Metrosexual Revolution
The Motley Fool reports, "Howard Dean might not have invented the word (heck, he subsequently admitted he didn't even know what it meant), but the metrosexual industry sure got a boost when the primal screamer called himself one last October. Metrosexual industry? You mean there's a whole industry? Well, yes. And it's booming.
First coined in 1994 by a British journalist, metrosexuals are allegedly urban, heterosexual men who have the incurable urge to wax, exfoliate, and otherwise pamper their vanity. Or, as the global marketing and advertising agency Euro RSGC termed it: It's a man with "internally referenced masculinity." Uh huh. And now it's front and center on the popular television makeover show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.
According to market researchers Mintel Group, mextrosexuals are a worldwide $8 billion-a-year industry, with the U.S. accounting for more than $2.4 billion. Department stores alone sold $86 million worth of male grooming products in the first nine months of 2003, notes NPD Group, and market research firm Kline & Co. says such sales nearly tripled in the last 10 years. Helping men find their feminine side is reaching far into the apparel, cosmetics, self-improvement, and personal-care segments." Full Article >>
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