Are YOU Metrosexual?

Well, here are a few facts for you:

The term 'Metrosexual' was actually first coined by journalist Mark Simpson in 1994 within an article for the Independent entitled 'It's a Queer world', however it was his reference to David Beckham as the ultimate Metrosexual, in 2002 that seemed to catapult the term into popularity. To define the Metrosexual male, Simpson stated:

' 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 modeling, 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.' - nice comparison there.

But still, why is it that it's only over the last decade that he seems to have appeared? Were all men really that 'macho' before 1994, or rather before David Beckham posing for a gay magazine in 2002, that they just wouldn't take care of themselves and it took an internationally famous footballing icon to prompt them to *suddenly* take note of what they're wearing, or that, to avoid flaking everywhere, their skin might actually need a little moisture adding to it from time to time?

I think not. Maybe it wasn't spoken about before (of course, if the term Metrosexual was only coined in 1994 it wouldn't have been would it?) But does that mean it didn't exist? Just because pre-marital sex or adultery wasn't really spoken about a century or two ago doesn't mean it didn't happen because we all now know it did.

Look back to David Bowie and Marc Bolan in the Glam Rock era of the 1970's for instance. Could you call them Metrosexual? They wore make-up (quite obviously), were so effeminate they actually wore women's clothes... so this was their stage make-up, but even so, they had a lot of attributes that the Metrosexual can now be accredited with. Maybe a better example would be Mick Jagger in his young Rolling Stones days - a definite womaniser, yet still rather effeminate. And what about Steve Tyler from Aerosmith, who has openly admitted he uses face cream's all the time?

Catch my drift?

I'd say the Metrosexual isn't actually a new breed of man at all, it's just that only since we've been able to pigeon hole men as a Metrosexual that, in a way, society has been able to accept this self interest, that is a little like a female's, as anything other than just plain gay. Finally!

So men, you Metrosexuals, go forth, wear make-up and shop! For now you are free to do so without being labelled a homosexual when you know you're not!