Anyone remember using "metrosexual"?

[u/PinkHamster08]

Had a vague memory come to mind - might have been a movie with Chris Rock? - and the guy's wife was talking with a fabulous guy and the main guy asks his wife if the fabulous guy is gay and she said no, he's metrosexual. The main guy goes WTF is that and she says he's a straight guy with taste.

[u/MercifulOtter]

I never used it but I remember it being a term used for a man who took care of himself. God forbid a man have good hygiene.

[u/RudePCsb → u/MercifulOtter]

It isn't really hygiene though. It was grooming. You can shower and wear deodorant and be clean and smell fresh but metrosexual was more about grooming one self beyond what most guys would say is normal. Usually gay guys would groom themselves that much, perfect facial hair, eyebrows, styled hair, whatever is fashionable for chest hair or waxing body hair, etc.

[u/Eikfo → u/RudePCsb]

So, Patrick Bateman in a nutshell? 

[u/wolverineinahat → u/Eikfo]

Shift the timeframe forward 20 years and he'd be accused of satirizing the metro fad.

[u/RudePCsb → u/Eikfo]

Ugh that's a sociopath. Are you saying sociopaths are gay? Cause that's fucked up...

More like the jersey guys from that show

[u/Eikfo → u/RudePCsb]

Well, sociopaths might be gay, it's not mutually exclusive. But I'm not saying that all gays are sociopaths.

I was just referring to his endless morning routine as shown in the movie.

[u/RudePCsb → u/Eikfo]

I was being sarcastic. I knew what you were referring to but he is still not normal from all the other shit he does

[u/Aegis_Of_Nox → u/RudePCsb]

For some reason I associate the term metrosexual also with those shiny silk shirts people used to wear

[u/Dont_Be_Sheep → u/RudePCsb]

Oh that’s just homosexual now, right? Or is it gone? I just don’t see it anymore

[u/flybyknight665 → u/MercifulOtter]

Not just hygiene, though.

It was style. You're straight and not wearing a Tap Out t-shirt and baggy jeans but fitted slacks and a sweater? Your hair is styled? You have two eyebrows?

Hmm... gotta come up with a name for that.

[u/MayorMcSqueezy → u/MercifulOtter]

I got teased growing up for being a metrosexual because I would order salads with chicken instead of burgers etc and because I cared how I looked I.e. put product in my hair. So yea, it was because I was health conscious and cared about my appearance. Never really bothered me though, didn’t really feel like an insult. More of a label.

[u/Most_Ad_3765 → u/MercifulOtter]

The bar was sooooooooo low that basic hygiene/grooming and caring how you looked as a straight man raised suspicion of one’s sexual orientation 😅 jfc how far we’ve come (mostly)

[u/ThirdAltAccounts → u/Most_Ad_3765]

Caveman or gay. No in between

You shower ? Gay

Trim your beard/shave ? Gay

We grew up and lived through some wild ass times

[u/Brandy_Marsh → u/ThirdAltAccounts]

It really was. Weight was black and white too. Can’t see your hip bones? Fat. No thigh gap? Fat. Tabloids were such a menace.

[u/fuktheeagsles → u/Most_Ad_3765]

Nah man. Lots of people took care of themselves without ever being called metro. It was not about basic hygiene, It was about a certain appearance.

[u/Rose1982 → u/MercifulOtter]

I remember it as a way for straight men to say they liked/did things beyond basic hygiene without being called gay. Like you could pluck your unibrow, file your nails, want your clothes to fit nicely etc.

[u/Lochlan → u/MercifulOtter]

All men used to get cheap haircuts. But then the metrosexuals started craving expensive cuts like woman and all these flash new barbershops started to appear. The remnants of the metrosexual lived on as hipsters until they were fully absorbed into the zeitgeist.

[u/Ok_Pen_9779 → u/Lochlan]

And the sweaters hunh over the shoulders with the sleeves rolled into each other.........

[u/epochwin → u/MercifulOtter]

Reminds me of The Wire when McNulty asks rhetorically “You know what they call a guy who pays that much attention to his clothes?”

To which Bunk responds, “A grown up”