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If this is what spornosexual means, then God help us all
By Louisa Peacock


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/wom...lp-us-all.html

If you're confused by the new term 'spornosexual' - a more extreme sex- and body-obsessed male - Louisa Peacock brings you terrifying evidence of what this means in practice



Bobbie and Harry from TOWIE on holiday in Marbella. Photo: XPOSURE

If you thought the mankini was bad, the penchant for men revealing way more than they need to on the beach has now reached a whole new level. The half-thong mankini hybrid.
I'm genuinely sorry I had to share this picture (above) with you. But really, we need to take note. If this is what some men think makes them look sexy, then we're all doomed.
Brace yourself, though, because there's much, more more of it to come, if we are to believe the rise of so-called 'spornosexuality'.
Twenty years ago, Mark Simpson coined the term 'metrosexual'. Now, a new, more extreme, sex- and body-obsessed version of men exists, he says - and they're called spornosexuals.
The term encapsulates the new breed of male who thinks nothing of using (and abusing) products, practises and pleasures previously only the domain of women and gay men. Practises including wearing half-thongs to the beach.

"With their painstakingly pumped and chiselled bodies, muscle-enhancing tattoos, piercings, adorable beards and plunging necklines it’s eye-catchingly clear that second-generation metrosexuality is less about clothes than it was for the first," writes Simpson.

The entire male cast of The Only Way Is Essex is a case in point. Think of Towie's Dan Osborne in a pair of glittery speedos, Simpson says.
But wait - oh wait - it's already gone one step further...

There are no words.
Erm...
Obscene... this must be a joke... obscene?
Honestly, I'm struggling.
I am scarred for life, is what I am. As are plenty of other law-abiding citizens who responded to my outcry on Twitter today.

I'm still struggling to find any sentence that can justifiably excuse Bobby and Harry's half-thongs. Where are the thong police?
And please show many any woman - anyone, anywhere? - who actually thinks these look hot.

(...)

Bring back the mankini? Never thought I'd say that.



(...)

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Are men's naked bodies the stuff of nightmares? I think not
By Zoe Margolis


https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...ie-male-nudity

The outraged response to Towie stars revealing all shows how conditioned we are to think of male nudity as sordid and unsexy



‘When we’re surrounded by media reinforcing the ridicule of men, it’s hard to see them as people who are equally alluring and desirable.’ Photograph: Beststock/Alamy

Why are we so critical of men showing their bodies? When some Towie participants recently wore half-thong mankini hybrids on a beach, the media responded with outrage at the audacity of their outfits, vilifying them for daring to be exhibitionist.

"The penchant for men revealing way more than they need to on the beach has now reached a whole new level," said The Telegraph. "If this is what some men think makes them look sexy, then we're all doomed."

Doomed? Hardly. Ironically, by openly condemning any expression of male sexiness, the end result would certainly end up being negative. What's more revealing, pun intended, is that the journalist's own prejudices are clear: they state they are "scarred for life" looking at the photos, as if images of semi-nude men could actually make their eyes bleed.

Similarly, the Metro apologised, almost with embarrassment, for publishing the images, saying they were "disturbing" and "could give you nightmares". Men's bodies: creepy enough to stop you sleeping. The Daily Mirror's ampp3d blog, which generally deals with correcting data errors in politics, helpfully offered an infographic on the half-thong, placing it on the lowest position on the "acceptability" axis and adding "Not this swimwear please for the love of god". Because wearing something so exposing is both unacceptable and abhorrent, right?

Sure, the swimwear style may not be to everyone's tastes and much of this coverage is done with tongue firmly in cheek, but that still presents a problem: men and male bodies are mocked and shamed as a matter of routine. It's interesting that particularly with regard to male nudity, these strong responses – which often reflect disgust – are so common and pervasive, especially in the mainstream media, but also in widespread society.

This is in stark contrast to how the majority of women's bodies are presented – as sexy and aspirational. Obviously, women are also criticised for how they look, but in comparison men, and the idea that they might be sexy, are almost always treated with scorn.

One might argue that this is due to a fear of male sexuality, which is often portrayed as sordid, shameful and something to be controlled or avoided. We're conditioned to not look at men in the same way we do women; when we're surrounded by media reinforcing the ridicule of men, it's hard to see them as sexual beings, as people who are equally alluring and desirable.

