Talk:metrosexual

other connotations/denotations to 'metrosexuality'

i want to voice another denotation of 'metrosexuality', which i prefer: "the sexual habits prevalent or notorious amongst the metropolitans of some metropolis; the quality of praciticing bold & deviant sexual trends & movements, such as polygamyous relationships, sadomasochism, drinking blood, orgies, etc,, which are current in some metro-areas."
to my dismay, Mark Simpson or someone using his definition of metrosexual might try to jump to the conclusion that i'm also a metrosexual, based on the fact that i take a walk on the wildside by wearing cosmic blue eyeshadow to a public setting which views men wearing makeup as unconventional, if not spiteful. but i would protest this, given Mark Simpson's characterization of metrosexual on wikipedia, because i don't fit his characterization. Basically, i honestly do think i fuzzily understand the kind of people described by Simpson as 'metrosexual', the passion-for-fashion boys of the city, usually self-professedly into the arts, especially acting & modeling. But i want to argue that there is another kind of person, The freak, who isn't so shallow nor hollow as Simpson cognotes to 'metrosexual', but some male freaks like myself still exhibit stereotypically feminine behavior (like wearing eyeshadow). i think i speak for all (or at least some (or at least one)) of us metrosexual feminine male freaks when i say that i think bold & exploratative & experimental sexuality is more characteristic of metrosexuality than being male, feminine, ambisexual, narcisissistic, & hedonistic. some are female, masculine, heterosexual/homosexual, altruistic, & stoic.
That is why i object to such a specfic denotation of metrosexual as Simpson's (no offense Mr. Simpson), personally.
Also, ambisexual is a related cognate of metrosexual. maybe you could look at it as a genderalization of metrosexual, with some defocusing of Simpson's original connotations to metrosexual.
in short: The end of the wikipedia article on 'metersexual' states tersely:

"A straight guy who acts gay."

I tersely state:

"A person exhibiting modernish sexual tendencies, such as androgyny."

this message brought to you by Factotum 16:54, 28 Jan 2004 (UTC)

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This is all great discussion, but most of this material, and that in the Wiktionary entry, should migrate to Wikipedia. Particularly the list of celebrity metrosexuals -- we just went through an entirely analogous situation in computer language. The Wiktionary should state things tersely. I'm not going to make the changes personally because it appears still to be open which terse definition or definitions to write.

Given that both senses seem to spring to mind, probably both should be given. Simpson's original meaning carries weight, of course, but language is a living thing. -dmh 17:10, 25 Mar 2004 (UTC)

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Given the multiple mentions talking about Mark Simpson's definition, I've added the definition by Simpson from his web site to a history section of the term. Should the term gather new meanings, the first meaning can and should remain. -Cork-host 12 noon July 6 (GMT)

Italian: "vitellone"

I'm not sure of the accuracy the Italian translation (which I did not write). My It-Eng/Eng-It dictionary has "Vitellone: bullock; tender young beef; loafer". "Loafer" is not really the same as "metrosexual" in either of the senses given here. I'm going to comment it out for now until someone can find something better. — Paul G 11:35, 27 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Earliest usage

Earlist usage on Usenet found with Google Groups. It occurs years earlier than what is claimed in the Etymology section in this article! The Usenet thread states that the term was even then from "years ago"... Hell even the derived forms I could think up are all found before this words supposed "invention".

• metrosexual: alt.homosexual - 1 Dec 1996 by Greg Parkinson: [1]
• metrosexuals: uk.media.radio.radcliffe - 20 Apr 1998 by Ronan Flood: [2]
• metrosexuality: free.uk.scotland.tv.telecom.cable - 2 Dec 2000 by foxy: [3]
• metrosexually: soc.motss - 9 Mar 2001 by John Fisher: [4]

— Hippietrail 02:45, 14 Aug 2004 (UTC) Vitellone should not be used in the same sentence as Metrosexual. They have nothing to do with one another.

Channel 4 (UK)

I do remember there being a Channel 4 (UK) 'drama' series called Metrosexuality, which does not seem to be archived on the Channel 4 website. I have found reference to this on the mynottinghill.com site (a member of the myvillagelondon.co.uk network) which seems to date the series as debut as Feb 21, 2001. This series was more about the blurring of boundaries between three distinctive sexualities (hetrosexual, bisexual and homosexual) rather than the seeking of pleasure as discussed by others.

I therefore disagree with the article's assertation that the term was created by Mark Simpson of Salon.com in 2002. While unsure of the first time I heard the phrase I do believe I have heard it before then.

