Masculine VS Metrosexual: A Portrait of Modern Male World

It cannot be denied that we live in a men’s world. Over the years, the self-concept of a man itself has been deconstruct and reconstruct through the representation in cultural product such as the media. In Indonesia, we tend to see the shifting in how men’s character is depicted in the media. When talking about men’s character, then we must talk about masculinity, since it is a set of attributes, behaviors and roles generally associated with boys and men. Masculinity is socially constructed, but made up of both socially-defined and biologically-created factors.[1] However, when talking about men’s character nowadays, there is one thing that cannot be left out: metrosexuality. Metrosexual is a portmanteau of “metropolitan” and “sexual”, coined in 1994 describing a man (especially one living in an urban, post-industrial, capitalist culture) who is especially meticulous about his grooming and appearance, typically spending a significant amount of time and money on shopping as part of this.[2] Therefore, regarding to this matter, recently Jakpat has conducted a survey in order to seeIndonesian’s perspective towards what-so-called “masculine guy” and “metrosexual man”. This survey involved 2840 respondents from across Indonesia, with a balance amount between male and female respondents. For the further notes, Jakpat’s respondents in this survey are Indonesian smart-phone users, with a range of age from 16 to 45 year-old.

This survey report is divided into four chapters. The first chapter consists of some general findings regarding to this matter, which is divided again into two parts. In the first part of general findings, first of all, we would like to see the first impression that our respondents have toward “masculine” and “metrosexual”. When they first heard the word “masculine”, apparently the first thing that crosses their mind is “man” (35.39%) or “manly” (21.65%) or “gentleman” (13.66%). On the other hand, when they first heard the word “metrosexual”, the first thing that crosses their mind is “fashionable” (43.06%) or “man” (12.78%) or “mature” (9.47%). Moreover, we would like to see what our respondents have in mind regarding to some characteristic features of masculine guy and metrosexual man. Apparently, our respondents think that a masculine guy should have and do things like “sports and gym” (61.87%), “outdoor activities” (55.11%), and “good-looking appearance” (45.46%). Meanwhile, they think that a metrosexual man should have and do things like “good-looking appearance” (64.61%), “sports and gym” (46.06%), and “sociable personality” (38.10%).

In the second part of general findings, we would like to do a mapping toward some things that should be used by masculine guy and metrosexual man according to our respondents. Regarding to masculine guy, respondents think that they use perfume (57.92%), face wash (54.65%), deodorant (54.40%), body wash (38.98%), and cologne (34.82%). Meanwhile, respondents think that metrosexual man uses perfume (65.04%), face wash (53.77%), cleanser (53.59%), deodorant (52.71%), and pomade/wax/gel (46.80%).

The second part of this survey report contains people’s perspective toward who Indonesian public figures that represent “masculinity” and “metrosexuality” the best. As for the masculine guy, apparently our respondents choose Rio Dewanto (49.23%), Joe Taslim (44.37%), and Iko Uwais (37.82%) as the top three Indonesian actors that represent masculinity the best. On the other hand, as for the metrosexual man, they choose Morgan Oey (31.90%), Christian Sugiono (25.00%), and Reza Rahardian (24.37%) as the top three Indonesian actors that represent metrosexuality the best. Meanwhile, our respondents choose Judika (36.48%), Afgan (26.09%), and Iwan Fals (25.99%) as the top three Indonesian singers that represent masculinity the best. As for representing the metrosexuality, top three singers chosen by our respondents are Afgan (47.32%), Vidi Aldiano (39.12%), and Rizky Febian (22.64%).

The third part of this survey report contains some arguments related to nowadays trend regarding to men’s appearance: beard and sideburns. Apparently, more than half of our respondents (50.67%) think that men without beard and sideburns represent “masculinity” better than men with beard and sideburns. Hence, most of our respondents (72.68%) think that men without beard and sideburns represent “metrosexuality” better than men with beard and sideburns. From both opinions, we can also find that women are more likely to choose men without beard and sideburns than men with beard and sideburns.

The last part of this survey report contains some trivia regarding to this “masculine vs metrosexual” issue. From this survey, apparently we find that almost all of our female respondents (91.74%) admit that they prefer masculine guy to metrosexual man. Lastly, we find that most of our male respondents in this survey (76.04%) admit that they assume themselves as a masculine guy rather than a metrosexual man. These findings indicate that whether it’s among men or women, Indonesian do prefer “masculinity” to “metrosexuality”; with whatever attributes that they tag along to those terms to represent a portrait of modern male world.

[1] Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masculinity

[2] Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrosexual

For more detail you can download XLS report at the button below (Bahasa Indonesia). JAKPAT report consists of 3 parts which are 1) Respondent Profile, 2) Crosstabulation for each question and 3) Raw Data. Respondent profile shows you demographic profiles ( gender,age range, location by province, and monthly spending). Cross tabulation enables you to define different demographic segment preference on each answer.