For the better part of two decades, Canadian author Russell Smith has been dispensing his brand of cultural commentary in newspapers, magazines and on radio, covering topics ranging from men’s fashion and style to restaurant quality.
But it wasn’t until the past year that the 43-year-old journalist — who recently released his first non-fiction book Men’s Style: The Thinking Man’s Guide To Dress — decided to explore men’s issues in greater detail, targeting a market that he felt was being neglected: average, slightly sophisticated, urban-living men.
Metrosexuals, you assume?
Smith cringes at the mere mention of the term, but more on that later.
To address this perceived media gender gap, the author created XYYZ.ca with a group of investors, a website devoted to men Smith describes as more grown up and mature than Maxim, and closer to the original Playboy, talking to “fun-loving guys living in Toronto who aren’t afraid of the arts or classical music, but who also want to drive fast cars and drink nice wine,” he says.
But that doesn’t mean XYYZ.ca is list-free. Tomorrow, a feature written by an anonymous female will be posted on the site detailing a list of things men wouldn’t necessarily think women notice about them (think dirty fingernails and bad table manners, for example).
The site also includes regular features such as What Would Cary Do? — a column written by Smith offering sartorial advice in adherence to Cary Grant’s sense of style — arts listings, practical advice on a range of topics including sex, cars, and personal hygiene, and other topics they categorize simply as “guy stuff.”
“I think Canadian men have become more sophisticated over the past 25 years,” Smith says. “People are really interested in that discussion and it’s a change in Canadian culture and society that growing up we were told it was extremely embarrassing to show an interest in anything aesthetic, be it art, music or clothing.
“Style sections of major newspapers are aimed primarily at women; certainly in publishing, literature is aimed at women. Sex And The City culture has grown so powerful and it’s mainly aimed at women and we thought there’s a niche there for guys.”
And then there’s that whole issue of the metrosexual, the kind of guy to whom Smith proudly declares XYYZ.ca is not targeted.
I’ll admit that at some point I used this space to declare that if “metrosexual” is the preferred term to refer to a guy who cares about more than — but not excluding — chicks and cars, and grooms on a regular basis, then I probably fit the bill.
But I agree with Smith that the use of the term —originally created by British writer Mark Simpson in The Independent newspaper in 1994 to mock aesthetically-obsessed males — has gotten out of control.
“This idea that a man should not be interested in the aesthetic or artistic is a very recent one in Western history.
It really only came about from the 1960s and 1970s … just before that the ideal of masculinity would have been James Bond who is always in an elegant suit and clean shaven,” Smith says. “It’s what Cary Grant represents in all of his movies.
“We never call anyone a metrosexual because there’s nothing new about it.”
