The Metrosexual: Fashion-conscious heterosexual or JGE (Just Gay Enough)?
Gary R. Drum, Ph.D. (drum@lambuth.edu)
Dept. of Communications & Theatre, Lambuth University, Jackson, TN
According to USA Today, the backlash against the movement has already begun. (Barker).
According to some word scholars, the word is already dead. The annual Lake Superior Sate University List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness, banned the word in December 2003, along with “bling-bling,” and “shock and awe.” (“’Metrosexual’ tops list of banned words”).
The movement is metrosexuality. The word is metrosexual.
According to James Whittall, president of MenEssentials, “men’s skin care specialists,” metrosexuality and the metrosexual are alive and well. What is not only dead, but was never really “alive” is “metrosexmania.” (Whittall).
According to Marian Salzman of Euro RSCG Worldwide, the world’s fifth largest advertising agency, the metrosexual market in 2003 was an $ 8 billion one, with $2.3 billion of that in the United States alone. (K, Sean, “Enter the new man”). According to Salzman’s research, thirty to thirty-five percent of young American males have “metrosexual tendencies.” (“Real men get waxed”).
Howard Dean was asked if he were a metrosexual. He said he was and then admitted he had no idea what the term meant. (Duprey, “Metrosexual revolution”).
So what is all the fuss about? Does “metrosexual” have any meaning? Did it ever? And where did the term come from in the first place.
The word was coined in 1994 by British writer Mark Simpson in reference to, among other things, the ubiquitous Mark Wahlberg Calvin Klein underwear ads. Simpson noted that while the ads certainly appealed to women, young men apparently noticed enough to begin finding discreet ways to expose their underwear waistband in certain social situations. Simpson saw this as the rise of a new male vanity, akin to the dandy-ish “Carnaby Street” trend of the late 1960s. (“Rise of the metrosexual”). Recall that young men’s “fashion” was in the throes of the “grunge” look at the time that Wahlberg first showed a smooth shaven body with powerful abs and revealing white briefs.
Interestingly, the word lay dormant until summer of 2002 when Simpson wrote an article for Salon.com entitled, “The Rise of the Metrosexual,” in which he described world famous soccer star David Beckham as the archetype. Beckham was not only an accomplished star athlete of undisputed masculinity on the field, but was also known for both immaculate grooming as well as a tendency toward non-traditional male clothing. He appeared in photo shoots in sarongs, sometimes wore nail color and his equally famous wife, Victoria (‘Posh Spice” of the Spice Girls), claimed he occasionally wore her thong underwear. Beckham gave interviews for gay male publications such as Attitude, and while professing heterosexual as a married man and father of two children, admitted that he enjoyed being admired by both female and gay male fans. (Simpson).
Euro RSCG’s Salzman added fuel to the fire with the publication of the research already mentioned and manufacturer’s of men’s clothing and personal care products took notice.
It could be argued that the metrosexuality reached American consciousness a year later with the summer 2003 debut of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy on the Bravo! cable network. The program had been in development for some time and delayed because of the sale of Bravo! to NBC. It was arguably the biggest hit of the summer, if not in audience (since this was a cable-only program), but in social impact, so much so that NBC began showing edited and then full-length episodes in prime time on its broadcast network. The “Fab Five” even did a makeover of Jay Leno and the Tonight Show set.
It is likely here that what Whittall calls, “metrosexmania” began.
First came the positive press, with Queer Eye on the cover of Entertainment Weekly. According to USA Today
Queer Eye’s phenomenal success in making slicksters out of shlubs, played off homosexual stereotypes of aesthetic savvy. Marketers cashed in, too, looking to convince men that they needed to cram their cabinets with as many expensive balms, masks and scrubs as women stockpile. (Barker, “Regular guys”).
And cram they did. According to Rich Duprey of Motley Fool, “department stores sold $86 million worth of male grooming products in the first nine months of 2003.” Clairol and L’Oreal added men’s hair coloring products with names such as Natural Instincts for Men and Feria for Men. Even CVS, the number two U.S. drug store chain, contracted with a British firm, King of Shaves, for expanded shelf space for “discretionary facial enhancement products,” otherwise known as makeup. (“Metrosexual revolution”).
So What is a Metrosexual?
The word is most neutrally defined as a heterosexual male who is not only grooming-conscious, but whose grooming habits include such things traditionally associated with women, such as exfoliating, moisturizing, expensive hair styling and even spa treatments.
Others are not so neutral nor so kind.
