Metrosexual Madness

Masculinity is being redefined.

Within the machinery of mass media and marketing, traditional concepts of manliness are mutating. The new term is “metrosexual”—a man of the 21st century possessing characteristics once attributed only to women and homosexual men. The metrosexual is sensitive, in tune with fashion, concerned about his skin, and a patron of beauty salons.

The trend is a direct challenge to conventional ideas of masculinity. And it’s not just an American phenomenon. Agence France Presse quotes a director of a French fashion agency saying, “The masculine ideal is being completely modified. All the traditional male values of authority, infallibility, virility and strength are being completely overturned” ( June 8).

An Australian newspaper, the Age, reported that “[m]en’s fashion chains are growing, with women’s stores such as Espirit launching men’s ranges” ( March 11, 2003). The market for metrosexuals is growing every year. Advertisers are even dropping the macho image to sell beer and cars.

Both the macho and metro versions of masculinity represent two opposite, and wrong, extremes of the male role. Yet the latest trend is of greater concern because of what the Bible prophesies about the time in which we live. In Isaiah 3, the prophet describes an upside-down society ruled by women and children, where real men—the wise and mighty leaders of old—have been “taken away.”

For more information on true masculinity and the dangers of gender blur, read our article Wanted: Real Men.