The Reluctant Metrosexual

Peter Hyman wants the model/Fulbright Scholar girlfriend, the job with generous stock options and the well-appointed 2BR w/vu. Instead he routinely finds himself single and underemployed in his closet-free walk-up. The last woman he liked got back together with her lesbian lover; the one before that threw up on the first date. Welcome to the almost hip life of a reluctant metrosexual–a straight man whose tastes are just gay enough. Equal parts cultural anthropologist, amateur sexologist and witty skeptic, Hyman wryly chronicles the promiscuity and perils of modern manhood, whether he’s undergoing a painful Brazilian bikini wax, lurching through a disastrous threesome, or poignantly reflecting on the Scotch-soaked grief of a difficult breakup. So sit back in your Eames lounger and revel in the good fortune that The Reluctant Metrosexual is not you, it’s him.

Modern men the world over are becoming increasingly fascinated with their image, spending more of their disposable income on beautification products and services. This book examines 'metrosexuality', highlighting the negotiation and construction of masculinities and sexualities in the twenty-first century.

“Who would win between . . .” has through the ages been one of man’s most fundamental questions. Sadly, adult responsibilities like “earning a living” and “having a girlfriend” have conspired to make it impossible for men to devote to this issue the scholarship it so deeply deserves. But now one hero has tapped into our ­need to know who’s the best, the strongest, the caveman with the biggest club. From Jake Kalish, five-star general of the Imaginary Battlefield, emerges Santa vs. Satan, a tome that offers far more than idle speculation, culling expert analysis from martial arts masters, scientists, social theorists, and pop-culture philosophers, providing in-depth detail of the strengths and vulnerabilities of the combatants, and making bold predictions. Warriors are profiled and winners are declared in this seminal list of throwdowns that never were but should have been. Han Solo vs. Indiana Jones Adam vs. Charles Darwin The Virgin vs. The Whore Drunk vs. Stoner Conspiracy Theorists vs. Conspirators Muhammad Ali vs. Bruce Lee The Stork vs. The Grim Reaper Metrosexual vs. Eunuch Michael Corleone vs. Tony Montana Small Man with Breasts vs. Large Balding Woman Artist vs. Critic The Constipated vs. The Incontinent Gandalf vs. Obi-Wan Kenobi Married Gay Couple vs. Divorced Straight Couple

Who is today’s white-collar man? The world of work has changed radically since The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit and other mid-twentieth-century investigations of corporate life and identity. Contemporary jobs are more precarious, casual Friday has become an institution, and telecommuting blurs the divide between workplace and home. Gender expectations have changed, too, with men’s bodies increasingly exposed in the media and scrutinized in everyday interactions. In Buttoned Up, based on interviews with dozens of men in three U.S. cities with distinct local dress cultures—New York, San Francisco, and Cincinnati—Erynn Masi de Casanova asks what it means to wear the white collar now. Despite the expansion of men’s fashion and grooming practices, the decrease in formal dress codes, and the relaxing of traditional ideas about masculinity, white-collar men feel constrained in their choices about how to embody professionalism. They strategically embrace conformity in clothing as a way of maintaining their gender and class privilege. Across categories of race, sexual orientation and occupation, men talk about "blending in" and "looking the part" as they aim to keep their jobs or pursue better ones. These white-collar workers’ accounts show that greater freedom in work dress codes can, ironically, increase men’s anxiety about getting it wrong and discourage them from experimenting with their dress and appearance.

In a glance at American menswear over the past 150 years, change has been sometimes glacial in its evolution, sometimes regressive and nostalgic, and other times abrupt and revolutionary. In this study of American menswear from the Civil War to the twenty-first century, that evolution is chronicled and documented with more than 700 illustrations. In addition to the main categories of suits, sportswear, and outerwear, each era also includes a detailed examination of sleepwear, underwear, swimwear, hats, neckwear, footwear, and accessories. Further, Daniel Delis Hill examines not only American men’s dress and the structures of the menswear industry, but also the historical and socioeconomic drivers that affected men’s style—particularly the shifting conventions and iconoclasms of American ideas and ideals of masculinity.

This book details the impact that the mass media has upon men's sense of identity, style, and deportment. From advertising to television shows, mass consumer culture defines and identifies how men select and sort what is fashionable and acceptable. Utilizing a large mine of mediated imagery, men and boys construct and define how to dress, act, and comport themselves.

A biographical and bibliographical guide to current writers in all fields including poetry, fiction and nonfiction, journalism, drama, television and movies. Information is provided by the authors themselves or drawn from published interviews, feature stories, book reviews and other materials provided by the authors/publishers.

Marketing and consumer research has traditionally conceptualized consumers as individuals- who exercise choice in the marketplace as individuals not as a class or a group. However an important new perspective is now emerging that rejects the individualistic view and focuses on the reality that human life is essentially social, and that who we are is an inherently social phenomenon. It is the tribus, the many little groups we belong to, that are fundamental to our experience of life. Tribal Marketing shows that it is not individual consumption of products that defines our lives but rather that this activity actually facilitates meaningful social relationships. The social ‘links’ (social relationships) are more important than the things (brands etc.) The aim of this book is therefore to offer a systematic overview of the area that has been defined as “cultures of consumption”- consumption microcultures, brand cultures, brand tribes, and brand communities. It is though these that students of marketing and marketing practitioners can begin to genuinely understand the real drivers of consumer behaviour. It will be essential to everyone who needs to understand the new paradigm in consumer research, brand management and communications management.