Metrosexual

This article is about the pop-culture neologism. For the 2006 Thai film, see Metrosexual (film).

Metrosexuality is, according to British journalist Mark Simpson, the trait of an urban male of any sexual orientation who has a strong aesthetic sense and spends a great amount of time and money on his appearance and lifestyle. Simpson coined the term in 1994 in an article in the The Independent after writing his book about contemporary masculine identity Male Impersonators: Men Performing Masculinity. Simpson described the effect of consumerism and media proliferation, particularly the men’s style press, on traditional masculinity.

Evolution of the word

The origin of the term traces to a 1200 word article titled "Here come the mirror men" dissecting the new urbane man by Mark Simpson, published on November 15, 1994 in The Independent, a major British daily. Barely any usage of the term in print publications can be found in the same decade. But beginning June 2003, the term frequently appeared in the British press, and a June 22, 2003 New York Times article titled "Metrosexuals Come Out" inaugurated fashionable usage of the word in the American media.

The rising popularity of use followed the increasing integration of gay men into mainstream society and a correspondingly decreased taboo towards deviation from existing notions of masculinity. Over a short span, Canada introduced same-sex marriage legislation, various US states legalised same-sex marriage and civil unions, the US Supreme Court struck down anti-sodomy statutes as unconstitutional in Lawrence v. Texas, and gay characters and themes, long present on TV shows like Will & Grace, Queer as Folk, and Ellen made further inroads. In particular, the Bravo network introduced Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, a show in which stereotypically style- and culture-conscious gay men gave advice to their heterosexual counterparts.

Media explaining the term often rely on citing a few individuals as prime illustrations. David Beckham has been called a "metrosexual icon" and is often coupled with the term. Amply referred to individuals usually include personalities such as Brad Pitt, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and George Clooney but even Donald Rumsfeld has been mentioned as a metrosexual in "an antediluvian way."

Other terms

Over the course of the following months, other terms countering or substituting for "metrosexual" were proclaimed and heard. Perhaps the most widely used was "retrosexual", a man who rejects focusing on physical appearance, or the opposite of a metrosexual. Again coined by Simpson, he described the term in a Salon.com article entitled "Beckham, the virus".

Another example, the übersexual, coined by marketing executives and authors of The Future of Men, caused Simpson to reply: “Any discussion in the style pages of the media about what is desirable and attractive in men and what is 'manly' and what isn't, is simply more metrosexualization. Metrosexuality—do I really have to spell it out?—is mediated masculinity.”

Many of the individuals now named übersexuals-George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, and Bono-were once shining examples of metrosexuality, showing little differentiation between the two terms.

Narcissism

Narcissism may play a crucial role in the metrosexual concept. In On Narcissism, Sigmund Freud analyses the psychological aspect of narcissism and explains narcissistic love as follows:

"A person may love: (1) According to the narcissistic type: (a) What he is himself, (b) What he once was, (c) What he would like to be, (d) Someone who once was part of himself."

The metrosexual, in its original coinage, is a person who, under the spell of consumerism, desires to be what he sees in magazines and advertising. Simpson’s metrosexual would in this case by a type C narcissist, as he loves what he would like to be: the idealized image in magazines and advertising.

Changing Masculinity

Traditional masculine norms, as described in Dr. Ronald F. Levant’s Masculinity Reconstructed are: “avoidance of femininity; restricted emotions; sex disconnected from intimacy; pursuit of achievement and status; self-reliance; strength and aggression; and homophobia.”

Statistics, including market research by Euro RSCG, show that the pursuit of achievement and status is not as important to men as years before, as neither, to some degree, are restricting emotions or disconnecting sex from intimacy. Another norm change is supported by research that claimed men “no longer find sexual freedom universally enthralling.” The most important shift in masculinity is that there is less avoidance of femininity and the “emergence of a segment of men who have embraced customs and attitudes once deemed the province of women.” What is accepted as "masculine" has shifted considerably throughout time, and the modern concept of how a man "should be" differs from the ideal man of previous eras. Some styles and behaviors that are today considered feminine were in the past part of the man's domain (knee britches, makeup, jewelry, appreciation of art and music, etc). Thus as the concept of femininity has conquered more territory, what is accepted masculinity has become more restricted. Perhaps metrosexuality is a reaction against this shift, as some men feel too confined within the gender roles. It could also be considered a means of establishing greater equality between the sexes, through a shift toward androgyny.

