Men using cosmetics: we have been there many times before. Especially in Britain, the country that perfected metrosexuality in the glamorous shape of David Beckham. Now the metro-sexualisation of masculinity takes its next elegant step. After moisturizers/conditioners/mousse/teeth whitening tooth paste/fake tan/eye gel now come: Manscara and the Guyliner from Taxi Man Cosmetics.

Topless Apostles
A calendar featuring twelve topless, buffed Mormon missionaries showing us the beauty of God’s Creation.
The NYFD may have banned their famous topless fireman calendar this year after their cover star was ‘exposed’ as having a porno past, but, not to worry, here come the Mormons with their shirts off.  The calendar may not have been officially sanctioned by the Church of the Latter Day Saints but the evident keenness of the young Mormon missionaries to turn themselves into sex-objects shows how deep the metrosexual desire to be desired has permeated even devoutly religious cultures we might have assumed to be fiercely retrosexual.  Sexiness is the new sacredness.

Dieux du Stade
And then there were the French rugby players again. Oh, boy, do they show off. In the last few years rugby has become nakedly spornographic. Take a look, if you dare, at the Dieux du Stade French rugby Calendar, and accompanying, shrink-wrapped ‘Making Of’ DVD, featuring oiled, naked, shaved, designer tattooed rugger buggers naked in the locker room in poses that are frequently deliberately, provocatively homoerotic in a way that football wouldn’t countenance. Phenomenally popular, the Dieux Du Stade sporno calendars have dramatically increased the popularity and coolness of rugby in France with women (who seem to like the homoerotic teasing) but also with men - gay and straight. Rugby sporno has helped make rugby seem that most modern, most covetted of things.