Yet another stupid term for men: the retrosexual
Just when we thought the term “metrosexual” and all its variations died along with Ryan Seacrest’s frosted tips, the Star coined another term for guys who stray from the dominant idea of masculinity but don’t want to be called gay. Presenting: the retrosexual.
It’s a term used in a trend piece to describe young men who like to dress in ’50s and ’60s garb: bow ties, sock garters, fedoras and skinny suspenders. It’s geek chic without the Green Lantern tees and hoodies with binary code jokes. Basically, dudes whose knowledge of the era is based on their season one Mad Men DVDs.
Retrosexual joins the ranks of other groan-inducing man terms: manscaping, mancakes, mantyhose, manpris, manties, murse, bromance, guyliner and the one that started it all, metrosexual.
We’re all for trend stories (even though geek chic and Mad Men trends have been played to death), but don’t patronize the world with cutesy terms that, underneath it all, make fun of men who don’t look like lumberjacks. That’s a trend we’re not cool with.