Writing in The Guardian, Angelique Chrisafis sees the metrosexual as “neutered modern man” being offered “back his pride in exchange for his wallet.”
He has been marginalized by the women’s movement, portrayed as a useless plonker in television sitcoms and told by scientists that his Y-chromosome is in decline. Now the modern British male is about to be fleeced as advertisers capitalize on his low self-esteem and target him with products to “re-empower” him. (Chrisafis, “Neutered modern man”).
John Henson, formerly host of E! Television’s Talk Soup, and now host of The John Henson Project on Spike! TV, advertised as “the first cable channel for men,” is also hostile. “The celebration of the feminine side of the guy has sort of careened out of control into this three-headed monster, the metrosexual, that needs to be slain.” (Barker, “Regular guys”).
Sean K, writing in the South China Morning Post, claims, “Metrosexuals are male by definition; there is no such phenomenon among women, who have always prided themselves on their appearance and cultural awareness. Women simply are; while only some men are metrosexuals. (“Enter the new man”).
Mark Simpson disagrees, asserting that “Female ‘Sex and the City’ metrosexuality has seen to that (men’s emasculation). Female metrosexuality is active where male metrosexuality is passive.” (“Meet the metrosexual”).
K also questions whether metrosexuals should be referred to as “heterosexual” or as “not gay.” K calls this the “unspoken” part of the definition. It doesn’t question the sexual orientation of the metrosexual, but defines him by what he isn’t as well as what he is.
Gay men have always pride themselves on their appearance and surroundings. Now, heterosexual men are not so much heterosexual as they are non-gay. No longer defined by what they are, they have become defined by what they are not. Hence, metrosexuality. (“Enter the new man”).
Writing in Newsweek International, Malcolm Beith “hears the cry” of the all-American heterosexual male, “who’s at a bit of a loss these days. Apparently it’s not enough anymore to drink Bud, weigh 250 pounds, grow body hair, make sexist jokes and cook exclusively on a grill, if he cooks at all.” For Beith, the metrosexual is appealing to women because he is JGE – Just Gay Enough.
Let’s face facts. New York women are starting to nix the Neanderthals for the metromen. These days, it seems, macho is out and JGE is in. Just so you know, that’s short for Just Gay Enough. Personally I predict it will all backfire pretty soon. As I see it, there is a fine line between JGE and JG – Just Gay. Yes, it’s nice to groom well. Yes, clothes are cool. But what kind of a woman is going to pick a long-term partner who spends more time and money looking good than she does? (“Just Gay Enough”)
Beith, avowedly heterosexual, sees the metrosexual as embracing the very things feminists have sought to escape. “Working out isn’t enough; he’s into bulimia and anorexia. And nose jobs? Last year more than one million American men underwent cosmetic surgery.”
But is Beith talking about metrosexuality or what Whittall calls “metrosexmania?”
Is the metrosexual non-gay or “just gay enough?”
Non-Gay or Just Gay Enough?
Some self-identified metrosexuals have even spoken of “coming out,” a term normally applied to identifying one’s self as gay. Writing in the Ball State (Indiana) University Daily News, Kevin Cobb writes that
Similar to coming out as openly gay, those guys who choose to come out as metrosexual often go through the same stages of the coming-out process. . . . Self-recognition is the first step. Perhaps you’ve been on the BSU campus and spotted a possible other metrosexual and said quietly to yourself, “Damn, that must be good exfoliant. I need some.” At night, you secretly spend time plucking your eyebrows and fixing your cuticles. (“Metrosexuals”).
Cobb suggests that the process can lead to picking up metrosexual-loving females or, on the other hand, several single gay friends.
Paisley Dodds, writing for CBSNews.com, suggests another angle, one discovered in the assumedly macho culture of Latin America. “In Brazil, some men are going for enzyme treatments to fade stretch marks. In Mexico, where faded pictures of leathery skinned male movie stars line cantina wall, executives are dashing to salons for makeup jobs.” (“Metrosexual machismo”). Although Euro RSCG Salzman estimates the metrosexual market in Latin America as about $3 million compared to $2.3 billion for the United States, the market seems poised for growth. Male liposuction surgery has grown ten to twenty-five percent over the past five years in Argentina, according to Dodds. Harvey Soto of San Juan, Puerto Rico, gets regular waxings and massages at Zen Spa, which is doing daily business with male customers as opposed to just one day a week a few years ago.
Whither Metrosexuality?
James Whittall believes the metrosexual is not going away anytime soon, despite the backlash against what he calls metrosexmania.
