When British journalist Mark Simpson coined the word metrosexual in 1994, he wrote that this new kind of man “might prefer women, he might prefer men.” What marked him was the time, money and attention he sank into his looks: grooming, skin care, clothes, shopping. The word is about style and spending. Sexual orientation doesn’t come into it.
Major dictionaries narrow it to straight men anyway. Merriam-Webster defines metrosexual as “a usually urban heterosexual male given to enhancing his personal appearance by fastidious grooming, beauty treatments, and fashionable clothes.” It dates the word to 1994, built from metro(politan) plus the “-sexual” in heterosexual and homosexual.
Metrosexual Definitions: Merriam-Webster, Collins and Mark Simpson
Everyone agrees on the grooming. On sexuality, the dictionaries part ways with the man who made up the word.
| Source | Definition | Says straight? |
|---|---|---|
| Merriam-Webster | “a usually urban heterosexual male given to enhancing his personal appearance by fastidious grooming, beauty treatments, and fashionable clothes” | Yes |
| Dictionary.com | “a heterosexual, usually urban male who pays much attention to his personal appearance and cultivates an upscale lifestyle” | Yes |
| Collins English Dictionary, via Dictionary.com | “a heterosexual man who spends a lot of time and money on his appearance and likes to shop” | Yes |
| American Dialect Society, 2003 | “a fashion-conscious heterosexual male,” or a man who “has clearly taken himself as his own love object” | Yes |
| Mark Simpson, 1994 | “the single young man with a high disposable income, living or working in the city” | No: “might prefer women, he might prefer men” |
In everyday use, the meaning has slid toward “straight guy who moisturizes.” Simpson had something wider and stranger in mind: men of any orientation who wanted to be looked at.
Mark Simpson Coined ‘Metrosexual’ in The Independent in 1994
Britain’s Independent printed the word first, on Nov. 15, 1994, under the headline “Here Come the Mirror Men.” That date comes from the reprint on Simpson’s own site, which cites Word Spy and several dictionaries.
He’d just been to “It’s a Man’s World,” a London show put on by GQ magazine and billed as “Britain’s first style exhibition for men.” The sponsors ran from “Dunhill to Porsche, Timberland to Simpson’s of Piccadilly,” he noted.
Then he sketched the type. “Metrosexual man, the single young man with a high disposable income, living or working in the city,” Simpson wrote, “is perhaps the most promising consumer market of the decade.” He saved the twist for orientation: the man “might prefer women, he might prefer men, but when all’s said and done nothing comes between him and his reflection.”
Gay men, Simpson said, were the prototype. The look got its test run on them first, in his telling, and it sold very well.
In a January 2025 essay marking the word’s 30th birthday, he explained that he’d used the word “as shorthand for some of the ideas I advanced in Male Impersonators,” the book he delivered earlier in 1994. He wrote the Independent piece, by his account, “in the mischievous style of my ‘It’s a Queer World’ columns for gayish men’s style magazine Attitude.”
Does Metrosexual Mean Gay? What Simpson Actually Argued
No. Metrosexual isn’t a sexual orientation, and you can’t read a man’s attractions off his grooming routine.
Simpson put it more bluntly in 2002. “He might be officially gay, straight or bisexual, but this is utterly immaterial,” he wrote of the typical metrosexual in Salon. The deck under Salon’s headline read: “He’s well dressed, narcissistic and obsessed with butts. But don’t call him gay.”
American media kept shrinking the word down to a gay-adjacent straight man, and he kept objecting. In a January 2004 Salon follow-up, Simpson asked whether a metrosexual is “a straight man in touch with his feminine side,” then answered his own question: “This common definition is a more polite version of the ‘straight men who act gay’ line.” His next sentence called it a “laughably mistaken notion that gay men are by definition in touch with their feminine sides.”
Simpson wrote the word with a queer eye, which is why it lives near gay slang and camp. Living near them never turned it into an identity label.
