Carpet of Virility



""...and every last inch of me's covered with hair!""

- Gaston, Beauty and the Beast

In essence it describes a man with a hairy upper body. Generally shown during a Shirtless Scene or when a guy walks around in a tank-top or an opened shirt. Often indicates evil or an Anti-Hero.

Fuzzy chests or torsos can have different meanings depending on what body type they are used:

Type 1) When combined with a buff, muscular physique, it's usually to emphasize MANLINESS or Badassery. Alternatively, it may mark a mature man (ie 35 and older) in contrast to a cast of younger men.

Type 2) When combined with an overweight body, it is generally to mean a boorish and/or unhygienic character. If used on Stout Strength, it usually indicates a Boisterous Bruiser.

No matter the type, in fiction, a Carpet of Virility almost always goes hand in hand with a very sexual, if not utterly lecherous, personality, be the bearer attractive or not.

Hairy chests can be seen as Fetish Fuel, especially in The Seventies, when it was quite common for men to show off their chest hair with open shirts and plunging necklines. The gay "bear" community also finds hairy, hyper-masculine men to be extremely desirable. It is also common in the Bara Genre. On a woman, this is almost universally considered to be prime-grade Squick material.

See also Shirtless Scene, Walking Shirtless Scene, Rated "M" for Manly.

Anime & Manga

 * Bleach: Kyoraku Shunsui. Isshin Kurosaki as well.
 * Lord Genome from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has a spiral-shaped carpet.
 * Freddie from Sakigake Cromartie Koukou, partly because he might or might not be Freddie Mercury.
 * Blackbeard in One Piece is pretty much the epitome of Type 2.
 * France in Hetalia is the only character with body hair when naked, to emphasize his lecherous tendencies.
 * As such, his doppleganger from an Alternate Universe (Parallel!France 23) has no body hair.
 * Turkey certainly counts, being one of the older characters physically, and of course most Turkish men are rather hairy.
 * In an episode of the Dirty Pair TV Series, Yuri and Kei spend an episode debating whether their male co-agent has chest hair or not, and how 'disgusting' chest hair is. At the end of the episode, he reveals.
 * Mr. Satan of Dragon Ball.
 * The Village Elder in Jungle wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu has a literal afro sticking from his chest!

Comic Books

 * Wolverine is a hairy son of a... gun, so his chest hair is more like just one part of his general fuzzy covering. That is, when artists don't decide to give him a full body wax. This has become alarmingly more common since the films, despite Hugh Jackman being fairly hairy himself.
 * Even before he was covered in blue fur, Beast of the X-Men was usually depicted as being covered from chest to ankles in body hair in his human form.
 * Judge Dredd: Dredd has been shown to have plenty of hair on his chest. Possibly it's a remnant of the time he was a werewolf, given that he's completely hairless in early stories.
 * The Hulk was occasionally shown to have chest/body hair, Depending on the Artist. Damn brave, whoever waxed him.
 * Superman, during the John Byrne/Dan Jurgens era.
 * The titular character of The Savage Dragon... and Barbaric, Mace, the Devil, Hellrazor and various other male characters drawn by Erik Larsen.
 * The Neal Adams Batman of the 1970s gained the sobriquet of "Hairy-Chested Love God" for strictly adhering to Type 1 of this trope in his depiction.
 * Blackjak of the Atari Force second series was Type 1.
 * Beast Boy AKA Changeling in The New Teen Titans when George Perez drew him.
 * Flex Mentallo, anyone?

Film - Animated

 * Gaston's Villain Song in Beauty and the Beast has the line "And every last inch of me's covered with hair!" sung as he rips open his shirt. In the theatrical release, it was subverted in that there wasn't much there. (Chest hair is remarkably difficult to animate unless you stylize it into a solid mat like Zangief's, which wouldn't've worked here.)

Film - Live-Action
"Bond: Japanese proverb say, 'Bird never make nest in bare tree'."
 * Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan in James Bond films, and in Zardoz.
 * Not to mention Peter Sellers as James Bond in the 1967 Casino Royale. (Here's the visual, if you're curious.)
 * Lampshaded in You Only Live Twice when the Japanese massage girls are giggling over Bond's hairy chest.