Amid the hype, it’s easy to lose sight of the influences that drive this movement forward. I have read metrosexist articles a-plenty that blame the supposed feminization of men on everything from wider acceptance of the gay lifestyle to not enough Arnold Schwarzenegger movies. Yawn.
In my experience, the whole metrosexual craze appears to be simple economics.
“Three years ago, you go the job if you could fog up a mirror, says Stephane, a 32-year-old systems analyst in Ottawa’s Silicon Valley North. “Today, the market’s so hypercompetitive that good grooming and nice clothes are your edge.” (“Metrosexmania”)
Whittall cites a UC Berkeley college student who asserts that university students, the second largest market for high-end men’s products, are motivated by career goals and, “because we like what all guys do – hooking up with lots of girls.”
Whittall concludes,
I doubt anyone will know for sure why today’s male chooses moisturizer over, say, sand-blasting equipment. In an era when so much around us is going wrong so completely, perhaps it’s the small affordable luxuries that keep us sane. If these include a $50 haircut, custom tailored clothing, or peppermint shampoo with wheat protein and sage extract, what of it.
Such things don’t define who I am. But they do tell me what I can afford. And if the traditional male role is to provide, then I choose to provide as well for myself as I do for my family. (“Metrosexmania”).
Andrew Essex, deputy editor of Details, doesn’t see metrosexuality fading anytime soon. He asserts in an interview with cable network, CNNfn, that straight men noticed beautiful women surrounded by gay men not because those men were “safe,” but because “they smelled nice.” (Hays, et al., “Oh that is like, so metrosexual”).
Yet metrosexuality is surely more than about fragrance, as surely the straight female-gay male relationship is about much more than that.
Whittall appears to be on to something here. He ponders the possibility that “Money and sex make the metrosexual. How strange and unmanly.” Yet his final assertion that metrosexuality is primarily an expression of one caring for one’s self, even if not defining one’s self exclusively by grooming and fashion, rings truer that most theories suggested.
And perhaps it is a reflection of the uncertain times when “so much is going wrong so completely” that we are drawn to that which we can control.
This paper had its origins in concerns that metrosexuality might be a passing fad or perhaps just another way for some men to avoid admitted either homosexuality or bisexuality.
While the media obsession – or metrosexmania, to use Whittall’s term – is likely shallow and very transitory, and while metrosexuality may be eventually supplanted by a less “trendy” name, the concept behind it appears far deeper than it did when research began for this paper.
A growing $8 billion market would hardly seem to be an indicator of a passing fad.
After all, according to Advertising Age, even the Brawny paper towel man is now described by Georgia-Pacific as a metrosexual. (Atkinson).
Works Cited
Atkinson, Claire. “Brawny man now a metrosexual.” Advertising Age 16 February 2004, p. 1
Barker, Olivia. “Regular guys cast
a jaded eye at ‘metrosexual’ trend.” USA
Today
http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2004-01-21-metrosexual-backlash_x.htm
Beith, Malcolm. “Just gay enough.” Newsweek International 27 October 2003, p. 10.
Chrisafis, Angelique. “Neutered modern man to be offered back his missing pride in
exchange for his wallet.” The Guardian 16 June 2003.
Cury, James Oliver. “The cure: How not to be a metrosexual.” Esquire
December 2003, p. 46.
Cobb, Kevin. “Metrosexuals have
coming-out period.” Daily News (Ball State
University, Muncie, IN) 16 January 2004
Dodds, Paisley. “Metrosexual machismo all the rage.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/11/25/world/printable585549.htm
Duprey, Rich. “Metrosexual revolution.” The Motley Fool 25 March 2004.
Hays, Kathleen, et al. “Oh that is like, so metrosexual.” CNNfn.com 6 June 2003.
K, Sean. “Enter the new man. The metrosexual has aesthetic sense, cares about his
looks, and works on his lifestyle. And, guess what? He’s not gay.”
Asia Africa Intelligence Wire (South China Morning Post) 15 March 2004.
“Real men get waxed; Metrosexuality. (We’re all metrosexuals now.)
The Economist (US) 5 July 2003, p. 57.
“Rise of the metrosexual.” The Age 11 March 2003.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/03/10/104714491842.html
Simpson, Mark. “Meet the metrosexual. He’s well dressed, narcissistic and bun-obsessed.
But don’t call him gay.” Salon 22 July 2002. http://www.salon.com.
Whittall, James. “Metrosexmania or, how to tell the mister from the myth.”
MenEssentials.com September 2003.
http://www.menessentials.com/tips/metrosexual.html