Man's face retouching?

[cocasana]

Last week I was invited to a birthday party of a friend. We all were between 35-55 years old. I took my camera and shot some portraits.
During editing I softened all women's skin, but I didn't even think of retouching man's face. I was told that I should have softened some wrinkles.
Sounds strange to me. Do you?

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... retouching man's face. I was told that I should have softened some wrinkles. Sounds strange to me. Do you?

Yes... especially on my own face 

In all seriousness, even if we do not adopt the same rationale for male faces as for female ones (i.e., that everyone likes looking younger/better), it is often the case that a room/flash lighting is not always flattering (actually, it rarely is), even to men., i.e., it tends to exaggerate wrinkles and imperfections. In which case, by retouching, we are merely bringing it back to "normal".

[GlennMorimoto]

I've photographed a ton of executive portraits and business headshots and I DO retouch the males as well.  I've found that males are just a vain as anyone.  Now, that said, I don't retouch males as much as my female subjects.  With the guys, I obviously take out the blemishes and I also tone down the wrinkles, bags, crows feet and the laugh lines around the mouth.  With the men, it's more to help them look refreshed more than 15yrs. younger   Most times I get comments like, I still look like myself just so much more rested looking. 

Hi Slobodan, hope you are well...

[cocasana]

Thank you Slobodan! thank you Glenn! Actually for a formal portrait I would have soften the most unpleasant age signs, but in a such informal situation...
Probably I should shoot a self portrait and judge...