I also disagree with the etymology that metrosexual is a 'blend' of metro and hetrosexual; rather it is a sexual identity that can only be expressed through the opportunities presented by the metropolis hence 'metrosexual' (for whatever meaning the word may be!).

ABOVE POSTER: PLEASE TAKE THE TROUBLE TO READ THE ORIGINAL ENTRY: MARK SIMPSON COINED THE WORD IN 1994. CHANNEL 4 APPROPRIATED IT - LARGELY INACCURATELY - FOR THEIR UNWATCHABLE AND PRETENTIOUS SHOW ABOUT GAYS IN LONDON THAT YOU REFER TO.

I dont think the Chinese translation is good. 都市美男 is never used by fashion magazines in China

Italian

Hi there! The correct translation for "metrosexual" is "metrosessuale" (m). We currently use this word (see Google). The word "vitellone" instead is updated, referring to an old Federico Fellini movie, "I Vitelloni". Here's a definition of "vitellone" cut&pasted form Imdb.com: "idle young person of the provinces, often an eternal student". As you can see, a completely different thing. :-)

Wiktionary:Requests for deletion/Others - kept

Kept. See archived discussion of June 2008. 11:25, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

Moved from entry

Etymology discussion

• Various Web references attribute the creation of the word to Mark Simpson in an article in The Independent in 1994.

The promotion of metrosexuality was left to the men's style press, magazines such as The Face, GQ, Esquire, Arena and FHM, the new media which took off in the Eighties and is still growing (GQ gains 10,000 new readers every month). They filled their magazines with images of narcissistic young men sporting fashionable clothes and accessories. And they persuaded other young men to study them with a mixture of envy and desire.

Some people said unkind things. American GQ, for example, was popularly dubbed 'Gay Quarterly'. Little wonder that all these magazines — with the possible exception of The Face — address their metrosexual readership as if none of them were homosexual or even bisexual. —Mark Simpson, "Here come the mirror men" The Independent, November 15, 1994 - Source - Wordspy article

• Mark Simpson confirmed the attribution in this 2003 web article.
• Discussion shows early Internet references in alt.homosexual - 1 Dec 1996 by Greg Parkinson: [5]
• Raised to greater UK public awareness by Channel 4 program Metrosexuality in Feb 2001
• Raised to American and Global public awareness by Mark Simpson in July 2002 in an article for the US based web site Salon.com.

Definition discussion

• Mark Simpson's own definition of 2002 is "The typical metrosexual is a young man with money to spend, living in or within easy reach of a metropolis -- because that's where all the best shops, clubs, gyms and hairdressers are. 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 modelling, waiting tables, media, pop music and, nowadays, sport, seem to attract them but, truth be told, like male vanity products and herpes, they're pretty much everywhere."

• But in his 2003 commentary on the 1994 creation, Mark says "Truth is, I was not being entirely serious when I first wrote about metrosexuality back in 1994, shortly after the publication of my book about contemporary masculine identity, ‘Male Impersonators: Men Performing Masculinity’. That’s to say, when I wrote about how male metrosexuality was coming out of the closet and taking over the world, I was being slightly satirical about the effect of consumerism and media proliferation, particularly glossy men’s magazines, on traditional masculinity. But then, this wouldn’t be the first time a satire on consumerism was appropriated by consumerism to hasten the process it sought to critique."

adjective?

Should there be an adjective header on this page too? Mutante 10:13, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Only if there is a sense change with the adjective or it is used comparatively would we have an adjective PoS under current practice. That is an empirical question resolvable by Google searches. But, even if this term failed those tests, it is possible it should be included as adjective.

There might be a general question involved, making it a BP topic. I strongly support the general principle of not have separate PoS sections for those PoSs that a word of given PoS automatically has. Any proper noun has a common noun sense (and a plural). And any noun can be used attributively. But, there are many cases where the noun is probably derivative of the adjective. In such cases, we would seem to need the adjective.

I don't know whether that is the case here. My guess is that the etymology for this would be something like sexual#Adjective => homosexual#Adjective / heterosexual#Adjective => homosexual#Noun / heterosexual#Noun => metrosexual#Noun => metrosexual#Adjective. But the delay between widespread usage of adjective and noun can't be very long. DCDuring TALK 11:58, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Etymology

The etymology of the word is Greek, but comes from "me-tron", which means "measure" not "mother". (SwordShield) — This unsigned comment was added by 69.158.28.182 (talk) at 11:05, 4 February 2010 (UTC).

Please provide a link and/or proper reference information for the authority you cite for this. (SwordShield? Or is that your screen name?) † ﴾^(u):Raifʻhār ^(t):Doremítzwr﴿ 12:17, 4 February 2010 (UTC)