Mirror Men and sexual orientatation

[Peter Scotto]

> 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).  

Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov also spends time in front of a mirror. Most notably
on the night of his murder as he adjusts the red bandage he has donned to cover
up the bruises from Mitya's beating. He is also quite carefully dressed:

       "He was wearing a new striped silk dressing gown, which Mitya had never
seen on him before, tied with a tassled cord also of silk. Clean, stylish linen,
a fine Dutch shirt with gold studs peeped out from under the collar of his gown.
 [...] "All dressed up, thought Mitya."

So is he a "meterosexual" or even a closet "homosexual"? 

Throughout history, dandyism of one sort of another has been a form of male
display, and to eqaute it with sexual orientatin strikes me as reductionistic,
a-historical, and, in fact, puritanical ("any man who pays that much attention
to his clothes can't be a "real man'".


















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 ("× ËÅÌØÅ ÍÏÄÎÏÊ") 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:
> 
> õÖÅÌØ ÚÁÇÁÄËÕ ÒÁÚÒÅÛÉÌÁ?
> õÖÅÌÉ _ÓÌÏ×Ï_ ÎÁÊÄÅÎÏ?
> 
> 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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