"I need science to help me! Look at this. I've had people say to me, "Don't wear fur," and I have to tell them "Fuck off, lady, it's me!!" I'm a fucking Chia Pet!"
 * Parodied in Austin Powers, as it was the Connery-era movies they were pastiching.
 * Fat Bastard as well, definitely a Type II.
 * Leonard Nimoy.
 * Eli Roth, particularly as the Bear Jew.
 * Burt Reynolds. Slightly NSFW.
 * Note that the ad slogan points out how much less fashionable male body hair has become since The Seventies.
 * Chuck Norris proudly displays one during the climactic fight with Bruce Lee in Way of the Dragon. It becomes a liability for him, though, as Bruce is able to grab onto it as a combat move.
 * Robin Williams, although he doesn't really fit into either type. Instead he's pretty much a category all his own.


 * Robin also says that this is the reason Koko the gorilla used sign language to hit on him.
 * Sam Elliot.
 * In Barbarella, Ugo Tognazzi is only slightly less hairy than his fur coat. And considering that this is the fur coat...
 * Steve Carell's character Andy in The 40-Year-Old Virgin although this was derided by his friends and led to the infamous chest waxing scene.
 * Michael Sheen.
 * Almost every character in The Nail Gun Massacre is covered by a thick layer of fur.
 * Alec Baldwin. A lot.
 * Quite a few Bollywood actors.

Literature

 * Bailey School Kids: Mr. Jenkins
 * In Everworld, Hercules apparently has two Austin Powers movies' worth of chest hair.
 * Esau in The Bible.

Live Action TV
"Buffy: Jonathan? [beat] You have chest hair?"
 * Tom Selleck in Magnum, P.I. This was lampshaded in a 2007 issue of World Wrestling Entertainment Magazine, in a column where Candice Michelle and Kelly Kelly were discussing whether they found hairy chests on men attractive. Both women agreed that they weren't, but then Candice remarked that they were considered quite attractive when Magnum P.I. was on the air. (This point was lost on Kelly, since she had never even heard of the show.)
 * Jim Halpert of all people in The Office was shown to have an incredibly hairy chest. and there was much rejoicing. As did Steve Carell in an earlier episode.
 * Lee Majors as Heath Barkley in The Big Valley.
 * Trailer Park Boys: Randy, the always shirtless assistant is a Type 2.
 * Myth Busters: Jamie Hyneman is a Type 1.
 * Dirty Jobs: Mike Rowe is also a Type 1.
 * Don Draper of Mad Men.
 * Star Trek the Next Generation: Commander Riker shows off a particularly thick man rug in the season one episode "Angel One," much to the amusement of Troi and Yar.
 * In the original series, Spock's one and only Shirtless Scene in "Patterns of Force" reveals a good deal of chest hair. It's made more obvious by the contrast with Kirk's smooth and hairless chest.
 * In the Chilean Soap Opera Marron Glace: El Regreso, Supreme Chef Pierre gains a rival in Ciro, who has a huge carpet of chest hair and is insanely proud of it.
 * Came up in an episode of Seinfeld where one of Jerry's girlfriends prefers guys with smooth chests. Despite being a neat freak, Jerry can only shave his chest hair for a short while before it becomes too much.
 * George Costanza is definitely a type II. And Kramer, the Kavorka Man himself, is somewhere in between type I and II.
 * Elaine's boyfriend David Puddy (and by extension, Patrick Warburton himself) is more of a type I.
 * Luke Danes from Gilmore Girls is definitely a type I.
 * Doggie Kruger from Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger sports one, which is visible whenever he puts on his suit. Yeah, this dog has white chest fur. Obviously, he is a Type 1.
 * Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Ironically, Warren Mears, considering his characterisation; when Willow opens his shirt to torture him with that bullet, you can almost hear wildlife sounds coming from inside.
 * Another member of the nerd Trio, Jonathan, complains of Buffy grabbing his chest hair.


 * Brazilian actor Tony Ramos, whose hairy body is frequently parodied by local comedians.
 * Jayne Cobb in Firefly.

