Whatever Happened to the 'Metrosexual'?

QUEER WORD
METROSEXUAL

What it means:

A marketing buzzword from the late '90s and early 2000s, used to describe straight men who embraced fashion and grooming without compromising their perceived heterosexuality.

A metrosexual man might be into skincare, designer clothes, nice shoes, hair products - basically, anything that had previously been coded as ‘gay’ behaviour.

Or, as the man who originally coined the term, Mark Simpson, put it in 2002:

Let’s use it in a sentence:

After Kwame bought a £200 moisturiser and spent three hours choosing throw pillows for his bachelor pad, he reassured himself - and anyone else who would listen - that he was definitely just metrosexual.

A little bit of history:

If you’ve ever heard me get going about generational labels - you know the ones: Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z - then:

• firstly, sorry if I got a bit ranty

• and secondly, you likely already know I’m simultaneously fascinated and appalled by them

What started out as a tool for marketers to figure out how best to sell us more-things-we-don’t-need has somehow turned into a whole identity framework. People are out here fully embracing personality traits they’ve been told belong to them - just because of the year they happen to have been born.

On top of that, it all seems designed to pit people of different ages against each other:

• ‘of course you’d say that, Boomer!’

• ‘these Gen Z kids are so lazy!’

• ‘the reason Millennials can’t get on the property ladder is because they won’t stop buying oat lattes and avocado toast!’

Okay… I can feel myself getting a bit worked up just typing this.

Breathe. Breathe.

In all seriousness, what fascinates me isn’t just the labels - it’s what they reveal about how impressionable we are. How desperate we are to belong. And how quietly, insidiously, capitalism shapes what we think is ‘us.’

And this is especially problematic when you consider that, every now and then, the zeitgeist decides that queerness is trendy. It’s marketable. It’s hot.

But, then, when the pendulum swings back, it becomes something to distance yourself from, deny, and hide. Or, worse, something to steal from and repackage in to a sanitised package for the masses.

Which brings us to the mighty metrosexual.

Coined in 1994 by British writer Mark Simpson, and popularised in the late ‘90s / early 2000s, this was marketing's way of selling moisturiser and aftershave to straight men without causing a masculinity meltdown. It was a new shorthand for saying: ‘Sure, yes, you might like grooming and fashion - but don’t worry, you’re definitely still mucho mucho heterosexual.’

Plenty of men embraced the label. It gave them permission to care about their appearance without feeling emasculated. For the first time ever you could have a skincare routine and a girlfriend. Wear slim jeans and get lairy and obnoxious at the football.

Which is a good thing, right?

Straight men could throw off a little of the cultural homophobia that policed what they liked, listened to, and did with their weekends. Some of the rigidity was finally loosening up.

But then… the term kind of vanished.

So What Happened to the Metrosexual?

By the late 2000s and early 2010s, the metrosexual archetype began to fade from prominence, and now you barely ever hear the term. A few things helped speed that change along:

1) Grooming Became Normal

It feels kind of ridiculous to say this, but there was a time when grooming was viewed as ‘too feminine’ for any self-respecting heterosexual man. The metrosexual helped to challenge that notion. Now, men caring about their appearance, using skincare, and dressing well is pretty common and fairly unremarkable, making the label largely redundant. Behaviours that were once seen as markers of metrosexuality have simply become part of our contemporary understanding of masculinity.

2) New Masculinities Got Marketed To Us 

Us humans are a fickle bunch - we crave newness and novelty.

And, so, the metrosexual grew stale and gave way to new trends (though, admittedly, none have caught on in the same way). Let’s see, there’s…

• Spornosexual - a more body-obsessed, gym-focused, overtly sexualised version

• Lumbersexual - rugged beards, heritage workwear, and ‘authentic’ masculinity vibes (these are the ones that are buying the ridiculously overpriced ‘beard oil’)

• Gymbro - another body-obsessed type, focussed on looking good, gains, and protein shakes

• Softboi - the artsy, emotionally literate man who wears second-hand cardigans, talks endlessly about ‘late-stage capitalism’, and only listens to emo bands

These new archetypes absorbed elements of the metrosexual but reinterpreted them for a different era.

3) Social Attitudes Kept Shifting

The rise of gender fluidity and the breakdown of rigid gender norms made the metrosexual seem less revolutionary. The boundaries it once pushed are now widely accepted (or, dare I say, passé).

So, What’s the Legacy of the Metrosexual?

Look, I know I’ve mostly taken the piss out of the term. And sure, it was a bit of a cheesy marketing gimmick. But… actually…. it mattered.

Not because it was radical. It wasn’t even particularly smart.

But because it cracked open the door - just a teeny, tiny sliver - and showed us there was more than one way to be a man.

I’m usually the impatient one, rallying for revolution rather than evolution. But I’ve got to admit that sometimes the slow, unassuming evolution wins the battle.

The metrosexual challenged the idea that straight men had to be emotionally closed-off, rigid, and rough around the edges (with a complete disinterest in their oily T-zone). It made it slightly less scary to blur the lines.

And if a £200 moisturiser and a few scented candles helped nudge toxic masculinity an inch or two closer to the bin, well… that’s a win in my book.

But, what do you think? Did the metrosexual (and similar marketing buzzwords) expand minds and make life easier for queer men? Answer the poll below!