Battling for Supremacy: the Retrosexual vs the Metrosexual
II: Battling for supremacy - The Retrosexual versus the Metrosexual.
One theory that has been used to account for the construction of identity is the conception of Binary Opposition. Frequently, when the notion of binary opposition is considered, the use of ‘Other’ is manifest. “Otherness is a fundamental category of human thought... it became to contrast “Good and Evil, right and left, God and Lucifer” (de Beauvoir, 1949; 17). The ‘Other’, therefore, is utilized to provide empowerment to particular ‘dominant’ identities or cultures by simultaneously subordinating its opponent. The battle for supremacy begins as the growth in postmodernity brings about a new metrosexual man who fights for domination, alongside the back-lashing traditional retrosexual man fighting to keep its superiority. The growth in consumer society that dominates popular culture continues to develop and maintain the metrosexual consumerist. The rebellious retrosexual demands power, in which producers come to the rescue with a back-lash to the metrosexual values, enforcing more consumerism for retrosexual men to ‘prove’ and maintain their ‘bloke-ish’ ways. In order to do this, this chapter will present an analysis from the data collected alongside the contextual analysis, which should demonstrate a significant polarity between the two masculinities. Correspondingly, the data analysis will cover the way in which hegemonic masculinity is exemplified through the advertisements, and the effects this has on young men. The research will focus on the idea of binary opposition and how this contributes to the understanding of metrosexual and retrosexual masculinities, which ultimately follows up from the research examined in the first section on male dominance.
Binary opposition is an important attribute in regards to the justification of power. Unlike regular opposition, binary opposition works on a deeper level that creates a hierarchal subordination. In particular, an example of such deeper
One theory that has been used to account for the construction of identity is the conception of Binary Opposition. Frequently, when the notion of binary opposition is considered, the use of ‘Other’ is manifest. “Otherness is a fundamental category of human thought... it became to contrast “Good and Evil, right and left, God and Lucifer” (de Beauvoir, 1949; 17). The ‘Other’, therefore, is utilized to provide empowerment to particular ‘dominant’ identities or cultures by simultaneously subordinating its opponent. The battle for supremacy begins as the growth in postmodernity brings about a new metrosexual man who fights for domination, alongside the back-lashing traditional retrosexual man fighting to keep its superiority. The growth in consumer society that dominates popular culture continues to develop and maintain the metrosexual consumerist. The rebellious retrosexual demands power, in which producers come to the rescue with a back-lash to the metrosexual values, enforcing more consumerism for retrosexual men to ‘prove’ and maintain their ‘bloke-ish’ ways. In order to do this, this chapter will present an analysis from the data collected alongside the contextual analysis, which should demonstrate a significant polarity between the two masculinities. Correspondingly, the data analysis will cover the way in which hegemonic masculinity is exemplified through the advertisements, and the effects this has on young men. The research will focus on the idea of binary opposition and how this contributes to the understanding of metrosexual and retrosexual masculinities, which ultimately follows up from the research examined in the first section on male dominance.
Binary opposition is an important attribute in regards to the justification of power. Unlike regular opposition, binary opposition works on a deeper level that creates a hierarchal subordination. In particular, an example of such deeper