Music

 * Kiss: Hairy chests very much on display in their stage costumes, notably Paul Stanley with the jumpsuit split to the waist and a truly luxurious carpet.
 * Oh yes
 * Freddie Mercury of Queen liked showing off his hairy chest during performances: think sequined jumpsuits transcending normal limits on scooped necks.
 * X Japan and Ra:IN guitarist Pata
 * David Lee Roth. Chest Hair and neon Singlets.
 * The one and only Tom Jones, of course.
 * Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson.
 * Damon Albarn, which is a great contrast to his fairly girly face.
 * Michael Bolton in "Said I Loved You But I Lied." His shirt is open down to three buttons, showing off his chest hair while he sings from the top of a goddamned mountain and white horses run through fire on the beach below him.

Professional Wrestling

 * Scott "Razor Ramon" Hall rocked a hairy chest back in the day, as he was, of course "oozing machismo, mang" Also, Shawn Michaels had one in the mid-late 1990s, and Albert, who might as well be a real life Wolverine in the hairy chest department. Albert would often get chants of "Shave your back!" from the crowd.

Video Games

 * Zangief and Blanka in Street Fighter II. Zangief's chest hair is so iconic, that his Mecha costume has the equivalent in the form of a metal plate. And just in case you were concerned it isn't thick enough, they've also got a good growth of shin hair.
 * Al-Cid from Final Fantasy XII.
 * Team Fortress 2 has Saxton Hale, CEO of Mann Co, the company producing gear used in the game. He is always depicted bare chested and his chest hair grows in the shape of Australia. He's also the hero of Saxton Hale's Thrilling Tales as a pastiche of Steve Irwin: "You Will Believe a Shark can Cry". According to a comic about the Engineer Update, chest hair is a quality shared by all Australian men, implied to be brought about by Australium, a mineral that not only is responsible for their hyper-advanced technology but brings about literal Testosterone Poisoning (even Australian women have bushy mustaches). Hidden images in the update indicate that the Engineer's grandfather, Radigan Conagher, also developed a patch of chest hair (in the shape of Texas) and a bushy mustache in response to Australium exposure.
 * Star Fox: Who'd think someone like Wolf O'Donnell would get one in his Super Smash Bros. Brawl appearance? He's the Type 1 variety, too, when judged by his whole costume!
 * Vamp in Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots has type one of these, distinguishing from and adding to the subtext between him and his Bishonen opponent, Raiden.
 * Tekken: Marduk is the only male character by default to have chest hair in the games, a departure from all of the other guys, who look like they have waxed chests.
 * Both Shadow the Hedgehog and Silver the Hedgehog from the Sonic the Hedgehog games have a notable "chest fur".
 * In Silver's case, this is an odd example of the trope, since he's the youngest male hedgehog in the cast - how many 14 year-olds do you know with that much chest hair?
 * He is a hedgehog. Don't think about it too hard.
 * Some people speculate that he gets it from his father...
 * Nathaniel "Rock" Adams from the Soul Calibur series is a Type 1, and part of his customizable outfit in Soul Calibur IV allows any other man to have chest hair, as well.
 * Yangus is a type 2 in Dragon Quest VIII.
 * Varric from Dragon Age II. Type 1 variety. This is frequently commented upon by the other characters; Fenris mentions that the traditional dwarven beard seems to have fallen onto his chest.

Web Comics

 * Commander Badass from Manly Guys Doing Manly Things has the Type 1 variety. He once challenged Varric from Dragon Age 2 to a contest to determine who had the manliest chest hair.
 * His nemesis, Canadian Guy, also has a Carpet of Virility.
 * Erfworld: Stanley, in his Kiss-inspired war outfit.
 * One webcomic (whose name is lost to the depths of time) featured a Kavorka Man who chalked up his luck with women to having chest hair that grew in the shape of the Superman shield.
 * Order of the Stick has General Tarquin showing off his after a night of conquest with his future wife here.
 * Scandinavia and The World's Canada: The hairiest Bishonen EVER.

Western Animation

 * Avoided in The Venture Brothers, Brock Sampson has every other over-the-top manly stereotype going on, but they couldn't give him the Carpet of Virility because it over-complicated his animation. Jackson and Doc lament this during at least one commentary track. Occasionally in early episodes you can still see evidence of it around his clothes.
 * The surprisingly manly-looking tennis pony Ace in the My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic episode "Call of the Cutie", who comes with this, sideburns, and a Badass Mustache. Some fans have noted a resemblance between him and Andre Agassi.