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.

Explores the cultural significance of the metrosexual in sports.

This book assesses the construction of masculinities in relation to appearance, embodiment and emotions by drawing on perspectives in psychology, sociology, gender studies and public health. Brendan Gough questions conventional assumptions about masculinity and men’s health and responds to recent trends in critical studies of masculinities which discuss ‘positive’ or ‘healthy’ masculine identities. The book showcases discursively inflected qualitative research using data sources where men’s own accounts are prioritised: in-depth interviews and online discussion forums. Chapters discuss men’s appearance concerns and activities and examine male mental health, focusing on vulnerability and its management. Current trends and key concepts, including intersectionality, inequalities and embodiment are also considered throughout. This book will appeal to students and academics within social sciences and humanities interested in gender issues in general and masculinity in particular.

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.

Based on 60 in-depth interviews with a diverse group of straight men and women, Straights explores how straight Americans make sense of their sexual and gendered selves in this new landscape, particularly with an understanding of how race does and does not play a role in these conceptions. Dean provides a historical understanding of heterosexuality and how it was first established, then moves on to examine the changing nature of masculinity and femininity and, most importantly, the emergence of a new kind of heterosexuality - notably, for men, the metrosexual, and for women, the emergence of a more fluid sexuality. The book also documents the way heterosexuals interact and form relationships with their LGBTQ family members, friends, acquaintances, and coworkers. Although homophobia persists among straight individuals, Dean shows that being gay-friendly or against homophobic expressions is also increasingly common among straight Americans.

The ebook edition of this title is Open Access and freely available to read online. Taking a sociological approach, the authors of Appearance as Capital examine physical appearance as a normatively regulated form of capital and explore how it is possible to accumulate and convert capital based on physical appearance.

This book explores the experiences of self-identified heterosexual and gay men in contemporary South African gym contexts, particularly as it relates to how the intersection of spornosexual and inclusive masculinities inform their views and enactment of their masculine and sexual identities. Chapters engage with findings from an in-depth qualitative sociological exploration on issues surrounding these masculinities among men living in South Africa who engage in gym work. The author demonstrates that men, when given the opportunity to reflect on their own and the masculinity of others, acknowledge how they promote softer, kinder, disciplined, playful, and sexually agentic masculinities through their look and touch.