Metrosexual is a
neologismA neologism ; from Greek νές is a newly coined word that may be in the process of entering common use, but has not yet been accepted into mainstream language. Neologisms are often directly attributable to a specific person, publication, period, or event...
of the 2000s generally applied to heterosexual men with a strong concern for their appearance, and/or a
lifestyleLifestyle was originally coined by Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler in 1929. The current broader sense of the word dates from 1961.In sociology, a lifestyle is the way a person lives. A lifestyle is a characteristic bundle of behaviors that makes sense to both others and oneself in a given time...
that displays attributes stereotypically related to homosexual men.
Debate surrounds the term's use as a theoretical signifier of sex deconstruction and its associations with
consumerismConsumerism is the equation of personal happiness with consumption and the purchase of material possessions. The term is often associated with criticisms of consumption starting with Thorstein Veblen or, more recently by a movement called Enoughism...
.
Evolution of the word
The term originated in an article by
Mark SimpsonMark Simpson is a British journalist, writer, and broadcaster specialising in pop culture, media, and masculinity. He has been described by one critic as "the skinhead Oscar Wilde" Simpson is a frequent commentator on British TV shows....
) published on November 15, 1994, in
The IndependentThe Independent is a British newspaper published by Tony O'Reilly's Independent News & Media. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily newspapers. The daily edition was named National...
. Simpson wrote:
The term greatly increased in popularity following Simpson's 2002 Salon.com article "Meet the metrosexual", which identified
David BeckhamDavid Robert Joseph Beckham,
OBE is an English footballer who currently plays in midfield for American Major League Soccer club Los Angeles Galaxy and the England national team....
as the metrosexual
poster boyPoster Boy is a 2004 gay-themed drama film. It toured the gay and lesbian film festival circuit beginning in 2004 before a limited theatrical release in 2006.- Production :Some scenes were shot on campus at Wagner College in Staten Island, New York....
. The advertising agency Euro RCSG Worldwide adopted the term shortly thereafter for a marketing study, and the
New York Times published a Sunday feature, "Metrosexuals Come Out"; the story trickled into local news outlets across North America.
Simpson's Salon.com definition is more nuanced than the term's common use today.
Former
Metro RadioMetro Radio is an Independent Local Radio station broadcasting to North East England]]. Its output is principally contemporary pop and dance music. It is owned by Bauer Radio and is part of their Big City Network of stations.-History:...
presenter Mitch Murray claims that he invented the term in the 1980s. At that time, he says, the word had a very different connotation, as it was simply a play on words involving "
Metro RadioMetro Radio is an Independent Local Radio station broadcasting to North East England]]. Its output is principally contemporary pop and dance music. It is owned by Bauer Radio and is part of their Big City Network of stations.-History:...
" and
heterosexualsHeterosexuality consists of sexual behavior, practices, and identity predicated on preference or desire for the opposite sex. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, physical or romantic attractions primarily to...
. Murray would send a weekly tape to the
local radio stationIndependent Local Radio is the collective name given to commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom. The same name is used for Independent Local Radio in Ireland.-Development of ILR:...
in
Newcastle upon TyneNewcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England...
. "Very early during the process", he created station identification segments, one of which he claims included the phrase "We are the metrosexuals." It is unclear whether the segment was actually broadcast, and there is no documentary evidence of his claims. Also, when the word first became popular, various sources incorrectly attributed its origin to trendspotter Marian Salzman, but by Salzman's own admission Simpson's 2002
Salon.comSalon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online magazine, with content updated each weekday. American liberal politics is its major focus, but it covers a range of issues. Reviews and articles about music, books and films are also a prominent feature of the site....
article was the original source for her usage of the term.
Rising popularity of the term followed the increasing integration of gay men into mainstream
societySociety or human society is the manner or condition in which the members of a community live together for their mutual benefit. By extension, society denotes the people of a region or country, sometimes even the world, taken as a whole....
and a correspondingly decreased
tabooA taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and forbidden. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society. The term comes from the Tongan language, and appears in many Polynesian cultures...
towards deviation from existing notions of
masculinityMasculinity is manly character. It specifically describes men and boys, that is personal and human, unlike male which can also be used to describe animals, or masculine which can also be used to describe noun classes. When masculine is used to describe men, it can have degrees of comparison—more...
. Over a short timespan, the Netherlands, Belgium and Canada introduced
same-sex marriageSame-sex marriage is a term used to describe a legally or socially recognized marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Other terms used to describe this type of recognition include gay marriage or gender-neutral marriage.Same-sex marriage is a civil rights,...
legislationLegislation is law which has been promulgated by a legislature or other governing body, or the process of making it. The term may refer to a single law, or the collective body of enacted law, while "statute" is also used to refer to a single law...
