Ricki Yasha TarrIn the 90's, a full grown man who was pretending to be a doctor, wrote a book called Men Are From Mars, and Women Are From Venus. The book simply stated that women are emotional, and men are rational, while writing about his downright abusive irrational treatment of his own wife, and somehow this was a best seller.
FoolishOwl@RickiTarr It was part of the anti-feminist backlash of the era. There was a lot of smug gender-essentialist nonsense being pushed, with a thin veneer of liberalism. I saw that book as on a continuum with columnists mocking "metrosexuals" and lamenting the good old days when sexuality was mysterious, and with Camille Paglia getting interviewed fucking everywhere.
@foolishowl Yep, it's definitely that. I remember thinking at the time, that it's seemed overwrought and simplistic, and I was 12.
Emily 🏳️⚧️ (Sad Music Era)Ah yes, metrosexual -- the ridiculous idea that a man might take some care in his appearance and some joy in his life.
I think the screaming was part and parcel of the outsourcing of labor from men to women, and the keen desire by many men to keep it that way.
"Looking good is HER job, but it's also her job to make sure I look good, and to tell me when that is, and also to do the dishes, laundry, raise the child, vacuum, cook, support me in all things...."
"Metrosexuals" were men doing "women's work" by being fully capable of competently handling their own styling and grooming, and by merely existing it showed men who relied on the women in their lives to nag them into clean clothes and regular haircuts were just being lazy.
And so of course the long-running joke about metrosexuals is that they were gay. Both because it was "feminine" to be able to handle that, but also because obviously only men who didn't have women in their lives would need to.
Simon Brooke@foolishowl @RickiTarr Getting interviewed fucking seems a niche fetish.
@simon_brooke @RickiTarr That would have explained a lot about Paglia, come to think of it.
Tim Blackler@foolishowl @RickiTarr aaahh 'metrosexual' that's a blast from the past