The Metrosexual
Gender, Sexuality, and Sport
Published on 24. July 2008
Book
Hardback
222 pages
978-0-7914-7409-9 (ISBN)
Description
Explores the cultural significance of the metrosexual in sports.
How do you explain Dennis Rodman's dyed hair, tattoos, and pierced body parts? Why are there so many athletes stripping for men's underwear ads? Besides sport, what do Pat Riley, Alex Rodriguez, and Ian Thorpe have in common? And why has David Beckham been compared to Louis XIV?
In this fascinating exploration of past and present celebrity athletes, David Coad shows how gender roles for men are undergoing a revolutionary change. Once famous for their lack of style off the field, professional players are now fashion-conscious trendsetters. Looking at certain stellar sports figures of the past, such as Joe Namath and Jim Palmer, who were at the vanguard of reinterpreting gender roles, Coad goes on to examine their primped out and "pimped out" contemporary successors-those athletic peacocks in their furs, silks, and diamonds who embody metrosexuality, widen its focus, and demonstrate the range of experiences open to today's male.
How do you explain Dennis Rodman's dyed hair, tattoos, and pierced body parts? Why are there so many athletes stripping for men's underwear ads? Besides sport, what do Pat Riley, Alex Rodriguez, and Ian Thorpe have in common? And why has David Beckham been compared to Louis XIV?
In this fascinating exploration of past and present celebrity athletes, David Coad shows how gender roles for men are undergoing a revolutionary change. Once famous for their lack of style off the field, professional players are now fashion-conscious trendsetters. Looking at certain stellar sports figures of the past, such as Joe Namath and Jim Palmer, who were at the vanguard of reinterpreting gender roles, Coad goes on to examine their primped out and "pimped out" contemporary successors-those athletic peacocks in their furs, silks, and diamonds who embody metrosexuality, widen its focus, and demonstrate the range of experiences open to today's male.
Reviews / Votes
"...Coad's comprehensive overview of the term and the phenomenon, their roots and evolution, accounting, for example, for how metrosexuality differs from earlier similar phenomena and how it appears in men's lifestyle magazines, comes as a welcome and timely reminder of the importance of continued analysis of embodied and sexually defined masculinities in popular culture." - Men and Masculinities"...recommend[ed] ... for anyone who has a Gender, Women's Studies, or Men's Studies program, or anyone who is a marketing or management major. There is something for all of them, as well as the general public, to see how we are being manipulated in our view of sex, sexuality, and image in advertising." - Southwest Journal of Cultures
"...an important commentary on the range of experiences available to US and European men, extending beyond the narrow confines of traditional masculinity." - CHOICE
"At last someone rescues the metrosexual from the mendacious marketers and gives him what he craved all along but hardly ever got: serious attention." - Mark Simpson, author of Male Impersonators: Men Performing Masculinity
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Albany, NY
United States
Target group
College/higher education
US School Grade: College Graduate Student and over
Product notice
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Paper over boards
Illustrations
13 Figures
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 145 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
386 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7914-7409-9 (9780791474099)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
02/2014
1st Edition
De Gruyter
€35.99
Available for download
Person
David Coad is Associate Professor of English at the Universite de Valenciennes, France, and the author of Gender Trouble Down Under: Australian Masculinities.
Content
Acknowledgments
Part One
1. Sports Sex
Gender and Sexual Mythologies
Jock culture
Sports Rape
Homosocial Desire
Homosexual Outing
Heterosexual Outing
2. Metro Sex
Mirror Men
Dandies
Playboys
Feminine Side
Backlash
Part Two
3. New York
GQ
Ralph Lauren and His Models
Protometrosexuality
Fashion Photographs of Athletes
4. Armani
Armani's Stellar American Athletes
Armani's Superstars in Europe
The Great Masculine Renunciation
Part Three
5. Undies
Premetrosexual Undies
The Pioneer of the Undie Revolution
The Modern Kouros
Football and Basketball Favorites
The All-American Metrosexual
Undie Trouble
Resistance to Metrosexuality
Metrosexual Undies
What Do Undies Reveal?
6. Black Bodies
The African American Aesthetic
Pimped Out Bodies
NBA Tattoos and Bling-bling
Mainstream and Transracial Pimped Out Bodies
Fetishizing Black Bodies
Black Bodies in Briefs
7. Sporno Stars
Sports Nudity
The Gay Gaze
Soccer Photo Albums
Sports Calendars
A&F Catalogs
Fetishizing the Exotic
8. Metrosexual Masculinity
Joe Namath
Ian Thorpe
David Beckham
Beautiful Bodies
Conclusion
Works Cited
Index
Part One
1. Sports Sex
Gender and Sexual Mythologies
Jock culture
Sports Rape
Homosocial Desire
Homosexual Outing
Heterosexual Outing
2. Metro Sex
Mirror Men
Dandies
Playboys
Feminine Side
Backlash
Part Two
3. New York
GQ
Ralph Lauren and His Models
Protometrosexuality
Fashion Photographs of Athletes
4. Armani
Armani's Stellar American Athletes
Armani's Superstars in Europe
The Great Masculine Renunciation
Part Three
5. Undies
Premetrosexual Undies
The Pioneer of the Undie Revolution
The Modern Kouros
Football and Basketball Favorites
The All-American Metrosexual
Undie Trouble
Resistance to Metrosexuality
Metrosexual Undies
What Do Undies Reveal?
6. Black Bodies
The African American Aesthetic
Pimped Out Bodies
NBA Tattoos and Bling-bling
Mainstream and Transracial Pimped Out Bodies
Fetishizing Black Bodies
Black Bodies in Briefs
7. Sporno Stars
Sports Nudity
The Gay Gaze
Soccer Photo Albums
Sports Calendars
A&F Catalogs
Fetishizing the Exotic
8. Metrosexual Masculinity
Joe Namath
Ian Thorpe
David Beckham
Beautiful Bodies
Conclusion
Works Cited
Index