As part of my day job, I was just invited to attend an upcoming conference in Mpls titled Trend Agenda. One of the organizers is Cecily Sommers, Principal Strategist, UNIT 1. When I went to her company’s website, I found this essay in her weblog: Between Mook and Metrosexual, it’s a No-Man’s Land: Will the Real Man please stand up! She’s citing some of the same cultural shifts that Susan Faludi wrote about in the book Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man only she’s more current… and Faludi’s book came out before the so called backlash kicked in, epitomized by The Man Show. I didn’t know the term “mook” – maybe because I’m only up to season 2 on Sopranos DVDs. I also wasn’t aware of the term “manity,” coined by Faith Popcorn in her 2003 trends report. (Why is it that it’s women who are chronicling the male cultural shifts?)
Sommers’ piece is a good read. She’s not bemoaning the trends, just noting them. While the dichotomy isn’t as extreme in real life as its protrayed in the media, it’s evident in my life. My good buddy Jim just hosted an open house for his new monster garage/workshop, calling it the Southern Minnesota Men’s Crisis Center (photo gallery).
We sat around and drank beer and watched Jackass and talked motorcycles and had a grand time being mooks. But the fact that there are photos of women there (wives and daughters infiltrated towards the end of the night – maybe even earlier) betrays us. We’re family guys, involved in our communities, trying to stay in shape, and — more than we care to admit — trying to be a little more fashion conscious for our sweeties. (Trim that nose hair! Don’t wear the same ten year-old shirt 4 days in a row!) So we’re influenced by the culture, no doubt, but I think there’s probably more than a few us who are moderating its extremes.
Here’s a snip from the essay:
True masculinity is no longer a simple question of to quiche or not to quiche. No, the measure of today’s man swings between whether he watches “The Man Show” or gets a manicure. Whether he hangs out at “Hooters” or is a culinary master, sports a beer gut (a “1-pack”) or a finely chiseled abdominal 6-pack, drives a “Beemer” or a pick-up with fuzzy dice.
Now there’s nothing new about how groups of people generate their own culture with distinct signifiers of belonging. But there’s something going on here that’s more than just a matter of demographic differences; the sheer volume of the two trends in popular culture, as well as their polarity invite a deeper look.
Trend-watchers are paying attention to this emerging dichotomy in male identity. On the one hand we have what trend guru Faith Popcorn calls “Manity,” a marked increase in straight men who’ve grown a taste for facials and interior design. The facts speak for themselves: according to the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, the number of plastic surgery procedures on men in the U.S. has increased threefold since 1997. Clearly at home in the pursuit of aesthetic improvement, this fashion-conscious man of the new millennium has been dubbed the “Metrosexual.”
In what looks like a backlash to the feminized Metrosexual is a portrait of a man on the opposite end of the spectrum. Here, in defense of the more traditional male rites of boozing and belching is — in the words of Tony Soprano – the “Mook.” This testosterone-driven lug is becoming all the rage, to which the phenomenal success of television programs such as Jackass, Girls Gone Wild! and The Man Show gives credible testament.
There’s a natural tension between opposites. The fact that the Mook and Metrosexual have such a heightened presence right now suggest that they are an expression of a deeper tension in the contemporary male psyche. It’s an identity in search of self, and as tension generally heralds change, it’s also an indicator of a deeper cultural shift that’s underway. As ever, popular culture will be both the instrument and the witness to this struggle and its effects.