Living life: The Metrosexual Man

If you are Dr. Claude, you can get away with wearing white earrings, a white cotton suit, and white ‘Abdul’ shoes because everybody looks up to you for something else other than your dress – your music et cetera et cetera. If you are Didier Drogba you can even treat your hair and if you are lucky to be David Beckam or Shaggy, you can plait your hair, do some make up. This entirely new thing where looking good is no longer the sole fixation of women, alone means men are walking around with lip balm in their jackets and hold their regular manicure and pedicure appointments like death is the only viable option if they missed. The rough-bearded creature that was man, who needed only an expensive pair of shoes, an even more expensive watch and a good sense of humour, to disarm the rejection mechanism of girls now trim their eyelashes and do daring things with their hair. Of course, metro-sexual men in our society risk appearing sissy. Which girl wants to compete with her man for space in front of the full body mirror doing make up (not making out!) before the hotly anticipated evening event? For starters, for a while, wearing earrings, especially on one ear only, in the early nineties was synonymous with gay people, but thanks to the music industry, if you are a wannabe musical idol, an earring is one of those things which you are allowed to get away with together with other initially ridiculous things. But today the metro-sexual man is in vogue. It’s not only the deodorant but the aftershave, the shoe cream, the mouthwash, the exclusive perfume from Europe, flashy clothes, and a proper finish. Men are doing daring fashion things. You don’t have to be the president of Fiji or the crown prince of England to wear a skirt in broad day light, though you do not want to try that here. Good old tight men’s underwear is going through the window and giving space for designer boxers which among other things are made to impress when it is all one has to wear – before a thing for women but now more than appropriate for men. The other day my friend Nikita quietly marvelled at the chiselled shape and naturally red lips of a man and how it made her develop embarrassing fantasies and you begin to understand why men need to pay more attention to the finer details of their looks, their smell and their sense of touch. It can take you places you would have never imagined, win you prizes you could never have won. Ok, but that does not mean you start acting girly because you want to impress the girls, eating ice-cream, watching Mexican soap operas while people are doing patriotic things, like paying taxes in the bars. How do you want the economy to survive if you do not play your part? Going metro-sexual is not a Lets-Join-The-Girls crusade. It’s just growing wiser on the fairer sex, give and take, no harm in upping your game. Not selling out. Have a well-groomed Sunday. kelviod@yahoo.com