by Eddie Tafber

Created on: September 07, 2009   Last Updated: September 08, 2009

The British journalist Mark Simpson, creator of the term metrosexual, defines that the typical metrosexual is a young man with money to spend, living in or within easy reach of a metropolis because that's where all the best shops, clubs, gyms and hairdressers are. He might be officially gay, straight or bisexual, but this is utterly immaterial because he has clearly taken himself as his own love object and pleasure as his sexual preference.

Before determining whether metrosexual is an oxymoron or not, let's define what is an oxymoron. The Merriam Webster English dictionary explains it as follows: A combination of contradictory or incongruous words; broadly; something (as a concept) that is made up of contradictory or incongruous elements.

From here, we can take a two step analysis to determine whether the term metrosexual is oxymoronic: The etymological analysis, and the conceptual analysis.

1. Etymological analysis

If a word per se can be broad and incongruous, then the term metrosexual is probably one of the greatest oxymora that the English language (along with the Spanish, the French, the German, and pretty much any other language that has incorporated such word to its officially approved vocabulary) has ever seen. To confirm this, it takes as little as determining the etymology of the word.

The first etymological root that comes to my mind with the term metrosexuality is the Greek metron (to measure), and of course the sexuality part that comes afterwards. If we take this root as valid, the term metrosexual would accurately define anything related to the practice of measuring sex or sexuality (however that may be done). Because of the inherent dissociation between the coinage of the term and the concept that it supposedly defines, this is an incongruous word and as such is also an oxymoron.

Nevertheless, Mark Simpson would for sure disagree with the above statement, because according to his rationale, metrosexual would be more closely related to the root metropolis and sexuality. Given these conditions, then the word metrosexual would more accurately apply to anyone enjoying sexual affinity with big cities, which is nonsense. In fact, this etymology gives the word metrosexual an equally incongruous (if not worse) meaning than the root we analyzed before.

2. Conceptual analysis

Up to this point, it appears quite clear that, on its grammatical side at least, the word metrosexual is wrong, vague and inaccurate. But on the conceptual side of the term,

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