It's no surprise that with the sexual objectification of women being the dominant perspective in society, there exists a quiet vacuum in which conventional heterosexual sexual objectification of men is almost nonexistent. The denial and ignoring of the beauty of men and of male sexuality is harmful to both men and women and helps enable this sexist double standard to prevail. If women were not the default sexual objects, and if when we said "sexy" there wasn't an assumption that that means "female", we'd have more equality.

This isn't revolutionary: parity in sexual objectification will not instantly bring about an equal society. But it is a small step in balancing how we view sex and sexuality, and that can be a positive move. So please, can we applaud those who step outside the gender roles society restricts them to, not undermine them for doing so. The next time men in the public eye dare to wear something revealing, I'd like to read something in support of male beauty, not mocking it.

When men are brought up to feel their bodies are beautiful, that the expression of their sexuality is positive and that being seen as sexy is a good thing, not something to be mocked, that will be a good day. And when women feel they have as much entitlement to look at men, as men do with women, and that it's ok to desire them rather than try to be the object of desire themselves, then we'll have made some progress."

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The metrosexual is dead. Long live the 'spornosexual'
By Mark Simpson


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/fashi...rnosexual.html

20 years ago, Mark Simpson coined the term 'metrosexual'. But now a new, more extreme, sex- and body-obsessed version has emerged, he explains



Dan Osborne (right), from The Only Way is Essex, shows off his 21st-century physique Photo: REX FEATURES

In a development which will probably have him running to the mirror yet again to search anxiously for lines, this year the metrosexual leaves his teens and turns 20.
How quickly your children grow up. Although it seems only yesterday, I first wrote about him in 1994 after attending an exhibition organised by GQ magazine called "It’s a Man’s World". I’d seen the future of masculinity and it was moisturised.
"Metrosexual man, the single young man with a high disposable income, living or working in the city (because that’s where all the best shops are) is perhaps the most promising consumer market of the decade," I predicted.

Two decades of increasingly out and proud – and highly lucrative – male vanity later, and the metrosexual remains the apple of consumerism’s rapacious eye. In a recent report, HSBC drooled all over his "Yummy"-ness, pointing out how mainstream metrosexuality has become.
This was of course old news to anyone with eyes to see the extremely image-conscious and product-consuming men around them – or in bed with them. Or the way that the glistening pecs and abs of men’s health and fitness magazines have been outselling the "lads' mags" for several years.
Or indeed anyone who saw the news last year that men in the UK now spend more on shoes than women.
From the perspective of today's fragranced, buffed, ripped, groomed, selfie-adoring world, it's hard to believe that the metrosexual had to struggle to be heard in the early 1990s. Most people were in "New-Lad" denial back then about what was happening to men and why they were taking so long in the bathroom.



Just as male homosexuality was still stigmatised and partly criminalised back then, the male desire to be desired – the self-regarding heart of metrosexuality – was scorned by many. Narcissism was seen as being essentially feminine, or Wildean – and look what happened to him. The trials of Oscar Wilde, the last dandy, at the end of the 19th Century helped stamp a Victorian morality over much of the 20th century. Male vanity was at best womanish – at worst, perverted.
The end of the 20th century, the abolition of the last laws discriminating against male homosexuality, and arrival of the preening dominance of celebrity culture with its Darwinian struggle to be noticed in a visual, "branded" world finally blew away the remnants of Victorianism.

To illustrate this, I only have to say two words: David Beckham, the working-class England footballer who became more globally famous for his attention-seeking haircuts, unabashed prettiness and rampant desire to be desired than for his footballing skills. Once the sari-wearing midfielder was outed in 2002 (by me again, sorry) as the ultimate metrosexual, everyone suddenly "got it". All that Nineties denial turned into incessant Noughties chatter about metrosexuals and "male grooming". But still people failed to understand what was really going on with men.
In fact, the momentous nature of the masculine revolution that metrosexuality represents has been largely obscured by much of the superficial coverage it got. Metrosexuality is, in a paradox that Wilde would have relished, not skin deep. It’s not about facials and manbags, guyliner and flip flops. It’s not about men becoming "girly" or "gay". It’s about men becoming everything. To themselves. Just as women have been encouraged to do for some time.
This uptake by men of products, practises and pleasures previously ring-fenced for women and gay men is so normal now – even if we still need to be reassured with the word "man" or "guy" emblazoned on the packaging, like a phallic pacifier – that it’s taken for granted by young men today who really have become everything. So much so that it can be too much for the older generation of metrosexuals.