Posted on 11/09/2005 6:55:21 AM PST by laney
Gwyneth Paltrow is one. So are Angelina Jolie and Leonardo di Caprio. Chances are your bikram yoga teacher has the major characteristics and so does the guy who makes your fruit smoothie at Jamba Juice. Donna Karan is totally in on it.
The salesperson who helps you find the right Botanical Kinetics moisturizer at Aveda is probably one, along with your eco-tourism guide at Costa Rican surf camp. Richard Gere may be the proto-one and Uma Thurman was pretty much born into it. What is influencing Hollywood stars and Wal-Mart shoppers, fashionistas and Filene’s basement-dwellers alike? It’s called metrospirituality, and chances are you already know or even
Do you go out of your way to buy organic food? Have you thought about the wu wei in your home? Have you tried yoga, belly-dancing, or surfing recently?
Are you attracted to traditional crafts from other cultures or have you started knitting? Do you own a Prius or have you thought about buying a hybrid car? Are you a tea connoisseur or an organic wine- and beer-drinker? Is there a certain aromatherapy scent that brings you comfort, especially in candle form?
If most of your answers are yes, then count yourself among the growing numbers of metrospirituals—the kinder, gentler post-Yuppies who want to treat the earth and native cultures with respect, connect with their inner source and inspiration, test their bodies and expand their minds with ancient physical practices—and do it all with serious style.
Jim Twitchell, a professor of English at the University of Florida and author of many books about consumer culture, including "Adcult USA: The Triumph of Advertising in America" (1995), attributes the demand for luxury goods to a need for salvation or epiphany through consuming.
Throughout history, Twitchell argues, "The primary deliverer of sensations was the church. That’s where you went to have an epiphany. … The sensations of luxury mirror the sensations of epiphany—the ability to give the consumer the sensation that I’ve come to the end of the line, I’m saved, I’m there, I don’t have to wrestle any more." The metrospiritual takes luxury-buying to a new level--reaching outward for connection to the planet and to each other.
According to Sharon Lee of youth-trend forecasting firm Look-Look, "There’s lots of desire to be spiritual and have more meaning than a commercial, purely secular lifestyle provides. And there’s a smorgasbord of product offerings that have gradations of spirituality woven into them." The words you see and hear again and again on the many products that help define and support the metrospiritual lifestyle—like Fresh’s Crème Ancienne which is made by hand at a monastery in the Czech Republic--are "calm," "enrich," "renew," "inspire," "experience," "connect," "heal," "ancient" and "conscious," for starters. is a metrospiritual Metrospirituality is the mainstreaming of Taoist, Buddhist (thanks to Richard Gere and Uma’s dad, Buddhism scholar and practitioner Robert Thurman), and Hindu values, among others, into an easily digestible, buyable form.
Take Hampton Chutney Company, for instance. This highly popular New York-area food empire makes traditional Indian dosas and uttapams—the kind of thing you might make and eat at an Indian ashram—which is exactly where the owners, Gary and Isabel MacGurn, met in 1990. They now have three thriving outposts at very tony addresses—one in Long Island's Hamptons, one in New York City's Soho, and one on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. At the Soho store, pictures of yogis decorate the walls and devotional Indian chants pour soothingly out of the stereo.
And what are you actually getting if you have the patience to wait on the slowly snaking line? Semi-fast food that is nutritious and delicious (the Number Six, for example, is masala-spiced potatoes with spinach, jack cheese, and tomato), served in an atmosphere heavy on the good yogic vibes. You’re getting food with a stamp of individualism and thought, an exotic staple made American and virtuous in some ineffable way.
Virtue is a key feature of the metrospiritual lifestyle, and those in the fold expect it not only of themselves but also from the companies to which they give their business. Of course, as Sharon Lee points out, "Lots of companies are doing a superficial job and lots of companies are doing a really meaningful job" of being responsible global citizens. At Origins, part of the written mission is to "do whatever we can to protect the earth and its resources." On Aveda's website, the idea is to "strive to set an example for environmental leadership and responsibility."
Metrospiritual companies that practice what they preach believe that popular, profitable products and social responsibility are not mutually exclusive propositions. Whole Foods, an emblematically metrospiritual company, is in the midst of a massive expansion of its $3.9 billion business. Not surprisingly, the Whole Foods web site echoes the now-familiar mantra, "We believe in a virtuous circle entwining the food chain, human beings and Mother Earth: each is reliant upon the others through a beautiful and delicate symbiosis."
Nope, just whipped.
Surfing?
I have been buying organic foods and candles for years! I never knew I was a YEEGADS Metrosexual!!
I guess because you are enjoying *Mother Earths* water>
Excuse me while I barf. And puke.
Yes, patronizing those quaint little indigenous cultures by paying $45 for a scarf that at least LOOKS like it was knitted in Guatemala is just, like, so totally, IN right now!!
This is the kind of pathetic garbage we get from a feminized society. In the real world this stuff is laughable.
How many of our guys fighting in Iraq "expand their minds with ancient physical practices—and do it all with serious style." How many of these so-called "Metros" could stay alive in a hostile environment?
I am sure many *farmers* would be auprised to learn that after all these years of growing organic vegetables and taking care of the land they harvest are really now *Metrosexuals*
I took the accompanying quiz and made an 8. I was rather proud of that. :)
Dang! I love "Whole Foods". Wish there was one near me.
They carry the BEST selection of beer!
My choice would be "Are You A Mental Midget?"
The Southpark episode on this topic summed up my feelings.
Having travelled throughout Asia, South America, and the Middle East (including Iraq), and speaking a few different languages, I like to think of myself as a culturally aware guy. I like jumping off the tourist circuit right away and doing my own exploring, and rarely with serious style. This has lead to some interesting conversations with other 'culturally aware types' back home.
Regarding any given culture, most Metro's seem to enjoy some rare 'indigenous food' (usually not as authenic as they think it is) and have a breezy, readers digest understanding of their spiritual beliefs. The worst are the ones that spent a few nights in a 4 star hotel, and then tell me, "Oh, I've been to China, check out my 'Hard Rock Cafe: Beijing' t-shirt".
They also seem to have the notion that other cultures as being more compassionate, sensitive, or Earth-friendly than our own. America is the only brutal and repressive country they know, and John Ashcroft is worse than any death squad commander or labor camp warden they could imagine.
Anyway, seems to me the the Metro lifestyle is based on being profoundly ignorant of anything other than what you're told by either a marketing exec, a neurotic actor, or a tour guide.
You, sir, are my hero. I couldn't have said that better myself.
Farmers raising "organic food" (is there such a thing as inorganic food?) are doing it because they can get about 3 to 4 times as much for it as commercially grown food.
I love Whole Foods for the same reason; I'm a beer snob, not a metrosexual.
Er, the article refers to metro*spirituals*, not metrosexuals. (And that's how the original article reads as well.)
No real complaints on the article.
How about if I just like the way the damn thing smells(Warm vanilla Sugar from Bath and Body Works)??? Everything else is a, "not on your life"
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