, various US states legalized same-sex marriage and civil unions, the US Supreme Court struck down anti-
sodomySodomy is a term used today predominantly in law to describe the act of anal intercourse, oral intercourse, or bestiality.- Definitions :...
statutes as unconstitutional in
Lawrence v. TexasLawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 , was a landmark United States Supreme Court case. In the 6-3 ruling, the justices struck down the sodomy law in Texas. The court had previously addressed the same issue in 1986 in Bowers v...
and gay characters and themes, long present on
TVTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
shows like
Will & GraceWill & Grace is an American television sitcom that was originally broadcast on NBC from 1998 to 2006. The show takes place in New York City and focuses on Will Truman, a gay lawyer, and his best friend Grace Adler, a straight Jewish woman who runs her own interior design firm...
,
Queer as FolkQueer as Folk is an American and Canadian television series co-production, produced by Showtime and Temple Street Productions which was based on the British series of the same name created by Russell T Davies...
, and
EllenEllen is a U.S. television sitcom that ran on the ABC network from March 29, 1994 to July 22, 1998, producing 109 episodes.The theme song, "So-Called Friend" is by Scottish band Texas...
made further inroads. In particular, the
BravoBravo is an American cable television channel owned by NBC Universal. It is currently seen in more than 80 million homes and was the first service dedicated to film, drama, and the performing arts when it launched by Cablevision as an advertisement-free channel in December 1980...
networkA television network is a distribution network for television content whereby a central operation provides programming for many television stations. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small number of broadcast networks. Many early...
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 BeckhamDavid Robert Joseph Beckham,
OBE is an English footballer who currently plays in midfield for American Major League Soccer club Los Angeles Galaxy and the England national team....
or Tom Egger have been called a "metrosexual icon" and is often coupled with the term. Amply referred-to individuals include personalities such as
Brad PittWilliam Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American actor and film producer. He has been cited as one of the world's most attractive men, a label that entices the media to report on his off-screen life...
,
Arnold SchwarzeneggerArnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian American bodybuilder, actor, businessman, and politician, currently serving as the 38th Governor of the state of California....
,
Howard DeanHoward Brush Dean III is an American politician and physician from the U.S. state of Vermont. He served six terms as Governor of Vermont and ran unsuccessfully for the 2004 Democratic Presidential nomination...
, and
Ryan SeacrestRyan John Seacrest is an American media personality, television producer and entrepreneur. He is the host of the Fox reality show American Idol, and of two other television programs: E! News on E!, and the annual Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve broadcast on ABC.-Biography:Ryan Seacrest was...
.
Simpson's work was often blatantly plagiarised. The Australian national newspaper
Sydney Morning Herald ran a major feature in March 2003 titled "The Rise of the Metrosexual" (also syndicated in its sister paper
The Age) which borrowed heavily from Simpson's "Meet the Metrosexual" published on Salon.com the previous July, right down to the title and illustration. Neither his article nor Simpson himself were mentioned in the piece.
A
60 Minutes60 Minutes is an American investigative television newsmagazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by long time producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation. It has been among the top-rated TV programs for much of its life,...
story on 1960s-70s pro footballer
Joe NamathJoseph William "Joe" Namath , also known as Broadway Joe or Joe Willie, is a former American football quarterback...
suggested he was "perhaps, America's first metrosexual" after filming his most famous ad sporting Beautymist panty hose. Simpson has called Joe Namath "America's abandoned metrosexual prototype", leaving the field open for later Brit metro imports such as Beckham.
Pointing out the differences between Beckham and Namath, Simpson writes:
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 traditionally masculine 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.comSalon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online magazine, with content updated each weekday. American liberal politics is its major focus, but it covers a range of issues. Reviews and articles about music, books and films are also a prominent feature of the site....
article entitled "Beckham, the virus."
Another example, the übersexual, coined by
marketingMarketing is an integrated communications-based process through which individuals and communities are informed or persuaded that existing and newly-identified needs and wants may be satisfied by the products and services of others....
executives and authors of
The Future of Men (and perhaps inspired by Simpson's use of the term "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."
Marketers and magazines like
Men's Health trying to sell cosmetics to men have introduced the term
heteropolitan. Mark Simpson wrote in
The Guardian in 2007 about the irony of "metromag"
Men's Health jumping on the "heteropolitan" bandwagon, asking, "When is
Men's Health going to come out to itself?"
None of these metro-offspring have thrived, although metrosexual seems to have stuck and become part of the language.
