Seven Castles

Metrosexual

                                      

March 16, 2006

 

"Metrosexual" means an urban male with a strong aesthetic sense who spends a great deal of time and money on his appearance and lifestyle. The typical "metrosexual" is a young man with money to spend, living in or within easy reach of a metropolis (where all the best shops, clubs, gyms and hairdressers are) and he can pay careful attention to grooming. 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 sport, seem to attract them but like male vanity products and herpes, they are pretty much everywhere.

 

British journalist Mark Simpson was the first to use the terms "metrosexual" and "metrosexuality" in 1994. They are derived from a play on the word "heterosexual" with the prefix "metro-", from "metropolis" or "city". The term "metrosexual" was one of the buzzwords of 2003, making its way across both cyberspace and regular space. The word can be used both as a countable noun or an adjective, and refers to a man who, regardless of his sexual orientation, has a strong interest in fashion, beauty and his own personal appearance, the kind of values that are traditionally characterized as female attributes or associated with gay men.

 

David Beckham, role model to hundreds of millions of impressionable boys around the world and heartthrob for equal numbers of young girls, is deemed the ultimate "metrosexual" because he is the man whom many have credited with changing male behavior, and he loves being looked at and so many men and women love to look at him. He has helped break "masculine codes", defying various manly expectations such as what clothes a man is allowed to wear.

 

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