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Metrosexual (a portmanteau of and heterosexual) is a term for a man who is especially meticulous about his personal style, grooming and appearance. (2025). 9781405165518 ISBN 9781405165518 It is often used to refer to heterosexual men who are perceived to be Effeminacy rather than strictly adhering to stereotypical masculinity standards. Nevertheless, the term is generally ambiguous on the gender and sexual orientation of a man; it can also apply to transgender men, and it can apply to Heterosexuality, gay or bisexual men.
The advertising agency Euro RSCG 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.
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 " alpha male" and "muscle gay", noting the historic parallels in media identity, marketing, and consumerism.
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 culture, dreadfully uncertain of their identity (hence the emphasis on pride and the susceptibility to the latest label) and socially , 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.
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 .
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