Metrosexuals arrive in Asia

I have a warning for you. The metrosexual "new man" has arrived.

            First seen in the West about five years ago, this bizarre breed of "sensitive" male is spreading through Asia.

           Tell-tale signs: You may be in the presence of a metrosexual if he...

1. Talks about his feelings;

2. Weeps during sad movies;

3. Thinks about what he wears; and

4. Fails to smell of sweat, cigarettes, beer, etc.

Tip-off sign: If you start a discussion with a male on the subject of, say, "What kind of curtains do you think go with this room?" and he fails to give you a look of startled incredulity, as if to say: "What on earth are you asking me for?"

"Men's Groups" are springing up in major cities from Hong Kong to Sydney. They have even evolved in Japan, motherlode, so to speak, of the unfeeling, robotic salariman.
     The Men's Lib Research Group of Osaka set up a telephone hotline to give support to shocked salarimen who wake up one day to find they have developed emotions.

"It's time for men to cast off the yoke of masculinity and live as they wish," Kimio Ito of Osaka University told the Asahi Shimbun.

In Taiwan, a delicate man has just been granted a divorce on the grounds that his young, beefy wife constantly beat him up.

What do you do if you meet a New Man? Proceed with care. They are not believed to be dangerous, although they may weep on you without warning.

Comments

[Susan]

Now, who would let men do something like this? As a woman, I don't want my man to cry. I don't want to know what he's feeling, and I definitely don't want his input on home decor. He can do some cooking, if he's Italian or Greek, or maybe French.
However, when I first arrived in Hong Kong, I thought this was where metrosexuality originated.
Go Arnie, we don't need liddle gurrrrly men.

[David J]

Actually I think of myself as a bit of a new man and resent the mocking tone of Mr Jam and Ms Susan. Its taken years, nay centuries for men to get the ability to cry at movies dont take it away from us now

[Mr. Jam]

Come along ladies, don't fight, it's not ladylike

[David J]

Well you know what they say about men who are too quick to assert their masculinity...

[Susan]

Oh for the days when men were men and pansies were flowers.

[David J]

You may sound like miss post-millennium, but I bet you would like it if a guy gave you a bunch of pansies, Susan (and I dont mean the cast of Queer eye)

[Susan]

Hmmm... ivory roses, actually, but what's that got to do with being metrosexual? Men have been giving women flowers for centuries.

[Linda]

I can't understand why there has to be an either/or. Why is it less masculine to be able to express emotions like the human beings we are ALL supposed to be? It's a bit sad that men either have to be classed as 'pansies' or 'real men' acting like apes. I go with David J - and I'm a bit shocked by the eighteenth centuary views expressed above!!! I know lots of men who can be extremely sexy and masculine and are also able to express their emotions and pick out home decor all at the same time - maybe you just haven't found the right men yet!!

[Susan]

Because that is what men are supposed to be... big hairy hunters. That's their job. Like giving birth is my job. That's the natural order of things. That's why little boys run around with tin pots on their heads and little girls don't. It's the way we're wired.

[Linda]

Most of us have evolved since then - the hunters have now become IT specialists - the world has changed in the last few millenia; and we've all had to adapt to other changes: discovery of fire; the wheel; industrialisation; computerisation; digitalisation; - this is just one more. There's less real difference between the genders' psyche - it's mostly laziness and type-casting... speaking as a girl who used to love wearing a tinpot on her head!

[DaveRave]

What you girls dont realize, and i include you in this classification, david, is that men evolved as they did FOR A REASON. They are not meant to worry about the colour of your curtains. they are meantto be stong silent tyopes. there is a major crisis going on because you women and modern socity generally no longer values men for what they ahve evolved toi do over many thousands of years, which is to be gruff efficient brawny leaders. put it this way. you need a bit of right and a bit of left to end up with a nice balanced society. just the same, you need a bit of macho and a bit of femininity to end up with a balanced society. if everyone weeps during movies thats the end of the world as we know it

[Susan]

Well said, Dave. Linda, I used to enjoy the games of cops n robbers, armies and terrorists (forgive me I grew up in South Africa) and cowboys and indians. There's still a difference, though. Take things like drag racing, monster trucks, stunt driving (yes I know there is a woman stunt driver) most of these are done by men, pretty much because they are pointless and dangerous. Take a look at a site called www.break.com and tell me how many girls you see wiping out on skateboards, trying to jump from one building to the next, or puting fireworks in their mouths. Then come and tell me there's no difference.

[Susan]

For the male of the species... some man laws
http://www.ticket760.com/pages/ManLaws/

[Mr Jam]

I must admit to being rather torn here. While tempted to agree with Susan and DaveRave that there's something suspicious about men who care about grooming etc, I can't help but think that it's a good thing that men are becoming a little less strong and silent and unemotional. I think of it this way: all guys have a bit of girl in them (perhaps they actually notice that their clothes don't match, or that beer isn't the only drink) and all girls have a bit of guy in them (perhaps they enjoy kicking butt from time to time or maybe they are sports nuts or whatever). I think what's happening now is that people are allowed to let that bit of them show -- whereas for the past 1000 years, it has been a big cultural no-no.

Susan -- I enjoyed your "man laws" thing.

[Former Music Director]

I haven't read all the comments above, but I have "heard" about those comments somewhere as soon as I knew the term "meterosexual". Well, all I can say is, that human beings are just hard to please; we beg for things, and when we are given, we beg for something else. Why do we do that to ourselves all the time? Aiya!

[Former Music Director]

Oops, I mean 'metrosexual'.

[Jason]

I am gay.

[Nabila]

Maybe DaveRave and Linda etc are right when they say that generally there is a difference in boys' and girls' interests, but what I don't like is the atitude that because generally boys like something ALL boys have to do it, or vice versa. I don't like the idea of Man Laws at all. Let there be differences between the genders, but is there ANY reason why they need to be set down in stone? Other than the possible discrimination this causes, it also hampers creativity of both sexes - you feel obliged by the 'law' to act in one way, when you could do much better in another way.
And I think its kinda sweet if a guys cries at a movie, and until I was fifteen or sixteen, I didn't even realize it was considered socially unacceptable for them to do so. So maybe my atitude is a bit less conditioned than of others... lol.