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Metrosexual

Posted by Henry on August 05, 2003

In Reply to: Metrosexual - Part 2 posted by ESC on August 05, 2003

: : METROSEXUAL - "You may not find it in Webster's just yet, but 'metrosexual' is becoming the new buzzword for the Sex and the City generation, a way to describe that niche of straight men in the big city who care - a lot - about personal grooming and fashion. They even show their feminine side in terms of their activities and sensibilities. Daniel Peres, the editor of Details magazine, easily ticks off the key attributes of a metrosexual. 'He is straight. An urban male,' Peres said. 'Strong, stylish, interested in fashion, design, architecture and personal style.'" From 'The New Masculinity? Manly Men, Move Over: Metrosexuals Are It," ABC News online at [Dead link removed - ed] Accessed August 5, 2003.

: "Mark Simpson invented this term in 1994 (Earliest citation: Mark Simpson, 'Here come the mirror men,' The Independent, November 15, 1994) but it has been picked up by numerous media outlets, including The Observer, The Herald, and Maclean's magazine. Here's Simpson's succinct description of the metrosexual type that appeared recently in the Salon.com online magazine: The typical metrosexual is a young man with money to spend, living in or within easy reach of a metropolis - because that's where all the best shops, clubs, gyms and hairdressers are. He might be officially gay, straight or bisexual, but this is utterly immaterial because he has clearly taken himself as his own love object and pleasure as his sexual preference. Particular professions, such as modeling, waiting tables, media, pop music and, nowadays, sport, seem to attract them but, truth be told, like male vanity products and herpes, they're pretty much everywhere." -Mark Simpson, "Meet the metrosexual," Salon.com, July 22, 2002. From The Word Spy, www.wordspy.com

There is an article on World Wide Words;
This word has been around since at least the mid-1990s, and was first used to describe urban (and urbane) young men who were self-indulgent, even narcissistic, and who were interested in fashion and beauty. It has been reinvented with a twist. The story is that 21st-century man has become neutered and insecure as a result of the rise of female power in the workplace. Straight men, happily married but confused by the new gender equality (and by a barrage of comment saying they're useless and obsolete), are turning to methods more traditionally associated with women, such as power dressing and beauty treatments, to assert themselves. Metrosexual man, the theory goes, wants to be thought of as caring, nurturing and open-minded, while rejecting many traditional male virtues. At least, this is what Marian Salzman, American guru of futurology, is suggesting, although her thesis is derided by other futurologists, who say that the way that some men feel at the moment is merely part of a realignment of gender roles that hasn't yet worked its way to a conclusion.

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