REAL ART RERUN
REAL MEN REVISITED:
Corresponding with a “Metrosexual”

This Real Art Rerun was first posted on July 1, 2003.

Blogging is just getting more and more interesting.

Karru Martinson, the subject of the New York Times article, "Straight, hip and moisturized, metrosexuals making a mark," to which I referred in my recent post, “REAL MEN: Rejecting Consumerism's Twisted Answers,” Googled up a link to Real Art, read my essay, and emailed me some of his thoughts.

(At least, I think it’s him; Internet anonymity could be helping to make me the butt of some silly cyber-joke, but I take him at his word. It doesn’t even matter, really; the email he sent me has some good thoughts.)

So, here is our exchange:

Greetings & Salutations,

Read your post with some interest and while I agree that the metrosexual concept as it was presented in the article was truly from a marketer’s viewpoint, I believe that many "metrosexuals," myself included, are probably a bit more aware of what is going on with the new masculine mystique and attempts to package and sell it than you give us (or me at least) credit. We aren't the ones shopping at the mega-malls, swallowing the tripe about SUV commercials, etc. And that is why marketers are so keen to label us and try to figure out our code. It will always be a game of cat and mouse so it keeps us all on our toes.

Have a good weekend.

Karru

Dear Mr. Martinson,

I meant no offense.

Please understand that my essay was not so much about you or what you may personally represent or believe; rather, I am more concerned with the continuing transformation of the US economy, how that transformation is tending to push an ever growing number of American men into societal irrelevance, and how the fashion, advertising, and mass media industries see such suffering as economic opportunity—those three industries create social meaning, usually without any sense of social responsibility; I fear their marketing of the new “masculine mystique” in its various forms has already caused far more pain than is popularly understood.

Trust me when I say that I appreciate the concept of the well-dressed man. Some of my earliest and most influential memories are of seeing Sean Connery as James Bond, immaculately dressed in a white dinner jacket and black bow tie, drinking his very dry vodka martini, shaken, not stirred—I also remember looking at my father’s 1960s Playboy magazines and, of course, loving the voluptuous babes, but also admiring the hip, urban, sophisticated, classy men. In all honesty, I think that, in principle, I actually like the “metrosexual” concept: I hate what Madison Avenue seems to want to do with the concept—it is depressing that this kind of mandated image-consciousness is already pressuring many American men in ways they probably don’t understand.

And as for not giving you enough credit to know what’s going on, I must again say that the essay wasn’t so much about you as it was about the economy and top-down ideas about masculinity. In fact, I have to say that most of the New Yorkers I’ve met, from street people to professionals, seem to be much more sophisticated and wise about how the world works than most other Americans seem to be.

But I guess that’s how you have to be if you want to live in the capitol of the world.

Thanks very much for reading my weblog.

Ron

PS I think, if it’s okay with you, that I’d like to post your email and my response on my site—it would probably make for interesting reading. Please let me know if there’s any problem with my doing this.

No offense was taken so no worries. I can completely relate with your early concept of the metrosexual male and in fact believe that the core group of this sub-set is probably better modeled along those lines. The question for marketers is how to repackage some of the simple elements of the lifestyle (i.e. shampoo) so that the average guy can add incremental revenues to the top line of the manufacturers. In doing so, they will neglect the depth of the group of early adapters and hence products they think that we'll lap up (like Axe body deodorant) are going to remain on the shelf if I pass them.

Feel free to post my original email. And this one as well if you'd like. Have a great day.

Karru

Karru seems to be a pretty nice guy. Thanks to him for providing some interesting content for my blog. Also, I keep getting hits from Google searches referring to the Times article: either lots of people in the world are really interested in the “metrosexual” concept, or Karru has a lot of friends. Probably a bit of both. Anyway, thanks to everybody else for surfing on in to Real Art to track down the article.

Ya’ll come back now, y’hear?

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