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Metrosexual (a portmanteau of metropolitan and heterosexual) is a term for a man who is especially meticulous about his personal style, grooming and appearance. It is often used to refer to heterosexual men who are perceived to be effeminate rather than strictly adhering to stereotypical masculinity standards. Nevertheless, the term is generally ambiguous on the assigned sex and sexual orientation of a man; it can apply to cisgender or transgender men, and it can apply to heterosexual, gay or bisexual men.

Origin

The term metrosexual originated in an article by Mark Simpson published on November 15, 1994, in The Independent. Although various sources attributed the term to Marian Salzman, she credited Simpson as the original source for her usage of the word.

Metrosexual man, the single young man with a high disposable income, living or working in the city (because that's where all the best shops are), is perhaps the most promising consumer market of the decade. In the Eighties he was only to be found inside fashion magazines such as GQ. In the Nineties, he's everywhere and he's going shopping.

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.

The advertising agency Euro RSCG Worldwide adopted the term shortly thereafter for a marketing study. In 2003, The New York Times ran a story, "Metrosexuals Come Out". The term and its connotations continued to roll steadily into more news outlets around the world. Though it did represent a complex and gradual change in the shopping and self-presentation habits of both men and women, the idea of metrosexuality was often distilled in the media down to a few men and a short checklist of vanities, like skin care products, scented candles and costly, colorful dress shirts and pricey designer jeans. It was this image of the metrosexual—that of a straight young man who got pedicures and facials, practiced aromatherapy and spent freely on clothes—that contributed to a backlash against the term from men who merely wanted to feel free to take more care with their appearance than had been the norm in the 1990s, when companies abandoned dress codes, Dockers khakis became a popular brand, and XL, or extra-large, became the one size that fit all. A 60 Minutes story on 1960s–70s pro footballer Joe Namath suggested he was "perhaps, America's first metrosexual" after filming his most famous ad sporting Beautymist pantyhose.

The term metrosexual has also been used in a pejorative fashion to refer to an effeminate or gay man.

Historic parallels

Fashion designer Tom Ford drew parallels when he described David Beckham as a "total modern dandy", referencing the Aesthetic Movement of the 19th century, likening metrosexuality to a modern incarnation of a dandy. Ford suggested that "macho" sporting role models who also care about fashion and appearance influence masculine norms in wider society.

John Mercer and Feona Attwood draw parallels to earlier shifts in the gestalt of masculinity and the corresponding reaction of US media, and the media's role in defining contemporary gender archetypes. They highlight the term "crisis of masculinity" coined by political commentator Arthur Schlessinger Jr. who claimed that masculinity was imperiled by women becoming more independent. Mercer and Attwood argue that Simpson, in his articles coining metrosexuality, is a reference to a longer media tradition of writing about masculinity in fluctuation.

Thomas Erik Chris links the term metrosexual to contemporary (as of 2024) masculine archetypal language, likening "metrosexual" to "looksmaxxing alpha male" and "muscle gay", noting the historic parallels in media identity, marketing, and consumerism.

Related terms

Over the course of the following years, other terms countering or substituting for "metrosexual" appeared.

• Retrosexual: It meant anti- or pre-metrosexual sense. Later on, the term was used by some to describe men who subscribed to what they affected to be the grooming and dress standards of a previous era, such as the handsome, impeccably turned-out fictional character of Donald Draper in the television series Mad Men, itself set in the early 1960s New York advertising world.
• Ubersexual: A term coined by marketing executives and authors of The Future of Men.
• Spornosexual: A term blending sports, porn, and sexual. In 2016, Simpson argued that footballer Cristiano Ronaldo represents "a fusion of sport and porn Cultivating an athletic body as an object of desire, and showing it off on social networks, accumulating sexual partners. It’s a tendency with young men."
• Technosexual: A term that circulated in media, fashion, and online outlets of the 2000s to describe a male that possesses a strong aesthetic sense and a love of technology. Swedish footballer Freddie Ljungberg is often cited as the perfect example of a technosexual man, due to an image of masculine sensuality and tech savviness.
• Lumbersexual: In 2016–2017, the "lumbersexual" term circulated in media, fashion, and online outlets, describing a type of male aesthetics that use outdoor gear for urban aesthetics rather than function.
• Female metrosexual. Although the term refers mostly to men, a discussion exists on whether women can be metrosexuals. Characters from the HBO series Sex and the City have been described as wo-metrosexuality to illustrate how the metrosexual lifestyle de-emphasizes traditional male and female gender roles.

Changing masculinity

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

Various studies, including market research by Euro RSCG, have suggested 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 supported by research is that men "no longer find sexual freedom universally enthralling". Lillian Alzheimer noted less avoidance of femininity and the "emergence of a segment of men who have embraced customs and attitudes once deemed the province of women".

