One of the current debates running in the Black Community is the difference between the metrosexual man and the gay man. I’m going to address this solely based on a fashion and style perspective to understand why the lines are so convoluted.

The modern day man is now more in tune with the basic elements of fashion and business and it’s caused many to question their sexual orientation because the stigma has always been that most gay men are well kept, well dressed and love fitted clothing. Now that there is blend of these two words, a straight man and a gay look, we wonder how it came about.

The normal business man who’s gay will wear clothes that very fitted to the body. We are very neat in presentation and have smooth skin. We speak well and always have an eye towards what colors fit our skin tone and what clothes best accentuate the features we’re trying to speak to. So you may see us wear outfits that have pinks, blue, purple and other bright colors at the forefront of our accentuation of the base colors.

You see men who are more comfortable with fitted, tailored suits and pants, customary in European and Asian culture, rather than the more loosely fitting American tailored style of dressing. Metrosexual men have picked up on this and they now enjoy it. Where as, some closeted gay men gravitate towards traditional male dress because they don’t their tea to be spilled.

Look at a lot of the modern day athletes, they’re now wearing the fitted skinny jeans, and tight fitting shirts to best establish their desire to avoid the stereotype associated with lots of heterosexual Black men, which is we only sag out pants and wear big clothes. Because truthfully that look is still quite popular today, but not the prevailing trend. They wear suits that are perfectly tailored and polished Let’s be honest to the eye what looks more appealing: A man whose clothes fit and colors are spot on, or someone whose draws you can see but the look makes no sense.

I remember I read an article where a well known rapper had changed his style from a rugged thug to the metrosexual fitted look and the first thing said about him after the shift was, he must be gay. Who said that just because you choose to care about how you look, what you wear, the details you put together that you automatically are gay? The debate will rage on and I can’t wait to continue to debate.

If I wear a black with leopard trim shirt and some white skinny’s with some black boots  does that make me more homosexual than if I wear some pink skinny’s with a white fitted long shirt with layers at the bottom of the shirt? Is the metrosexual man more “gay” if he wears the Calvin Kline look, featuring tan and blue to work, instead of wearing any American made suit with precise tailoring that features blue with pink accessory pieces? Can you see the visual?