Spornosexual

Spornosexual is a blend of sports and the clipping porno, compounded with sexual. The term was coined by Mark Simpson in 2014 to describe a man "who is influenced in his appearance by the stars of sport and pornography".^[1][2][3] It recognises young men who use "their toned bodies on social media as a means of feeling valuable in society."^[4] Jamie Hakim has described this as a "power-shift of a segment of society who have historically defined themselves through their mind, whilst at the same time defining those they have subordinated - such as women - through their bodies".^[5]

Simpson also coined the term metrosexual in 1994.^[6][7]

Details

The term originated in an article by cultural commentator Mark Simpson in 2014;^[8][9] Simpson's metrosexual is a portmanteau of metropolitan and heterosexual.^[10] He describes spornosexuals as frequently working class men who exercise at a gym in order to share eroticised selfies of their toned bodies on social media.^[8][11] Simpson considers spornosexuality as the second,^[12] more extreme,^[13] generation of metrosexuality, since the "uptake by men of products, practises and pleasures previously ring-fenced for women and gay men" has become normalised.^[12] Instead, Simpson claims, spornosexual men want to be recognised for their bodies rather than their clothes.^[12][14] Examples of such men include Dan Osborne, Thom Evans, David McIntosh^[12][15][16] and Cristiano Ronaldo.^[17][18][19]

Jamie Hakim's research, "The Spornosexual: the affective contradictions of male body-work in neoliberal digital culture", was published in the Journal of Gender Studies in 2016.^[20] Hakim writes that young men defining their value through their body is a response to the effects of austerity on them since 2008, when the ability to create value through other means became harder.^[8][21][22] "This is all the more surprising because this use of body-image to derive social value has long been associated with groups men tended to be viewed as inferior."^[5] HuffPost said this research "went as far as blaming the financial crisis for the rise of the 'Spornosexual'".^[4]

Greg Wolfman has written about a proliferation of men's "consumer lifestyles", or "marketed manhoods", that includes spornosexual with lumbersexual and hipster.^[23]

See also

• Body worship – Submissive act pertaining to BDSM
• Narcissism – Excessive preoccupation with oneself
• Self-brand – Process in which consumers match their self-concept with that of a specific brand image