Men's fashion magazines—such as Details, Men's Vogue, and the defunct Cargo—targeted what one Details editor called "men who moisturize and read a lot of magazines".

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 said 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."

But such probing analyses into various shoppers' psyches may have ignored other significant factors affecting men's shopping habits, foremost among them women's shopping habits. As the retail analyst Marshal Cohen explained in a 2005 article in the New York Times entitled, "Gay or Straight? Hard to Tell", the fact that women buy less of men's clothing than they used to has, more than any other factor, propelled men into stores to shop for themselves. "In 1985 only 25 percent of all men's apparel was bought by men, he said; 75 percent was bought by women for men. By 1998 men were buying 52 percent of apparel; in 2004 that number grew to 69 percent and shows no sign of slowing." One result of this shift was the revelation that men cared more about how they look than the women shopping for them had.

However, despite changes in masculinity, research has suggested men still feel social pressure to endorse traditional masculine male models in advertising. Martin and Gnoth (2009) found that feminine men preferred feminine models in private, but stated a preference for the traditional masculine models when their collective self was salient. In other words, feminine men endorsed traditional masculine models when they were concerned about being classified by other men as feminine. The authors suggested this result reflected the social pressure on men to endorse traditional masculine norms.

In marketing

Whereas the metrosexual was a cultural observation, the term is used in marketing and popular media. In this context, the metrosexual is a heterosexual, urban man who is in touch with his feminine side—he color-coordinates, cares deeply about exfoliation, and has perhaps manscaped.

Trend journalism

Devon Powers, a professor of critical media studies at University of Michigan, uses the early 2000s US media coverage of metrosexuality as a case study in defining the concept of trend journalism. In her analysis, she argues that the early-2000s US media interest in metrosexuality was driven by marketers who have co-opted the term from 1990s queer culture as part of an ongoing effort to get men to shop more, claiming that by this point, the concept of metrosexuality had evolved from a subversion of traditional masculinity into a drive for masculine consumerism. Moreover, Powers uses this case study as part of her thesis, that while trend journalism attempts to explain emergent cultural phenomena, that it may also play a role in trendsetting.

John Mercer and Feona Attwood echo this, arguing that changes in the polysemic definition of masculinity are not only reported and categorized in media "in the business of ‘producing’ masculinity", but that this model of masculinity is generated is one constructed by media .

See also

• Bishōnen
• Chad (slang)
• Dandy
• Fop
• Himbo
• Ikemen
• Pink capitalism
• Homomasculinity
• Lumbersexual
• Kkonminam – Similar equivalent in South Korea
• Macaroni (fashion)
• Metrosexuality (TV series)
• New Romantic
• "South Park Is Gay!" (TV episode)

