It's a Guy Thing!

There, deep in the hair-care aisle, carefully selecting the product du jour, or in the salon having his nails buffed to the perfect shine while checking out the latest fashion magazines -- it's not a bird, not a gay man, it's a metrosexual!

He's been in our office for a week, but never cease to amaze us with all of those beauty products (he actually calls them "products") he uses. Yesterday, he suddenly showed up in the studio and watched the whole photo shoot session. After a while, he talked to the guy model about his hair treatment. What product he would use, what is the latest hairstyle and so on. And while he was talking, his hands never stop fixing his tie. Then his shirt. Then his hair. Then took a handkerchief for a gentle sweep on his forehead.

Same thing happened at our company meeting in some restaurant the other day. I saw him listed the calorie count of the main entrees. He even raise an eyebrow at my colleague's chicken selection, after he ordered a salad. And the most disturbing moment was when I saw him check his reflection in the silver water pitcher for seven consecutive times!

A metrosexual, in case you didn't catch any of several newspaper articles about this developing phenomenon (or the recent "South Park" episode on Comedy Central), is a straight man who styles his hair using three different products, loves clothes and the very act of shopping for them, and describes himself as sensitive and romantic. In other words, he is a man who seems stereotypically gay except when it comes to sexual orientation.

Why "metrosexual"? The metro- (city) prefix indicates this man's purely urban lifestyle, while the -sexual suffix comes from "homosexual," meaning that this man, although he is usually straight, embodies the heightened aesthetic sense often associated with certain types of gay men.

Mark Simpson invented this term in 1994, and it drifted slowly from one media source to another throughout the rest of 1990s and early 2000s. Since then it has been picked up by thousands of media outlets, has made numerous TV appearances, has spawned at least a couple of books, and has been dropped in untold numbers of cocktail party conversations. And now, showing up in my office. Complimenting on my Issey Miyake's perfume yet couldn't understand why journalists like us never watch our appearance.

"At least, tug in your shirt for God sake," he desperately said to all of us. Yeah right.