Was Onegin a metrosexual?

[Daniel Rancour-Laferriere]

2 April 06

Dear Inna,
This is an interesting suggestion.  I like even better, though, the term 
"mirror men," since Onegin spends so much time in front of a mirror.  
"Mirror men" are also close to what psychoanalysts mean by 
narcissistically disturbed men (but not identical).  I also like 
"dandy," since Pushkin himself borrows it from English early in the 
novel.  Historical studies of dandyism have drawn a connection between 
dandyism and homosexual or bisexual orientation (although not in 100% of 
the cases).  Most importantly, from Tat'iana's perspective (SHE it is 
who has the famous dream in which she tries to explain to herself why 
Onegin rejects her), Onegin must be more interested in men than in women 
as sexual objects.  After all, she has her own narcissism to look after, 
and she has just received a terrible narcissistic injury (recall the 
mirror SHE puts under her pillow just before the dream).

Later, after some terrible things have happened, and as Tat'iana lingers 
in Onegin's empty room ("в келье модной") where there hangs a portrait 
of (the bisexual) Byron, and where she reads the books Onegin read, she 
begins to understand him, to fathom Onegin's depths.  But there is no 
word for what is down there, so all she can do is sigh:

Ужель загадку разрешила?
Ужели _слово_ найдено?

No, because there was no (printable) word.  What she sensed was "the 
Love that dare not speak its name" (to quote Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas, 
great friend of Oscar Wilde).

Regards,

Daniel Rancour-Laferriere




Inna Caron wrote:

>>>From Wiktionary:
> 
>Metrosexual, n  (plural metrosexuals)
>1.	A man concerned with self-image, self-indulgence and
>money.(Usually urban, heterosexual, probably affluent). 
>2.	A man who is seen, sociologically, as having attributes common
>to homosexuals, but is in fact heterosexual.
>
>Synonyms
>
>*	dandy <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dandy>  - (19th Century ?) 
>*	dude <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dude> , dood
><http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dood>  
>*	fop <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fop>  - (19th Century ?) 
>*	masher <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/masher>  
>*	nancy <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nancy_boy>  boy, nancy
><http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nancy>  
>Mark Simpson's definition: "The typical metrosexual is a young man with
>money to spend, living in or within easy reach of a metropolis --
>because that's where all the best shops, clubs, gyms and hairdressers
>are. He might be officially gay, straight or bisexual, but this is
>utterly immaterial because he has clearly taken himself as his own love
>object and pleasure as his sexual preference."
>See also Mark Simpson, "Here come the mirror men." The Independent,
>November 15, 1994
> 
> 
> 
>
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