This term has become popular throughout pop culture and shows such as Sex in the City and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, but the implied definition and use of the word in masculine culture opens up a whole new level of “self awareness and personal freedom”. As the blog prompt question states, this term “metro-sexual” and the websites dedicated to male health such as the UK Men’s Guide, AskMen.com, and GQ open up a non-traditional role where awareness over passivity towards emotions, sexual issues, and pleasing your partner is no longer seen as wrong. Many men are uncomfortable with these new trends in the internet where sites don’t aim to just discuss cars, women, and beer, but even more still are going with their wives or girlfriends to the spa to get a mani-pedi and facial. These sites work as an outlet and a tool of freedom for men who wish to explore the conventions of their gender and perhaps dabble beyond there comfort levels without anyone questioning their own personal “masculinity”.
AskMen.com functions as a second Cosmopolitan, but for men. Though it highlights Gaming and Fine-Living, the highlights are sexuality, women. and lifestyle as is evident by the number of drop down menu’s related to these categories and the pictures of women plastered over the site. In contrast, UK Men’s Guide seems to me more ambiguous with it’s footing shifting many of the links into so-called “feminine spheres” such as cooking. The GQ website is a odd mix of both, they empathize every aspect of supposed “masculinity” that is excepted by the culture of men, sports, DIY’s and cars as well a plethora of women on the site, however they also list a section for anti-aging treatments, exfoliators, and moisturizers. These products are often seen as only for females as they begin to freak out when their aging process kicks in and their men won’t want them anymore because they are no longer young and beautiful.
As the term mentioned above and the websites listed indicate, men are branching into a different cultural sphere in terms of masculinity and most of the views of masculinity are in part directed by upbringing, curiosity and friendships. Personally I view the term masculinity as something every man must define for himself as every women must find her own “femininity” or not, if she chooses. Men and women can throw on and throw off cultural titles with less of a stress on gender and these sites dive into that notion of the evolution of manhood and are there for the purpose of exploration and self knowledge into an under-explored, cultural understanding of men.
