A New Breed of Men is Redefining Masculinity

Seattle Post-Intelligencer ^ | 9 September 2003 | Kristin Dizon

[Publius]

I can imagine one of these guys walking into a blue collar Boeing-style bar. The thought isn't pretty.

But here is what bothers me.

• Thirty years ago I was a young adult who had season tickets to the Seattle Opera. I still go on occasion when I can line up female company.
• I go every summer to the Seattle Chamber Music Festival. (Classical music fanatics need their fixes like every other addict.)
• I'm a pretty decent cook. (The way to a woman's heart is through her stomach.)

But I resent being clumped together with these girlymen.

[jpl]

Though most still consider Europeans light years ahead at fashion and grooming.

The Europeans are light-years ahead of us in grooming? ROFL, in an alternate universe maybe. Last time I checked, grooming included brushing one's teeth and showering on a daily basis to do away with that offensive B.O.

[DoughtyOne]

Now, if I just had a pint of horse sweat to wash this down with. Nothing else would be quite as fitting.

[LiteKeeper]

INTREP

[Flashman_at_the_charge]

Reminds me of hook line in a song.

"A woman is a woman when a man's a man"

[TheBigB]

They're over-broadening the definition. Look at this sentence:

They also found that new shaving, skin care, hair care and deodorant products aimed at men have doubled in each of the past two years and are on pace to do the same in 2003.

Meaning you're a metrosexual if you...shave and wear deodorant? Please. My razor is a Gillette. I use lotion sometimes on my face because my skin is naturally dry and if I didn't use it, I'd look like an alligator. Big f'n deal. If you LIKE opera or manicures or suits that cost three thousand bucks, by all means enjoy them.

[TontoKowalski]

For the would-be metrosexual, Flocker first recommends high-quality underwear and socks, a good haircut, and getting rid of excess ear or nostril hair.

Well, my barber always asks me if I want to get rid of the monkey ears. That's his term for all that hair that has mysteriously started growing on my ears the past few years. He doesn't do noses, though, but it's still a pretty good service for $8.

[dirtboy]

Take Jon Ima, 31, of Seattle. He'd never heard the term and he's unlikely to use it, but he fits the trend. Ima, a real estate developer, enjoys monthly trips to Ummelina International Day Spa downtown for a manicure, massage, facial or brow waxing.

Wuss. Go for the bikini wax and get back to us.

[caisson71]

It doesn't say where these "metros" buy their panties.

[Huck]

Overdue for my $10 haircut. Let's see. I take 10 minutes to get ready in the morning. I shower at least once a week whether I need it or not. I like bass fishing, bass fishing, and bass fishing. I can make pizza and grill meat. What do the Madison Ave. homos think of that?

[TontoKowalski]

"Oh honey, it's jammed the gaydar," said David Johnson, a hair stylist at Obadiah, who is gay.

Thank goodness they made that clear, or I wouldn't have figured it out.

[Tax-chick]

I think it's just marketing, trying to force men into molds that most don't fit. Just about every "regular guy" has some interests or tastes that these people are defining as "gay-like." My husband likes to cook, too, and we go to the opera, ballet, classical music concerts, etc., when we've got money and a babysitter. And he's not any less "masculine" than if he didn't have those interests - these 7 kids came from somewhere!

As a woman, the thing I find most unattractive about the metrosexual "style" is men spending all that time and money on clothes and personal grooming. I'd much rather have a man who put that effort into something other than himself - like Cub Scouts. Being married to a narcissist would be a drag.

[Billthedrill]

Ah, these guys are so yesterday. I consider myself the metrosexual ideal - I always have this year's cammo from Cabela's, coordinate my accessories (tan hiking boots with the leather range bag, black with the ballistic nylon), and I never keep a fishing pole in the rifle rack when an axe handle is more apropos. Soldier of Fortune and Guns and Ammo vie for a place on my coffee table. And what's this about massage parlors? Like it's a new thing? Jeezelouise...

[=Intervention=]

Hear, hear. It's about time Madison Ave rediscovered that men have brains and taste, too. Of course, this stuff isn't all that new. In the '20's and '30's, the appeal was to "gentlemen" who wouldn't be caught dead without their dapper clothes. And the country club set has been buying Armanis for years. It's a change in marketing to make bucks. They've gone as far as they can with the "men are brutes with small brains" and the "everyone loves sports" mantras. If anything, this represents a turn away from the "men are pigs" feminist philosophy and a return to the idea of the civilized male. That's something I great with great acclaim.

[retrokitten]

"I think that's at least 50 percent of the motivation for men," says Michael Flocker, author of the upcoming "The Metrosexual Guide to Style: A Handbook for the Modern Man."

"Are you a pothead, Flocker??"

Why are the only choices women are given in this article metrosexual or mullet-man with BO? Isn't there a happy middle??

[Pest]

I used to go to a barber until he retired. Now I go to a local salon. I'll pay the extra 5 bucks to have a nice lookin' lady press her boobs against my shoulder!

[ido_now]

May John Wayne rest in peace.

I was thinking of writing a book about this, the working title is "It all started with Alan Alda."

[TontoKowalski]

I'd much rather have a man who put that effort into something other than himself - like Cub Scouts.

Hey, I'm a Den Leader! Let's hook up if we both ever get divorced.

[kidd]

Meterosexual = wuss.

Reading this just makes me itch.
And since I'm not a wuss, I scratched.

[Tax-chick]

Good for you, Tonto! (I mean it, everyone should be helping the Scouts!) If I'm widowed, the Horde and I will look you up.