Cause and Effect

a) My mail:

from Yisrael Medad
to ben.schott@nytimes.com
date Fri, Dec 4, 2009 at 2:07 PM (4 days ago)
subject Heavage is back, or out

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125980303001573939.html

b) His post:

December 7, 2009, 12:00 pm

Heavage

A dubious portmanteau for male cleavage – an exposed (and often buffed) chest.

“Man cleavage – plunging necklines slit open to reveal chest hair, pectoral muscles, maybe more – is back,” Ray A. Smith announced in The Wall Street Journal:

Until recently, male décolletage was an androgynous fashion affectation limited mainly to sporadic appearances on European runways. But the look, including deep V-necks and scoop-neck tops, hit the U.S. in full force at New York’s September Fashion Week, turning up at shows by Duckie Brown, Michael Bastian and Yigal Azrouël.

Noting actor Mehcad Brooks’s preference for a less-is-more-approach to attire, Smith commented:

Other fans of the look include actors Jude Law and Ed Westwick, who’ve been snapped showing off their man cleavage – or “heavage,” as one style writer dubbed it.

“Harper’s Bazaar’s Stephen Gan is working the new male cleavage in a low-cut T-shirt; it’s called ‘heavage,’” tweeted Hilary Alexander, fashion director of Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper, in early October while at a runway show in Paris.

(The term has previously been used to describe amply-chested women, when the portmanteau presumably was heave+cleavage rather than he+cleavage.)

c) My comment:

Well, if we’re playing around, would seevage serve as a neuter term for what men and woman display between their necks and pupik? (based on the principle that if someone is obviously taking pains to display their wares, it’s quite alright to stare)