David Beckham, Salon and the Word’s 2003 Breakout
Eight years later, Simpson’s Salon piece “Meet the metrosexual,” published July 22, 2002, gave the idea a famous face.
It was soccer star David Beckham’s. “Beckham is the biggest metrosexual in Britain because he loves being looked at,” Simpson wrote. Display and attention earned him the label. That same article called a metrosexual’s orientation “utterly immaterial.”
The word caught on, Simpson wrote in 2025, “thanks in part to my outing of David ‘I love my gay fans’ Beckham as the prime exemplar.” Back in his 2004 Salon follow-up, though, he gave more credit for its worldwide spread to “the very canny trend-spotter for a giant global advertising company” than to his own writing.
By early 2004 the word had won. Meeting in Boston, the American Dialect Society named metrosexual its Word of the Year for 2003 after three rounds of voting.
Spornosexual, Lumbersexual and Other ‘-Sexual’ Spinoffs
Once metrosexual took off, “-sexual” became a style suffix. Dictionary.com builds lumbersexual from “lumber(jack)” plus “-sexual” and dates it to 2010 to 2015.
| Term | First used | Coined or popularized by | What it describes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Metrosexual | 1994 | Mark Simpson, The Independent | Urban man devoted to grooming, clothes and shopping |
| Spornosexual | March 2014 blog post; Daily Telegraph, June 2014 | Mark Simpson | Gym-built, tattooed, selfie-ready body as the main accessory |
| Lumbersexual | Recorded 2010 to 2015 | No single coiner documented | City man styled like a rugged lumberjack, with plaid shirts and a beard, per Dictionary.com |
Simpson wrote the sequel himself. His June 2014 Telegraph piece, reposted on his site, described younger men “with their painstakingly pumped and chiselled bodies, muscle-enhancing tattoos, piercings, adorable beards.” For that crowd, he wrote, “Their own bodies more than clobber and product have become the ultimate accessory.”
Lumbersexual reached mainstream media later that year. Time ran “Confessions of a Lumbersexual” in November 2014, pointing to a 2010 Urban Dictionary entry.
These aren’t orientations either. Gay men’s own labels work differently: men pick bear, otter or twink for themselves. Gayety’s guide to gay tribes covers those.
Is Metrosexual Still Used? Simpson Says It’s Redundant
After the peak, the word cooled off. In a 2018 MEL Magazine interview, Simpson described a backlash against the term and its use as a coded insult. His claim that it was “apparently banned” was rhetorical, not a report of a legal ban. He argued that men’s interest in grooming had continued even as the label faded.
By 2025 he’d decided the behavior won and the label lost. “Also largely redundant is calling someone metrosexual today,” he wrote. Metrosexuality, “the male desire to be desired,” is “completely normal for the younger generation,” Simpson argued, since they grew up soaking in it.
Men were grooming long before anyone had a word for it. Gayety’s brief history of manscaping goes back further.
Metrosexual Meaning FAQ
What does metrosexual mean?
A man, usually urban, who puts a lot into his appearance through grooming, skin care and fashion. Merriam-Webster first records the word in 1994.
Who coined the term ‘metrosexual’?
British writer Mark Simpson, in The Independent on Nov. 15, 1994. His July 22, 2002, Salon essay “Meet the metrosexual” made it famous.
Does metrosexual mean gay?
No. Simpson wrote that a metrosexual “might prefer women, he might prefer men.” Dictionaries usually specify heterosexual men. Neither version makes it an orientation.
Why is David Beckham called a metrosexual?
In his 2002 Salon piece, Simpson called Beckham “the biggest metrosexual in Britain” and pointed to how much he loved being looked at. The label describes Beckham’s style and public image.
What is a spornosexual?
Simpson’s 2014 update: a man whose gym-built body, tattoos and selfies are his main style statement. He first used the word in a March 2014 blog post, then in the Daily Telegraph that June.
Is metrosexual an outdated term?
Mostly. It peaked in the early 2000s, and in 2025 Simpson wrote that calling someone metrosexual today is “largely redundant” now that the habits are ordinary.