Etymologically,
metrosexual comes from the
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
=
mother and the
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
=
sex. Mark Simpson was unaware of this when he coined the word, but later endorsed the etymology, adding "It's
postPostmodernism literally means 'after the modernist movement'. While "modern" itself refers to something "related to the present", the movement of modernism and the following reaction of postmodernism are defined by a set of perspectives...
-Oedipal."
Übersexual
The word "'übersexual" is a term claimed to be coined by the authors of the book
Future of Men (O'Reilly, Matathia, Salzman, 2005) and is a variant of
metrosexual. The word seems to have been inspired by the phrase "uber-metrosexual", used by the creator of the metrosexual
Mark SimpsonMark Simpson is a British journalist, writer, and broadcaster specialising in pop culture, media, and masculinity. He has been described by one critic as "the skinhead Oscar Wilde" Simpson is a frequent commentator on British TV shows....
to describe David Beckham. Salzman appropriated Simpson's work on the metrosexual in 2002 to sell another book.
Simpson has pointed out that the book contains several deliberate misrepresentations of him, his work, and the history of the metrosexual, including the assertion that his coinage of the term in 1994 was "derisive", when in fact the article "Here come the mirror men" was clearly welcoming. The academic David Coad's book
The Metrosexual (Suny, 2008) confirms this, and documents other misrepresentations by the marketers.
Many of the "top ubersexuals" named by Salzman, such as
BonoPaul David Hewson, KBE , most commonly known by his stage name Bono, is an Irish singer and musician, best known for being the main vocalist of the Dublin-based rock band U2. Bono was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met his future wife,...
, Bill Clinton and George Clooney were on her list of "top metrosexuals" in 2003.
The authors of
Future of Men argue that the übersexual is not derivative of the metrosexual man.
The future of men, proclaim the authors, is "not to be found in the primped and waxed boy who wowed the world with his nuanced knowledge of tweezers and exfoliating creams. Men, at the end of the day, will have to rely on their intellect and their passion, their erudition and professional success, to be acknowledged and idealised in contemporary society. Called the 'übersexual'—-a degree of
greatnessGreatness is a concept heavily dependent on a person's perspective and biases. Whether someone or something is great or not depends from subjective judgements of the value of one person or thing as compared to another....
and
perfectionPerfection is, broadly, a state of completeness and flawlessness.The term "perfection" is actually used to designate a range of diverse, if often kindred, concepts...
, an acknowledgment that this is an evolved species of man—he is so perfect as to leave little margin for error and fallacy."
Some, including Simpson and Armistead Maupin, have suggested that behind this congealed marketing-speak there was something rather simple going on: a homophobic attempt to stop the metrosexual being so "gay". Or, as Salzman herself put it proudly, the ubersexual (unlike the metrosexual) "doesn't invite questions about his sexuality".
Simpson has argued that from the beginning the appropriation of the metrosexual concept by American marketers such as Salzman in 2003 was always about trying to straighten him out. His original definition of the metrosexual was sexually ambiguous, or at least went beyond the straight/gay binary; marketers, in contrast, insisted that the metrosexual was always "straight" – they even tried to pretend that he wasn't vain.
However, they failed to convince the public – hence their attempt to create the uber-straight ubersexual.
Despite a large global PR push for their "new", completely "non-gay" metrosexual – and a largely uncritical press, which failed to notice that the list of top ten ubersexuals was essentially the same as the ones they had published two years previously as the top ten metrosexuals – the "ubersexual" failed to catch on with the public, as Salzman herself later admitted.
Narcissism
NarcissismSee also narcissistic personality disorder and malignant narcissism.The term narcissism refers to the personality trait of self-esteem, which includes the set of character traits concerned with self-image or ego. The terms narcissism, narcissistic, and narcissist are often used as pejoratives,...
, according to Simpson, plays a crucial role in the metrosexual
conceptThere are two prevailing theories in contemporary philosophy which attempt to explain the nature of concepts . The representational theory of mind proposes that concepts are mental representations, while the semantic theory of concepts holds that they are abstract objects...
. As Simpson writes in "Narcissus goes shopping" (
Male Impersonators, 1994), consumerism and narcissism are closely related. Citing
FreudSigmund Freud , Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology...
's
On NarcissismOn Narcissism was a 1914 book by Sigmund Freud, widely considered an introduction to Freud's theories of narcissism.In this paper, Freud sums up his earlier discussions on the subject of narcissism and considers its place in sexual development...
, which analyzes the psychological aspect of narcissism and explains narcissistic
loveLove is any of a number of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection and attachment. The word love can refer to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from generic pleasure to intense interpersonal attraction...
