August 25, 2004

Interview with CNN Anchor Fredricka Whitfield

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR:   Metrosexuals among the politicals nothing wrong with that, well how do you define metrosexuals? Perhaps a man unafraid of nurturing his stylishly conscious side. Well author Peter Hyman has written a book about this gender bending phenomenal called The Reluctant Metrosexual:   Dispatches from an Almost Hip Life . He joins us from Detroit. Well good to see you Peter.

PETER HYMAN, AUTHOR:   Hi Fredricka. How are you? Thanks for having me.

WHITFIELD:   I'm doing pretty good. First of all, you've got to define what is the reluctant metrosexual.

HYMAN:   Well, a reluctant metrosexual is someone who fears commitment generally and fears metrosexualality specifically. And the reason I called the book The Reluctant Metrosexual is because the word reluctant tested much better in national focus groups than hypoallergenic and turgid, so we went with that.

WHITFIELD:   Does this mean that metrosexual has become a dirty word? I mean a lot of guys who are metrosexual just don't want to admit it, because it infers something else?

HYMAN:   I think it does, I think again personally I use the word reluctant. We thought it would help sell books, but also I think for me, I would never really self-define myself as a metrosexual or as a gen-x person or preppie. I think the terms sort of has the same kind of simplistic moniker, and I think its being used as more as a marketing construct than anything to define a legitimate subculture.

WHITFIELD:   So then your book ends up being kind of a funny guide to being a metrosexual? Yes?     

HYMAN:   Somewhat, not really. It's actually -- well the font is very funny, I want to say, that first off. It's printed on a very funny font. I don't know how funny the book is. But it's really less a guidebook than it is, to some extent unfortunately, really, an examination of my life through a collection of humorous essays.

Now whether the person going through those kind of misadventures is a metrosexual is up for debate. I may have some tendencies that meet that term, such as the ability to discern between, you know, trousers that are flat front and pleated Dockers, apparently that somehow elevates me into that stratosphere. But the book doesn't really give guides suggestions to people as to how you should decorate your home or what kind of flowers to put out. There are books that do that.

WHITFIELD:   So if you are a metrosexual, you probably already know it, even though you don't want to necessarily profess as such. You mention in your book that metrosexuals have an affinity for expensive home furnishings, la prairie face products, or I guess any kind of big name, expensive designer face products, and heirloom tomatoes?

HYMAN:   Well I used those sort of very specific examples, I think, in a way. I was attempting to send up the point that it's become kind of this -- again, a marketing construct is that -- in my opinion. So I -- you know, again, and I think the next line after that is something like oddly, you know, I prefer well-made objects to those of lesser quality.

And I think that it's sort obvious that anyone would want nicer things, and I don't know why -- what I have issue is why that means you're in this kind of special class that has this, you know, somehow this new determination.

WHITFIELD:   I like it that your determination in the book, if there is a place where metrosexuals congregate, for one it would be the Conde Nast Building in Manhattan.

HYMAN:   Well yes, although, the population of straight men in that building is very, very small, I did work there, I worked at "Vanity Fair" for about four years, and I think sort of in those types of industries you have men who perhaps lean a little bit more towards having an aesthetic sensibility that could be just gay enough.

I think that that in a way is what, if you want a definition of metrosexual, again I'm reluctant to use the term unless it would help my faltering career. But if you wanted a definition it might be a straight guy whose aesthetics are just gay enough. For better or worse, and I'm not advocating that people do that.

WHITFIELD:   And I hope you're kidding in your book about your experience with the Brazilian wax. Please tell me you're kidding?

HYMAN:   I don't know, you know it's difficult to say. The book is a collection of essays that are all true with the exception of the parts that I made up entirely. So that part, I think we'll leave it up to the readers to determine. But you know it was an interesting experience.

WHITFIELD:   So bottom line, can you be too coifed; you know can you be to stylish to be metrosexual, to kind of lose the luster of being a metrosexual?

HYMAN:   Can one be too coifed? I think absolutely. And I think that anyone who sort of follows these kind of queer eye and any sort of extreme makeover type of advice too literally again, is probably not -- they might be a metrosexual, but they probably don't have their own unique since ability which I think is probably more interesting than just being someone that follows you know a Kenneth Cole catalog to a tee and looks like it.

WHITFIELD:   All right, Peter Hyman in Detroit. Thanks so much for joining us. The book is The Reluctant Metrosexual:   Dispatches from an Almost Hip Life.

HYMAN:   Thank you very much.

WHITFIELD:   All right, thanks a lot. Good luck to you and your book.

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