[Urbanstudy] Re:5thposting

[susmita ghosh]

  This is my 5th posting regarding urban masculinity.

  The  public culture  of  today  is  tuned  with  new  possibilities  
opened  up   to   middle

class  in  the  onset  of  liberalization  and  media  take  an  active  
part  in  creating  new

discursive  order. Now  this  new  order  gives  consumption  a  significant 
  value.

Consumption  is  the  buzz  word  for  cool  urban  guy. These  men  are a 
small  section

of  population  but  they  are  the  significant  role  player  in   
consumerist  capitalism .

Within  the  advanced   form  of  consumer  culture  not  only  dress,  
accessories,

artifacts  but  sexual  body  and  identity  became  part  of  stylized  
life.  The  circulation

of  the  well groomed men  ensures  more  sale   in  beauty  product  and   
creates   a

public  culture  where  men’s  body  can be  a  site  of   global  capital  
investment.  These

images  can  be  sited  as  a  break  from  the  traditional form of 
patriarchy. For  example

men  and  makeup  does not  go  together  but  new  man’s  love  affair  
with  his  looks

is  promoted  by  new  genre  of  visual  culture. As  in  a  song  sequence 
  of  the  film

“Kal ho naa ho”shows  Saif  Ali  Khan  at a  beauty  parlor  being  
pedicured , manicured

while  singing “Dhyan ab  apna  zyada  rakta  hoon, Sochta  hoon  main  
kaisa  lagta

Hoon,Aaina  ho  to  dekh  leta  hoon,Kaise  yeh  chehra  aisa  khila  hai”

This  stylize  representation  of  new  man  is  merely  a  rhetorical  
gesture  which

becomes  the  selling  point .But  how  far  these images  is  a  indicator  
of  real  change

in  gender stereotype? I  will  like  to  elaborate  through  an  a  article 
  appear  in  The

Telegraph  ( 5 june 2005) This  article  regarding  new  market  makeover  
shows

a  new  man’s  interest  in  stocking  up  his  selves  is  out  of  sheer  
interest  in

consumption.  The  article  starts  like  this  “You  can  spot  him  
easily-  the  confused

young  man  with  a   shopping  basket  overflowing  with  chips , some  
frozen  cold

cuts, chanchur  ,soda, Maggi. A  young  techie  after a hard  day’s  work  
about  to

unwind  with  his  friends  over  a  few  drinks”. He  really  doesnot  need 
  anything

more,  the  lady  beside  him   is  committed  to  buy  basic  stuff. As  
the  narrative  goes

on “just  behind  him  in  the  over  crowded  aisle  is  the  composite  
shopper.  Her  son

hoves  around  patiently(his  job  really  is  to  drive  her  home) out  
comes her  list  and

her  cart  soon  brims  over  with  five  Kg  packs  of  atta,  buy-one  get 
  one  free

Basmati, Kelloggs, Surf, masala, tomato  sauce.’ New  man’s  interest  in  
domesticity

brings  him  even  to  grocery  sections  of  shopping  malls  to  buy  
goodies  but  gender

division  regarding  shopping  is  quite  explicit.

Then  the  neo  images  are   not  any  radical  rupture  and  ‘neo’  and  
‘retro’  as  a

form  of  fashion  have  hardly  distinctive  at  the  level  of  value. I  
will  like  to

elaborate    through  an  article  written by  Indrajit  Hazra,which  I  
came  across  at  H T

Sunday  magazine. ‘C’mon!  Be  a  man’  lists  out  ‘ten  retro  must  haves 
  including

Rolling  Stones  L.Ps,  The  Denim  jacket, Gabber  Sing  version    of  
Solay  poster,

Camus’s  The  Outsider  etc.  He  instructs  these  are  the  sing  to  
ultimately  return

in  the  “fold  of  normal  man”.  He  thinks  “it’s   time  for  you  to  
throw  away  those

cucumber  slices  resting  delicately  on  your  closed  eyelids.” It  is  
interesting  piece

of  writing  as  it  announces  metrosexuality  is a  passing  fade,  and  
retrosexuality  is

currently  in  thing! Then  this  piece  of  writing  acknowledge  
masculinity  as  a  stylize

practice  which  must  change  according  to  time. It  also    acknowlage  
there  is  not

any  one  form  of  masculinity  but  one  can  choose  from  various  
masculinities.

It  cannot  break  the  categorical  binary  of  effeminate  and  macho  men 
  even  when

it  tries  to  grasp  masculinity  as  a  culturally  constructed  identity. 
And  the notion

of  retrosexual  is  constructed  as  oppose  to  metrosexual .  And  these  
naming  are  not

neutral  but  articulation  by  popular  media. By  assigning  names  a  
pattern  is  created

which  actively   structure  certain  identity   formulation. And  this  new 
  names  are

meaningful  because  it  works  within  socially  ascribed  meaning  of  old 
  believe

system.

  Actually  without  any  break  from  earlier  era  of  cultural  
representation,  hyper

masculine  and  ‘alternative’  images  are  widely  circulated  within  
popular media.

Masculine  practices   only  change  rotationally  like  any  other  
embodiments  of

fashion  industry,  but  cultural  connotation  of  masculinity  hardly  
change.



Susmita

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