By WARREN ST. JOHN BY his own admission, 30-year-old Karru Martinson is not what you'd call a manly man. He uses a $40 face cream, wears Bruno Magli shoes and custom-tailored shirts. His hair is always just so, thanks to three brands of shampoo and the precise application of three hair grooming products: Textureline Smoothing Serum, got2b styling glue and Suave Rave hairspray. Mr. Martinson likes wine bars and enjoys shopping with his gal pals, who have come to trust his eye for color, his knack for seeing when a bag clashes with an outfit, and his understanding of why some women have 47 pairs of black shoes. ("Because they can!" he said.) He said his guy friends have long thought his consumer and grooming habits a little . . . different. But Mr. Martinson, who lives in Manhattan and works in finance, said he's not that different. "From a personal perspective there was never any doubt what my sexual orientation was," he said. "I'm straight as an arrow." So it was with a mixture of relief and mild embarrassment that Mr. Martinson was recently asked by a friend in marketing to be part of a focus group of "metrosexuals" — straight urban men willing, even eager, to embrace their feminine sides. Convinced that these open-minded young men hold the secrets of tomorrow's consumer trends, the advertising giant Euro RSCG, with 233 offices worldwide, wanted to better understand their buying habits. So in a private room at the Manhattan restaurant Eleven Madison Park recently, Mr. Martinson answered the marketers' questions and schmoozed with 11 like-minded straight guys who were into Diesel jeans, interior design, yoga and Mini Coopers, and who would never think of ordering a vodka tonic without specifying Grey Goose or Ketel One. Before the focus group met, Mr. Martinson said he was suspicious that such a thing as a metrosexual existed. Afterward, he said, "I'm fully aware that I have those characteristics." America may be on the verge of a metrosexual moment. On July 15, Bravo will present a makeover show, "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," in which a team of five gay men "transform a style-deficient and culture-deprived straight man from drab to fab," according to the network. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60E15F6345C0C718EDDAF0894DB404482
The metrosexual term kinda bothers me because it sounds like they want it to be the equivelant of hetero and homo. These guys are straight, so I don't see why a new "_____sexual" term has to be made for them because they don't fit the regular guy stereotype. I'm not really articulating my thoughts that well, but do some of you get my point? Anyways, I use to wonder if my first college roommate was gay, he was an effeminate guy from Trinidad who was half british and half indian. He had a carribbean british accent. Anyways, now I think he may have been a metro.
I have a friend who talks like a stereotypical gay guy. He's very fashion conscious. He loves Tina Turner, Celine Dion, Cher, etc. He's as straight as he can be, and now happily married. But I always found it funny when gay guys hit on him. He usually wouldn't realize it at first. He would meet someone in one of his classes at Texas Tech, hang out with them a little bit, and then find out they were interested in more than being his friend. Of course, they usually didn't talk like a stereotypical gay guy or anything like that. He could never understand why he attracted so many of them.
My new brother-in-law (he married my sister in January) is sort of like this. He spends an hour getting ready to go out (even though he has no hair), drinks the girliest drinks on the menu (loves daquiris, hates beer) and is always getting hit on by gay men. Plus he's constantly dieting and loves to use my sister's Tahitian Vanilla body lotion. I know he's straight though, because I've caught him checking out other women on numerous occasions. That said, he and my sister are a good match. Between the two of them, they've got enough lotions, potions, gels and sprays to keep a Beauty Supply store in business for years.
absolutly our society is obessed with placing labels on people..for you to fit in a certain catagory..
I used to get hit on by gay men and not know why. But, I don't really have gay mannerisms, care about how I dress, what my hair looks like or what I smell like. I think it's because I'm just good-looking. Also, it tapered off and stopped as I progressed thru my early 20s, so I'm sure there was some teen-predation there to boot.
