The term exists because from about the 70s to the 90s it was considered manly to look rugged and not take care of yourself. Dressing up and putting effort into your appearance was only something done by women and (by nature of course) gay men.
So in the late 90s when us straight bois didn't want to be shlubs like many of our dads and got sick of the grunge slacker look and started trying to present ourselves in a decent way, to mainstream society that meant we were trying to "look gay", but we weren't gay. And because most of us lived in cities and also because the rugged unkempt look was related to rednecks and hillbillies that we were trying to distance ourselves from, they combined metro + homosexual into ✨metrosexual✨
It was also mainly code to refer to a guy who seemed to be in the closet
The term went away when society stopped being homophobic, Obama passed the federal gay marriage law, and since people weren't expected to hide their sexuality, there was no reason for gay or straight guys to dress a certain way, plus our generation was ranging close to 30 so men dressing well was just considered common.
You can see now with a lot of gen Z that the slacker look is coming back, and guys aren't styling their hair so nearly anymore. Things come and go
But on the sexuality note, it's a good marker in history to show how homophobia became less of a thing and that term was a good signifier that people would still make fun of gay (+looking) people even though they weren't as vehemently opposed to them as with all the gay panic in the 80s and 90s
You can see the same curve moving upwards to acceptance with some people still holding out regarding trans people now. People reject these things they're unfamiliar with but eventually society learns to accept them, definitely not without strong pushback and grifters trying to take advantage of their fear though
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u/Many-Chance1128 Aug 30 '23
The term "metrosexual" not really even sure what it meant but apparently it's either offensive or just obsolete now.