Category Archives: masculinity

Winsome, Losesome, Mansome

It’s always tricky as a writer talk­ing to a researcher for a TV or film doc­u­men­tary. On the one hand you want your ideas to be taken seri­ously and the his­tor­i­cal record to be as accu­rate as pos­si­ble. And of course we all like atten­tion. Espe­cially from a visual medium we prob­a­bly don’t belong in. …

May 8, 2012 – 5:42 pm | By Mark S | Posted in commentary, masculinity, metrosexual | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (15)

The Few, The Proud

The mythol­ogy, the rit­u­als, the dogma, the cult of mas­culin­ity and most of all the hair­cut, set US Marines apart. Mark Simp­son takes a look at a mem­oir of the First Gulf War. (Inde­pen­dent on Sun­day 23/03/2003) It may seem odd that the United States Marine Corps, the elite fourth branch of the US Armed …

April 21, 2012 – 12:58 pm | By Mark S | Posted in commentary, journalism, masculinity, review | Tagged , , , , | Comments (4)

The New Bromanticism

Just over half of British and Amer­i­can men are cur­rently in or have had a ‘bro­mance’ in the past accord­ing to a sur­vey, not by Dr Kin­sey, but by Badoo (‘the world’s largest social net­work for meet­ing new peo­ple’). The Badoo press release – issued on Valentine’s Day last week – claims that the sur­vey …

February 24, 2012 – 12:33 am | By Mark S | Posted in Bromance, commentary, masculinity | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (26)

Let me Hear Your Body Talk

Are men the new women? I’ve always avoided using that line until now. As the (hetero)sexual divi­sion of labour and lov­ing and look­ing con­tin­ues to fall apart, men are the new every­thing. Just as women are. But in the last few months we’ve been told men now take longer get­ting ready than women, mer­ci­fully delet­ing at …

January 9, 2012 – 11:00 pm | By Mark S | Posted in commentary, masculinity, metrosexual, sport | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (15)

Anders Breivik: Metro-Psycho

When I first saw the images of Nor­we­gian mass-murderer Anders Breivik, the ones he had so help­fully included in his press pack that accom­pa­nied his ‘man­i­festo’, two thoughts imme­di­ately popped into my net-addled head: a) They look pho­to­shopped. Espe­cially the soft-focus glam­our one in the Lacoste jumper with the col­lar turned up b) The ‘action …

August 3, 2011 – 3:46 pm | By Mark S | Posted in commentary, current affairs, masculinity, metrosexy | Tagged , , , , | Comments (7)

The Earring Wars are Over

Last Saturday’s The Lon­don Times Mag­a­zine ran an extract from ‘The Man in the Gray Flan­nel Skirt’, a mem­oir by Jon-Jon Gou­lian ‘the New York Review of Books first cross-dressing staffer’. I haven’t read it yet, but the extract inclined me to do so very soon. Here’s Gou­lian on the seman­tics of ear­rings in the 1980s — a seman­tics which I …

July 20, 2011 – 1:28 pm | By Mark S | Posted in commentary, fashion, masculinity, metrosexy | Tagged , , | Comments (17)

Henry Finally Throws in the Towel

Much-loved British heavy­weight boxer Henry Cooper died this week. Unborn in 1963, the year he nearly defeated Cas­sius Clay (the Brits love near-winners much more than win­ners), I remem­ber him for the curi­ous Brut TV com­mer­cials he did in the 1970s that helped usher in the world of male prod­uct aisles in super­mar­kets and sporno­graphic …

May 8, 2011 – 1:37 pm | By Mark S | Posted in advertising, commentary, masculinity, metrosexual | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (11)

Assume the Position: a queer defence of hazing

Mark Simp­son wants to be be soundly smacked with a pad­dle (Out mag­a­zine, 2006) When I joined my local rugby team, I was made to do ter­ri­ble, awful things. Even now, all these years later, I feel dis­tressed and choked up recount­ing what hap­pened. I had to stand on a chair as a full pint of …

April 28, 2011 – 12:20 pm | By Mark S | Posted in article, commentary, journalism, masculinity | Tagged , , , , | Comments (12)

Touching Another Dude Dudely

I’m not sure I entirely believe the pre­am­ble from the overly dudey — if very easy on the eye — pre­sen­ter and star of this ‘exper­i­ment’ in ‘touch­ing dudes softly’. Par­tic­u­larly the bit about ‘noth­ing makes me uncom­fort­able!’ But it is inter­est­ing to watch the responses of the men he decides to mon­ster with ‘inap­pro­pri­ate’ …

April 15, 2011 – 1:52 pm | By Mark S | Posted in commentary, masculinity | Tagged , , | Comments (86)