Metrosexual

Metrosexuality is the trait of an urbane man of any sexual orientation (usually heterosexual) who has a strong aesthetic sense and spends a great amount of time and money on his appearance and lifestyle. American trend spotter Marian Salzman coined the term in 1993.

Evolution of the word

The origin of the term was a 1993 article by Marian Salzman. The word was later adopted by gay British journalist Mark Simpson on November 15, 1994 in The Independent, a major British daily. By May of the following year, the term was in frequent use in British press articles. In June, a New York Times article, titled "Metrosexuals Come Out", inaugurated a host of copycat articles in the American media.

A former local radio Metro Radio presenter Mitch Murray claims he is the progenitor in the 1980s. The word had a very different connotation at the time as it was simply a play on words involving 'Metro Radio' and heterosexuals. From his home in the Isle of Man, Murray would send a weekly tape via Datapost to the local radio station in Newcastle upon Tyne containing bits and pieces of celebrity interviews, sketches and various other humorous stuff he would concoct. The engineers at Metro Radio would play music in between them. Very early during the process, he made a few station identification segments one of which he says included the phrase 'We are the Metrosexuals'. [unclear from this whether the segment was actually broadcast]

Rising popularity of the term 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 timespan, the Netherlands, Belgium and Canada introduced same-sex marriage legislation, various US states legalized 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. Simpson's 2002 Salon.com article 'Meet the metrosexual' used Beckham as its prime exemplar - and most journalists and marketers followed suit. David Beckham has been called a "metrosexual icon" and is often coupled with the term. Amply referred-to individuals include personalities such as Brad Pitt, Arnold Schwarzenegger and George Clooney, though even Donald Rumsfeld has been mentioned as a metrosexual in "an antediluvian way." Although perhaps its most accurate application in contemporary American media occurred on a 60 minutes story on Joe Namath whereby he was suggested by reporter Bob Simon to be "perhaps, America's first metrosexual" [1] after filming his most famous ad sporting Beautymist panty hose.

Other terms

Over the course of the following months, other terms countering or substituting for "metrosexual" appeared. Perhaps the most widely used was "retrosexual," a man who rejects focus on physical appearance, sort of the opposite of a metrosexual (again coined by Simpson, who 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 (and perhaps inspired by Simpson's use of the word 'uber-metrosexual'), 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 — e.g. George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Bono—were once shining examples of metrosexuality, showing little differentiation between the two terms.

Laurence Godfrey is said to favour the descriptions "sumosexual" and "tyrosexual" since learning that "retrosexual" is in use elsewhere.

None of these metro-offspring have thrived, metrosexual however seems to have stuck and become part of the language.

Narcissism

Narcissism according to an authoritative Simpson, plays a crucial role in the metrosexual concept. As Simpson writes in 'Narcissus goes shopping' ('Male Impersonators', 1994), consumerism and narcissism are closely related. Citing Freud's On Narcissism, Sigmund Freud which analyzes 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, is or desires to be what he sees in magazines and advertising. Simpson’s metrosexual would be a type A or type C narcissist, as he loves himself or an idealized image of what he would like to be.

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 it used to be; and neither is, to a degree, the restriction of emotions or the disconnection of 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 the times, so 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 (e.g. knee britches, makeup, jewelry, appreciation of art and music, etc.). Hence, as the concept of femininity conquered more territory, masculinity became 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 of metrosexuality

In its soundbite 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 color-coordinates, cares deeply about exfoliation, and has perhaps manscaped.

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, in which the “Fab Five” instructively transform the appearance of the straight guy—but largely avoid dealing with his personality.

In some contrast, there is also the view that metrosexuality is at least partly a naturally occurring phenomenon, much like the Aesthetic movement of the 19th Century and that the metrosexual is merely a modern incarnation of a dandy.

Another person who confesses to his metrosexuality is Mike Greenberg, co-host of the popular morning sports talk show "Mike and Mike in the Morning" on ESPN Radio. He has many times confessed to being metrosexual and his book (Why My Wife Thinks I'm An Idiot) has "Confessions of a Metrosexual Sportscaster" on it.

See also

• Narcissism
• Consumerism
• Masculinity
• Masculine psychology
• Homomasculinity
• Homosexuality
• Gender role
• Dandy
• Fop
• Metrosexuality (a TV series)
• Pomosexual
• Übersexual
• South Park is Gay!

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