Mass Media and Popular Culture – Introduction to exam project By: Peter Packroff (BACS2) (Mother language not English) Module leader: Rachel Russel
“The Big Spending Metro-Man” Introduction: This project will assess the phenomenon Metro-Sexuality from a Political Economic perspective. The word “Metro-sexuality” was coined by Mark Simpson in 1994, and was awarded the Word of the Year 2003. The word means, in short terms, an aestheticisation and feminisation of masculinity – which, as the word implies, is most significant in City Life. This project will examine the allegation that the phenomenon is already culturally and socially signified in Glasgow. The aestheticisation and feminisation of masculinity can be seen expressed in adverts, and the extensions of male- clothes shops that will also be taken into account. But, the opening of “The Men’s Store”, and also the new “Men’s Room” (Glasgow), will here be argued to be clearest cultural signifiers of the phenomenon Metro Sexuality’s appearance, which no longer includes just physical needs as e.g. clothes, but now also hair wax, right skin tonic and more. To support this allegation, the project will use the Veblen- Simmel Model and theories of Cambell on consumption: The Veblen- Simmel Model attempts to explain the impact of fashion on the individual, as an ever ending competition between peers. Cambell argues in his work that fashion and the desire of consumption locks the consumer in an constant unsatisfied position, and therefore the consumer eager for more, to become like (in this case) an ideal picture of a real man - A status that is believed, can be reached through consuming - but in reality is unreachable. - An ever ending circle, which locks the new group of consumers in an ever ending consuming. A new market, worth millions!
Bibliography: Campbell, Colin The Romantic Ethic and the spirit of modern consumption, Basil Blackwell Inc. Gay Du, P Consumption and Identity at Work, SAGE Publication Miles S Social theory in the real world, SAGE Publication Miller, D Consumption: critical concepts in the social sciences, Routledge Simpson, M Sex terror, Erotic Misadventures in Pop Culture, Harrington Park Press Strinati, D An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture, Routledge