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
consumerismConsumerism is the equation of personal happiness with consumption and the purchase of material possessions. The term is often associated with criticisms of consumption starting with Thorstein Veblen or, more recently by a movement called Enoughism...
, 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
masculineMasculinity is manly character. It specifically describes men and boys, that is personal and human, unlike male which can also be used to describe animals, or masculine which can also be used to describe noun classes. When masculine is used to describe men, it can have degrees of comparison—more...
norms, as described in Dr. Ronald F. Levant's
Masculinity Reconstructed are: "avoidance of
femininityFemininity refers to qualities and behaviors judged by a particular culture to be ideally associated with or especially appropriate to women and girls....
; restricted emotions; sex disconnected from intimacy; pursuit of achievement and status; self-reliance; strength and
aggressionIn psychology, as well as other social and behavioral sciences, aggression refers to behavior between members of the same species that is intended to cause pain or harm. Predatory or defensive behavior between members of different species is not normally considered "aggression." Aggression takes a...
; and
homophobiaHomophobia is defined as an "irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals", or individuals perceived to be homosexual; it is also defined as "unreasoning fear of or antipathy toward homosexuals and homosexuality", "fear of or contempt for lesbians and gay...
."
StatisticsStatistics is a branch of mathematics concerned with collecting and interpreting data. According to other definitions, it is a mathematical science pertaining to the collection, analysis, interpretation or explanation, and presentation of data. Statisticians improve the quality of data with the...
, including
market researchMarket research is any organized effort to gather information about markets or customers. It is a very important component of business strategy...
by
Euro RSCGEuro RSCG Worldwide is one of the leading integrated marketing communications agencies in the world, made up of 233 offices located in 75 countries throughout Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific and the Middle East...
, 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
intimacyIntimacy generally refers to the feeling of being in a close personal association and belonging together. It is a familiar and very close affective connection with another as a result of entering deeply or closely into relationship through knowledge and experience of the other. Genuine intimacy in...
. Another norm change is supported by research that claimed men "no longer find
sexualHuman male sexuality encompasses a broad range of issues, behavior and processes, including male sexual desires and sexual behavior, the physiological, psychological, social, cultural, political, and spiritual or religious aspects of sex...
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 britchesBreeches are an item of male clothing covering the body from the waist down, with separate coverings for each leg, usually stopping just below the knee, though in some cases reaching to the ankles.The breeches were normally closed and fastened about the leg, along its open seams at varied lengths,...
, makeup, jewelry).
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 & GraceWill & Grace is an American television sitcom that was originally broadcast on NBC from 1998 to 2006. The show takes place in New York City and focuses on Will Truman, a gay lawyer, and his best friend Grace Adler, a straight Jewish woman who runs her own interior design firm...
, 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
urbanUrban culture is the culture of towns and cities. All over the world, past and present, these settlements have behaviors and cultural elements that separate them from otherwise comparable rural areas....
, 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."
In a 2004 Salon.com interview, Simpson answers question about his "offspring".
The commercial metrosexual
In its soundbite diffusion through the channels of
marketeersMarketing is an integrated communications-based process through which individuals and communities are informed or persuaded that existing and newly-identified needs and wants may be satisfied by the products and services of others....
and popular
mediaMass media denotes a section of the media specifically designed to reach a very large audience such as the population of a nation state. The term was coined in the 1920s with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and magazines. However, some forms of mass media such...
, who eagerly and constantly reminded their audience that the metrosexual was straight, the metrosexual has congealed into something more digestible for consumers: a
heterosexualHeterosexuality consists of sexual behavior, practices, and identity predicated on preference or desire for the opposite sex. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, physical or romantic attractions primarily to...
male who is in touch with his feminine side—he color-coordinates, cares deeply about
exfoliationExfoliation involves the removal of the oldest dead skin cells on the skin's outermost surface, and has been used for many years to help maintain the skin. Exfoliation is involved in the process of a facial and during body treatments at spas...
, 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
STOIC was a variant of Forth.It started out at the MIT and Harvard Biomedical Engineering Centre in Boston, and was written in the mid 1970s by Jonathan Sachs...
, 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 MovementThe Aesthetic Movement is a 19th century European movement that emphasized aesthetic values over moral or social themes in literature, fine art, the decorative arts, and interior design...
of the 19th century and that the metrosexual is merely a modern incarnation of a
dandyA dandy is a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance, refined language, and leisurely hobbies, pursued with the appearance of nonchalance in a cult of Self...
.
Another person who confesses to his metrosexuality is
Mike GreenbergMichael James Greenberg is a television anchor, television show host, radio host for ESPN and ABC. At ESPN, he hosts the weekday evening, most often Monday, SportsCenter and ESPN Radio's Mike and Mike in the Morning show with Mike Golic...
