour combinations in cobalt, royal purple, sandy gold and shaded green. A double-door entry opens to a foyer flanked in mirrors that are etched in a frothing surf pattern, introducing the home's ocean theme. It's an ironic design choice for a couple who are making their mark by fighting water problems. A hallway floored in black granite leads to a sunlit living room of vaulted ceilings, clerestory windows and a funky fusion of sandy gold walls patterned with neo-industrial touches against deep rich purple accents. A wall of cabinets glazed in what Peterson dubs "broken bus stop glass" stands behind a granite-clad bar. The granite runs down the bar sleeve in the same foaming wave pattern of the etched mirrors and repeats in the granite backsplash. The silhouette of the broken-edged granite is not by happenstance. "It mimics the shape of Saltspring Island in the mirror," says Peterson. Rich purple armchairs that Pat refers to as her "Jetson chairs," for their futuristic outerspace curves, pair off with a more traditionally cut, sand-hued upholstered sofa.

The sun room are perfect places to sit, sip coffee and plan your day.

The elegant touches are lightened with whimsical folk-art canine sculptures, a hint at the couple's involvement with animal humane societies. "We have three rescued dogs," says Pat. Her husband laughs. "They were all 'foster' animals," says Dave. "Years later, they're still here." Bevelled-glass french doors open to a formal dining room, its purple walls striated in sheen and matte finishes. More french doors open to a glorious sunroom, decorated in jungle prints and wickers. "It's the smallest room in the house, but it's the one we spend the most time in," says Dave. Beyond the dining room, french doors open to the kitchen where designer Peterson married ultra-industrial corrugated steel cabinetry with subtle pear woods and granites and citrus walls. The floors are covered in blonded oak hardwood. The wave theme continues in the artwork and in draperies that are cut along undulating lines. The water pattern surfaces again at the ground level where slate floors meet white-sand coloured berber carpets in an curling wave. The custom-designed curved couch's back is cut to replicate ocean swells and even the barstools along the granite bar flow in the same surging pattern. The wall behind the bar features a large glass plate etched with martini glasses and whitecapped waves. The couple loved working with their designer, but the glass-wall feature was one spot where they put the brakes on one of her ideas. "Sheri wanted to have a water feature running down the wall and I said, 'No!'" says Dave, laughing. "All I could see was more leaks." By JoAnne Hathery