外國人最想和你聊的時事話題：都市美男

　What is metrosexual　什么是都市美男
     Metrosexual is a neologism derived from metropolitan and heterosexual coined in 1994, which describes a man (especially one living in a post-industrial, capitalist culture) who spends a lot of time and money on shopping for his appearance. Debate surrounds the term's use as a theoretical signifier of sex deconstruction and its associations with consumerism.
     The term originated in an article by Mark Simpson published on November 15, 1994, in The Independent. Simpson wrote:
     Metrosexual man, the single young man with a high disposable income, living or working in the city (because that's where all the best shops are), is perhaps the most promising consumer market of the decade. In the Eighties he was only to be found inside fashion magazines such as GQ, in television advertisements for Levi's jeans or in gay bars. In the Nineties, he's everywhere and he's going shopping.
     However, it was not until the early 2000s that the term caught on, greatly increasing in popularity following a series of articles and reports hyping this purportedly new phenomenon. In 2002, Salon.com published an article by Simpson, "Meet the metrosexual", which identified David Beckham as the metrosexual poster boy. The advertising agency Euro RCSG Worldwide adopted the term shortly thereafter for a marketing study. Sydney's daily broadsheet, The Sydney Morning Herald, ran a major feature in March 2003 titled "The Rise of the Metrosexual" (also syndicated in its sister paper The Age) which borrowed heavily from the Salon.com piece. A couple of months later, the New York Times'Sunday Styles section ran a story, "Metrosexuals Come Out". The term and its connotations continued to roll steadily into more news outlets around the world.
     Former Metro Radio presenter Mitch Murray claims that he invented the term in the 1980s. At that time, he says, the word had a very different connotation, as it was simply a play on words involving "Metro Radio" and heterosexuals. Murray would send a weekly tape to the local radio station in Newcastle upon Tyne. "Very early during the process", he created station identification segments, one of which he claims included the phrase "We are the metrosexuals". It is unclear whether the segment was actually broadcast, and there is no documentary evidence of his claims. Also, when the word first became popular, various sources incorrectly attributed its origin to trendspotter Marian Salzman, but by Salzman's own admission Simpson's 2002 Salon.com article was the original source for her usage of the term.
     Though it did represent a complex and gradual change in the shopping and self-presentation habits of both men and women, the idea of metrosexuality was often distilled in the media down to a few men-David Beckham, Sam Romano, and Brad Pitt were frequently mentioned-and a short checklist of vanities, like skin care products, scented candles and costly, colorful dress shirts and pricey designer jeans. It was this image of the metrosexual-that of a straight young man who got pedicures and facials, practiced aromatherapy and spent freely on clothes-that contributed to a backlash against the term from men who merely wanted to feel free to take more care with their appearance than had been the norm in the 1990s, when companies abandoned dress codes, Dockers khakis became a popular brand, and XL, or extra-large, became the one size that fit all.
     A 60 Minutes story on 1960s-70s pro footballer Joe Namath suggested he was "perhaps, America's first metrosexual" after filming his most famous ad sporting Beautymist pantyhose. Simpson has called Joe Namath "America's abandoned metrosexual prototype", leaving the field open for later Brit metro imports such as Beckham.
     都市美男（metrosexual）并不是出現(xiàn)在今天，而是十多年前就存在。但都市美男的標準在不斷變化，這主要受到時尚明星(fashion star)的影響。都市美男人群的不斷擴大，使得許多企業(yè)開始生產(chǎn)面向男性的化妝品(male cosmetics)。與此同時，男士時裝(fashionable dress)公司的數(shù)量一直在增加，都市美男的形象頻繁地出現(xiàn)在各種時尚雜志封面(crash magazine)。這不僅是由于編輯的思想，也由于都市美男能夠帶來更多的廣告(advertisement)。
     有分析家認為，都市美男的大量出現(xiàn)有其深刻的社會因素(social sectors)。隨著數(shù)量眾多的女性涉足原本屬于男性的工作領(lǐng)域，并逐步得到社會的承認，導(dǎo)致男性也相應(yīng)地調(diào)整原有的生活方式(way of life)，從而對男性重新定義。此外，男性的工作環(huán)境也有了很大改變。隨著競爭的日趨激烈，為了能勝任工作，男性不得不考慮穿戴整潔、將頭發(fā)梳理整齊，更加在乎自己的身體，從而給別人留下好印象，在競爭中立于不敗之地。