An Article I recently Read.....

Today's hip, metrosexual men embracing their feminine sides
BY MARY ETHRIDGE
Knight Ridder Newspapers
AKRON, OHIO--Men.

Just when you think you have them figured out, they surprise you.

"I love to shop," said David Raymond, a nattily dressed, 23-year-old Akron man. "If I'm down, it makes me feel better."

Talk about your gender benders. What's next? Men lusting for chocolate and fretting about their jiggly thighs?

Well, maybe, if the marketing gurus and researchers out there are right.

Today's men, particularly young men, are embracing their feminine sides, experts say. They're seeking sleek electronics, the right face cream and an honest manicurist.

"It's a social evolution," said Candace Corlett of WSL Strategic Retail, a consulting firm in New York.

There's even a name for this category of guy -- metrosexual. He's a man who's not afraid of Celine Dion or a little hair gel.

Although he's heterosexual by definition, he can jam the most astute observer's "gaydar."

"Oh, a lot of guys hit on me, but I'm not interested -- at all. I have a girlfriend," said Raymond, who is a salesman for a wireless phone company. "They think because I dress nice I must be gay."

The ranks of metrosexuals include Hollywood stars such as Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Johnny Depp. British soccer star David Beckham, who's been known to sport pink nail polish, is considered a poster boy of the group. Some say even former President Bill Clinton can be put in the metrosexual category.

Although lifestyle and fashion trends usually start on the country's coasts and move inward slowly, many business owners say they've already seen the shift.

"Men are definitely paying more attention to the way they look," said Rick Lucas, who owns A White Pond Paradise spa in West Akron with his wife, Patty. "Once they get over their little phobia of going to a spa, they realize everything they've been missing."

Mike Gaylord, an owner of the Ticknor's men's clothing store chain, believes that men are taking more care with their appearance because they must.

When business casual arrived at the workplace, the rules of office wear went out the window.

"It was easier to dress in the old days. There was a uniform," Gaylord said.

"Now men just don't know what's appropriate and how to put it together."

Gaylord believes that part of the metrosexual trend can be attributed to the popular Bravo television show "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," during which gay men make over a sartorially challenged straight man.

"I learned to put my hair gel on from back to front because of that show," said Gaylord with a laugh.

A survey by Jericho Communications, a public relations firm in New York, found on the day after "Queer Eye" aired, men were five times as likely to go shopping as women, and sales of hair products and men's underwear more than tripled.

Corlett of WSL doesn't dispute the popularity of the show, but says it's simply reaching a market that was already there, not creating one.

"This social evolution isn't influenced by a TV show," Corlett said. "It's much deeper than that."

Corlett believes that young men, many of whom were raised by working mothers, don't have the same preconceptions of gender roles as previous generations. They are also more comfortable shopping because they did so frequently growing up. Mom wasn't always around to buy their underwear.

Men are also marrying later and not depending on a woman to shop for them, said Linda Tuncay, a doctoral student at the University of Illinois who is writing her dissertation on men's changing shopping habits.

"They're used to handling shopping themselves," she said.

Men are getting out to the store more. Four out of 10 men make four or more weekly shopping trips. They shop at supermarkets almost as often as women and significantly more than they did even a year ago, the study showed.

"This is the new-age male shopper," Corlett said. "He still goes to home-improvement stores, but he's not afraid to venture into a feminine enclave."


My opinion~
Good For men! thats great that they are taking better care of themselves and Doesn't need a Woman to do the shopping for them. I Lust after such men but still I prefer the Helpless ones as well..What do you think?