Yesterday in Styles: ‘Metrosexuals’ Were Just Straight Men Who Loved Self-Care. Right?

Original headline: “Metrosexuals Come Out,” from June 2003.

Loyal Order of Mousse: Picture this: a young, professional male who loves tailored shirts, $40 face cream, wine bars and shopping with friends — and he’s not gay! I know, stop the presses. But 15 years ago, metrosexuals were news, and a gold mine for marketers.

Although the term felt overused as soon as you heard it, metrosexual was an unavoidable feature of the early-aughts cultural landscape. Looking back 15 years later, it’s hard to know what to make of it. Was the idea of straight men adopting a purportedly “gay” aesthetic at some fundamental level homophobic (“I may look gay, but please don’t think I am!”)? Or was it a step toward breaking down old, rigid definitions of masculinity?

Ecce Pomo: So what were “metrosexuals” anyway? For those who were cryogenically frozen before “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” first debuted that year, metrosexuals were a supposed new breed of aesthetically-attuned straight men promoted by trend forecasters like Marian Salzman and epitomized by the soccer star David Beckham, who “paints his fingernails, braids his hair and poses for gay magazines, all while maintaining a manly profile on the pitch,” as Warren St. John wrote in this much-discussed Styles feature. “Along with terms like ‘PoMosexual,’ ‘just gay enough’ and ‘flaming heterosexuals,’” he added, “the word metrosexual is now gaining currency among American marketers who are fumbling for a term to describe this new type of feminized man.”

The Buy-Sexuals: Among those quoted was Marc d’Avignon, a 28-year-old East Village graduate student with an impressive collection of Diesel jeans and Kiehl’s lotions. “If someone’s going to judge me on what kind of moisturizer I have on my shelf, whatever,” he said. “It doesn’t bother me at all. Call it homosexual, feminine, hip, not hip — I don’t care. I like drawing from all sorts of sources to create my own persona.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/15/style/metrosexuals.html?partner=rss&emc=rss