References

1. Collins, William. "Metrosexual". Collins Unabridged English Dictionary. Harper Collins. Retrieved 6 April 2011.
2. Hall, Mathew (2015). Metrosexual Masculinities. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1137404732.
3. ^ Simpson, Mark (22 July 2002). "Meet the metrosexual". Salon. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
4. ^ Rinallo, Diego (2007). "Metro/Fashion/Tribes of men: Negotiating the boundaries of men's legitimate consumption". Consumer Tribes: Theory, Practice, and Prospects. Butterworth-Heinemann. pp. 76–92. ISBN 9780750680240.
5. ^ Diaz Ruiz, Carlos A.; Kjellberg, Hans (2020). "Feral segmentation: How cultural intermediaries perform market segmentation in the wild". Marketing Theory. 20 (4): 429–457. doi:10.1177/1470593120920330. ISSN 1470-5931. S2CID 219027435.
6. ^ St John, Warren (22 June 2003). "Metrosexuals come out". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
7. Simpson, Mark (7 May 2008). "Here come the mirror men: why the future is metrosexual". marksimpson.com. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
8. Salzman, Marian (26 February 2014). "The Man Brand". Forbes. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
9. Simpson, Mark. "Metrosexual? That rings a bell..." marksimpson.com. Archived from the original on 24 January 2007. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
10. Hoggard, Liz (29 June 2003). "She's the bees knees". The Observer. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
11. ^ Colman, David (19 June 2005). "Gay or Straight? Hard to Tell". The New York Times.
12. Hancock, David (16 November 2006). "Broadway Joe: Football great talks about his drinking problem with Bob Simon". CBS News 60 Minutes. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
13. Mercer, John; Attwood, Feona (2017). "The Metrosexual". In Smith, Clarissa; McNair, Brian (eds.). The Routledge Companion to Media, Sex and Sexuality. Routledge. pp. 343–351. ISBN 9781138777217. While media representations often present the metrosexual as a 'stylish heterosexual man', the term can also be seen in use in popular discourse, often pejoratively, to denote homosexuality or effeminacy (Hall, 2014a: 329), making a connection between an overinvestment in grooming and appearance and compromised masculinity, or at least illustrating a rather ambivalent attitude to modern masculinities. This is often evidenced in media reportage on the growth of the male grooming consumer sector, a development that is more often than not directly linked to the emergence of the metrosexual.
14. Coad, David (2008). The Metrosexual: Gender, Sexuality and Sport. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, Albany. pp. 186–7. ISBN 9780791474099. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
15. Mercer, John; Attwood, Feona (2017). "The Metrosexual". In Smith, Clarissa; McNair, Brian (eds.). The Routledge Companion to Media, Sex and Sexuality. Routledge. pp. 343–351. ISBN 9781138777217. While it is often regarded as commonsensical to identify the central role of the media in the cultural construction of femininity in its many guises, it is equally important to note that the media have played an equally vital role in identifying and extoling masculine archetypes, values and their variants, or by calling the same values into question. Indeed, the 'crisis of masculinity' – a term that has been used routinely to describe everything from representations of male angst in 1950s Hollywood cinema to the plight of working-class youth in contemporary urban settings – was first coined by the political commentator Arthur Schlessinger Jr in an article of the same name in Esquire magazine in 1958. It is in this process of identifying what it means to be a man and consequently giving a name to new iterations of masculinity that the media can be seen as being in the business of 'producing' masculinity, and this is an activity that has gathered pace in recent years. Indeed, this debate, in its contemporary sense, is at least as old as 1958, when Schlessinger argued that the crisis of 1950s masculinity was in fact to be attributed to the growing emancipation of women, and has been a fairly constant way in which reportage has tended to account for the evolution or shift in masculinities – and especially masculine representations – ever since. So when Mark Simpson (2002) writes, with a witty and altogether knowingly polemical turn, that the metrosexual represents the 'emasculation' of straight men, his argument, designed to provoke, is referencing a popular journalistic tradition of writing about masculinity as a site not of fixity and stability but instead of flux and uncertainty, which, at the time he wrote those words, was already half a century old
16. Thomas, Chris (2024-08-30). "Remembering Metrosexuality, the Trend That Taught Straight Men It's OK to Be a Little Gay". Them. Retrieved 2024-10-04. These habits and inclinations toward presenting health and wealth have hardened with the passing of time, like a particularly sculpted torso. To put this in more Shakespearean terms: Metrosexuality by any other name (say, a looksmaxxing alpha male, or muscle gay) smells just as strongly of whatever scent we're being marketed that day.
17. ^ Webb, Tom. "Inventor of the Term 'Metrosexual' Says Cristiano Ronaldo Is 'Spornosexual'". Bleacher Report. Retrieved 2022-04-27.
18. McFedries, Paul. "retrosexual". wordspy.com. Wordspy. Archived from the original on 20 February 2012. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
19. Lipke, David; Thomas, Brenner (21 June 2010). "Men's Trend: The Retrosexual Revolution". Women's Wear Daily. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
20. Simpson, Mark (2005). "Metrodaddy v. Ubermummy". 3am Magazine. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
21. Clarke, Sean; Clarke, Seán (2005-01-27). "Are you a technosexual?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
22. "Word Spy contributors" (2004) Technosexual Archived 2014-07-17 at the Wayback Machine wordspy.com
23. "Tecnosexual". Patologías urbanas. 2005-01-27. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