, co-host of the popular morning sports talk show "
Mike and Mike in the MorningMike and Mike in the Morning is an American sports-talk radio show hosted by Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg on ESPN Radio and simulcast in television, normally on ESPN2. If ESPN2 is broadcasting a live sporting event during the show, the show's simulcast will then end up on ESPNews...
" on
ESPN RadioESPN Radio is an American sports radio network. It was launched on January 1, 1992 under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN." ESPN Radio is located at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut...
. He has many times confessed to being metrosexual and his book has "Confessions of a Metrosexual Sportscaster" on it.
Another person who confesses to his metrosexuality is
Dominic MonaghanDominic Bernard Patrick Luke Monaghan is an English actor. He has received international attention from playing Merry in Peter Jackson's adaptation of J. R. R...
, star of
The Lord of the Rings trilogy and
LostLost is an American serial drama television series. It follows the lives of plane crash survivors on a mysterious tropical island, after a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney, Australia, and Los Angeles, United States, crashes somewhere in the South Pacific...
. He has jokingly admitted that he "believes he should have been a homosexual—because he loves make-up, painting his nails and wearing skirts". Although some argue that this points more towards transvestism, others argue that since a woman who never wears make-up, never paints her nails, and never wears a skirt is presumed to be neither gay nor weird, this points more towards sex equality.
Stuff has proclaimed
Ryan SeacrestRyan John Seacrest is an American media personality, television producer and entrepreneur. He is the host of the Fox reality show American Idol, and of two other television programs: E! News on E!, and the annual Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve broadcast on ABC.-Biography:Ryan Seacrest was...
as "the poster boy of metrosexuality".
Men's fashion magazines – such as
DetailsDetails is an American monthly men's magazine published by Condé Nast Publications. The title has founded in 1982. Alan Patricof bought the magazine in 1987. Condé Nast bought the magazine a year later for $2 million. Its current format stems from an October 2000 relaunch of the title, following a...
,
Men's VogueMen's Vogue is a twice yearly men's magazine that covers fashion, design, art, culture, sports and technology.-Cover stories:...
, and
CargoCargo magazine, founded in March 2004, was created to fit a niche of the male demographic tailored for the fashionable and the trendy. During this time, metrosexualism was a hot commodity, and Conde Nast Publishing authorized a male spin-off of the popular female shopping magazine Lucky...
(defunct) – target what one
Details editor calls "men who moisturize and read a lot of magazines".
See also
- Chad
Chad is a generally derogatory slang term referring to a young urban white man, typically single and in his 20s or early 30s. The term originated during the 1990s in Chicago, Illinois, and was further popularlized by a satirical website dedicated to the Lincoln Park Chad Society, a fictional...
- Fashion
Fashion is the style and custom prevalent at a given time. In its most common usage however, "fashion" describes the popular clothing style. Many fashions are popular in many cultures at any given time. Important is the idea that the course of design and fashion will change more rapidly than the...
- Fop
Fop became a pejorative term for a foolish man over-concerned with his appearance and clothes in 17th century England. Some of the very many similar alternative terms are: "coxcomb," fribble, "popinjay" , fashion-monger, and "ninny." "Macaroni" was another term, of the 18th century, more...
- Homomasculinity
- Homosexuality
Homosexuality is the romantic or sexual attraction or behavior among members of the same sex, situationally or as an enduring disposition. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is considered to lie within the heterosexual-homosexual continuum of human sexuality, and refers to an individual’s...
- Macaroni
A macaroni A macaroni A macaroni (or formerly maccaroni (OED), in mid-18th-century England, was a fashionable fellow who dressed and even spoke in an outlandishly affected and epicene manner. The term pejoratively referred to a man who "exceeded the ordinary bounds of fashion" in terms of clothes,...
- Masculine psychology
Masculine psychology is a term sometimes used to describe and categorize issues concerning the gender related psychology of male human identity, as well as the issues that men confront during their lives...
- Metrosexuality
Metrosexuality is a British television drama, which aired on Channel 4 in 1999. The show, a short run series in six episodes, depicts the interactions of a racially and sexually diverse group of friends and family living in London...
- New Romantic
New Romanticism was a youth fashion movement that peaked in the United Kingdom during the early 1980s. Originally centered around part of the Synthpop music scene, it has seen several revivals since then, and continues to influence popular culture...
- Pomosexual
Pomosexual is a portmanteau of postmodernism abbreviated to pomo and sexual; it is a neologism used to describe a person who shuns sexual orientation labels , and in turn chooses not to label oneself with a sexual orientation...
External links