The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Consumption and Consumer Studies

Metrosexual

BENJAMIN HALLIGAN

University of Salford, UK

DOI: 10.1002/9781118989463.wbeccs171

A metrosexual is commonly understood, in the United States and British use of the term, to be a young man who engages in self-grooming to the betterment of his appearance without concern about meeting expectations of masculine patterns of behavior. That is, the metrosexual male will attend to his clothes and hair, will employ hair conditioners, skin creams and moisturizers, fake tans and hair dyes, with the understanding that this will render him more attractive to the opposite sex. Such traditionally female concerns with appearance are not perceived to be a self-imposed feminization, and so a challenge to his heterosexuality, but rather an enhancement of his sexual potential, his “pulling power.” Hence, the term “metro”-sexual is a play on “heterosexual” so as to make clear that attentiveness to personal appearance in this way does not signal homosexual attraction.

It is conjectured that females, encountering the metrosexual male, find evidenced a concern with outward appearance, and thus the potential of the male to be “arm candy” (i.e., an attractive public partner), and preferable to the rough and ready males otherwise available (unmoisturized, clothed in a utilitarian manner, haircuts standardized and manageable, and carrying the sweat and wear of the day). This concern for appearance, furthermore, has been surmised as indicative of intelligence, character, and a general concern for ...