Changes in culture and attitudes toward masculinity, visible in the media through television shows such as Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Queer as Folk and Will & Grace, have changed these traditional masculine norms. Metrosexuals only made their appearance after cultural changes in the environment and changes in views on masculinity.

Simpson explains in his article Metrosexual? That rings a bell... that “Gay men provided the early prototype for metrosexuality. Decidedly single, definitely urban, dreadfully uncertain of their identity (hence the emphasis on pride and the susceptibility to the latest label) and socially emasculated, gay men pioneered the business of accessorising – and combining – masculinity and desirability.”

The commercial metrosexual

Brad Pitt is another often cited example for metrosexuality

In its sound bite diffusion through the channels of marketers and popular media, who eagerly and constantly reminded their audience that the metrosexual was straight, the metrosexual has congealed into something more digestible for consumers: a heterosexual male who is in touch with his feminine side - he colour coordinates, cares deeply about exfoliation, and has perhaps manscaped.

In August of 2004, New York-based journalist and author Peter Hyman published a collection of essays entitled The Reluctant Metrosexual: Dispatches From An Almost Hip Life. The book is far from a celebration of metrosexuality (thus his "reluctant" position). To the contrary, Hyman attempts to debunk the term, which he compares to "Generation X." Here, the author reveals his belief that metrosexuality is, more than anything, a marketing ploy:

"The metrosexual revolution is not so much an uprising as it is a more efficient way to sell expensive face creams, allowing marketers to trade on good, old-fashioned insecurity (a method that has been successfully imposed on women for decades). Men with disposable incomes who like to shop, it seems, are this year’s black."

Men didn't go to shopping malls, so consumer culture promoted the idea of a sensitive guy who went to malls, bought magazines and spent freely to improve his personal appearance. As Simpson put it:

"For some time now, old-fashioned (re)productive, repressed, unmoisturized heterosexuality has been given the pink slip by consumer capitalism. The stoic, self-denying, modest straight male didn't shop enough (his role was to earn money for his wife to spend), and so he had to be replaced by a new kind of man, one less certain of his identity and much more interested in his image – that's to say, one who was much more interested in being looked at (because that's the only way you can be certain you actually exist). A man, in other words, who is an advertiser's walking wet dream."

This commercial vision is also adapted in television’s metrosexual archetype: Bravo’s Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. The “Fab Five” transform the appearance of the straight guy using hundreds of dollars worth of cosmetics, but do not transform other aspects of his personality.

However there is the argument that metrosexuality is at least partly a naturally occurring phenomenon, much like the Aesthetic movement of the 19th Century, and that the metrosexual is a modern version of a dandy.

See also

• Narcissism
• Consumerism
• Masculinity
• Homomasculinity
• Gender role
• Dandy
• Fop
• Metrosexuality (a TV series)
• Pomosexual
• Übersexual
• Retrosexual

External links

• "Meet the Metrosexuals" Mark Simpson writes about metrosexuals in a 2002 Salon piece.
• Mark Simpson reassesses the term in 2005
• "Gay or Straight? Hard to Tell" (New York Times, June 2005)
• "The Metrosexual Defined; Narcissism and Masculinity in Popular Culture" Article exploring the commercial and sociological aspects of the metrosexual
• "Metrosexual Tarot: 'Queer Eye' collides with The Occult" (Yahoo! Pick of the Day, December 2004)
• pdhyman.com Web site of Peter Hyman, author of The Reluctant Metrosexual: Dispatches From An Almost Hip Life