24. "¿Adiós a los metrosexuales?". El Universal (in Spanish). Retrieved 2023-07-27.
25. Dal Col, Angelo Alecsandro (2010-05-05). "Metrossexualidade e retórica: o homem como produto". Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo.
26. REDACCION (2005-10-16). "Una historia de hombres tecnosexuales". Panamá América (in Spanish). Retrieved 2023-07-27.
27. Percília, Eliene. "Tecnossexual". Brasil Escola (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2023-07-27.
28. Huffington Post Mark Simpson and Caroline Hagood on Wo-Metrosexuality and the City April 13, 2010
29. Levant, Ronald F.; Kopecky, Gini (1995). Masculinity Reconstructed: Changing the Rules of Manhood—At Work, in Relationships, and in Family Life. New York: Dutton. ISBN 978-0452275416.
30. Alzheimer, Lillian (22 June 2003). "Metrosexuals: The Future of Men?". Euro RSCG. Archived from the original on 3 August 2003. Retrieved 15 December 2003.
31. Fine, Jon (28 February 2005). "Counter couture: men's fashion titles on rise even as ad pages fall". Ad Age. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
32. Simpson, Mark (22 June 2003). "Metrosexual? That rings a bell..." Independent on Sunday; later MarkSimpson.com. Archived from the original on 24 January 2007. Retrieved 2003-10-13.
33. Martin, Brett A. S.; Juergen Gnoth (30 January 2009). "Is the Marlboro Man the Only Alternative? The Role of Gender Identity and Self-Construal Salience in Evaluations of Male Models" (PDF). Marketing Letters. No. 20. pp. 353–367.
34. "So, men are obsessed with their bodies. Is that so bad? | Mark Simpson". The Guardian. 2012-01-31. Archived from the original on 2023-04-18.
35. Simpson, Mark (22 June 2002). "Meet the metrosexual". Salon.com; later MarkSimpson.com. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 21 September 2006.
36. Powers, Devon (2022-09-10). "Trend Journalism: Definition, History, and Critique". Jornalism Studies. 23 (12): 1435–1449. doi:10.1080/1461670X.2022.2094821. Retrieved 2024-10-04. I elucidate my arguments with one historical case of trend journalism—the coverage of metrosexuality in the New York Times in June 2003.
37. {{cite journal|last1=Powers|first1=Devon|date=2022-09-10|title=Trend Journalism: Definition, History, and Critique|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1461670X.2022.2094821%7Cjournal=Jornalism Studies|volume=23|issue=12|pages=1435-1449|doi=10.1080/1461670X.2022.2094821|access-date=2024-10-04|url-access=subscription|quote=The occasion for Warren St. John’s piece was that marketers had come to embrace the term “metrosexual,” which had been floating around queer culture since the 1990s. Originally, the word was used derisively to describe what happened when marketers attempted to get men to shop more: they used “sensitive” (read: gay or gay-seeming) men in their pitches, since they assumed “real” (read: straight) men didn’t invest in their appearance (St. John 2003). St. John declares that “America may be on the verge of a metrosexual moment.” To prove this, St. John relies heavily on marketers, who serve as experts on the existence and viability of the metrosexual demographic.
38. Powers, Devon (2022-09-10). "Trend Journalism: Definition, History, and Critique". Jornalism Studies. 23 (12): 1435–1449. doi:10.1080/1461670X.2022.2094821. Retrieved 2024-10-04. Yet by the early 2000s, metrosexuality had been defanged of its critique, less a commentary on capitalism and gender than a full-on embrace of masculine consumerism. Metrosexuality also began to refer to men who embraced what until that point had been known as stereotypically feminine activities, including hair and skin care regimens, fashion, and wearing bright colors (St. John 2003; Paskin 2020). St. John's article is a commentary on these shifts but, as noted above, it also played a decisive role in normalizing and promoting them.
39. Powers, Devon (2022-09-10). "Trend Journalism: Definition, History, and Critique". Jornalism Studies. 23 (12): 1435–1449. doi:10.1080/1461670X.2022.2094821. Retrieved 2024-10-04.
40. Mercer, John; Attwood, Feona (2017). "The Metrosexual". In Smith, Clarissa; McNair, Brian (eds.). The Routledge Companion to Media, Sex and Sexuality. Routledge. pp. 343–351. ISBN 9781138777217. In this chapter we focus in particular on one of these media-generated models of masculinity: the figure of the metrosexual, and his place in a succession of figures of masculinity and male sexuality. The 'metrosexual' – a term coined by journalist and cultural commentator Mark Simpson (1994, 2002, 2005) – can be seen as a contemporary development related to the earlier figure of the 'sensitive, nurturing, caring' 'new man', alongside fashion and grooming-related representations of men which use a 'vocabulary of "style"' to present the male body as an object of desire and looking (Nixon, 1996: 164). The metrosexual, therefore, is not without precedent. Indeed, the construction of media and commercial spaces for 'the display of masculine sensuality' (Nixon, 1996: 202) and the sexualisation of men's bodies have been the subjects of a degree of academic attention since the 1990s (MacKinnon, 1997; Bordo, 1999).

Further reading

• Simpson, Mark (2011).'Metrosexy: A 21st Century Self-Love Story'
• O'Reilly, Ann; Matathia, Ira; Salzman, Marian (2005). The Future of Men, Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 1-4039-6882-9.
• Rodney E. Lippard (2006). "The Metrosexual and Youth Culture". In Greenwood Publishing Group (ed.). Contemporary Youth Culture: An International Encyclopedia (illustrated ed.). Greenwood Publishing. pp. 288–291. ISBN 0-313-33729-2.

External links

• 'Metrodaddy Speaks!' Mark Simpson answers questions from the global media in 2004
• 2005 reassessment by Simpson
• "The Metrosexual Defined; Narcissism and Masculinity in Popular Culture" Article exploring the commercial and sociological sides of the metrosexual
• The Metrosexual: Gender, Sexuality, and Sport by David Coad. Albany, New York: SUNY Press, 2008 Archived 2009-02-08 at the Wayback Machine
• Media Sport Stars: Masculinities and Moralities, Gary Whannel, Jstor, 2002

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