I been watching some movies and TV shows from the early 2000s as a nostalgia trip with my wife and man there were some terrible lessons. We talked about the homophobia and transphobia but the misogyny, body image and sexualization of teens. The skin women being called fat with the fashion that only looked good on thin thin thin women. The insistence that there was nothing worse than being a virgin. (While the schools were doing an abstinence only education BTW). The countdown clocks to when every female celebrity turned 18 everywhere. It's surreal to think that message was everywhere.

Metrosexual 2033, Metrosexual Last Light, and Metrosexual Exodus

Hell the 2000's were bad - but it was just an extension to decades, if not centuries of homophobia. Watch the first 5 minutes of Eddie Murphy's RAW to see what was socially acceptable to say in the late 70's, early 80's.

I used to get called gay because I rolled the sleeves up on my shirt. Also because I worked with a gay guy and occasionally had lunch with him, maybe half a dozen times a year. The odd thing is that I had a girlfriend (same one 22 years later) who these idiots knew about.

That came about partly because homosexuality in the US was legalized on June 26, 2003. Without the fear of raids, people started talking more openly about sexuality and the tide was turning slowly more positive that movies and TV shows that joined the conversation weren't immediately shut down.

This is an episode from my favorite podcast to listen to on road trips, Decoder Ring. https://open.spotify.com/episode/73XOUMOeqkFWYrCcaRMJqd This episode is about the term metrosexual.

I love this podcast. They also did an episode on truck nutz! It's just very very deep dives on random pop culture topics. And it's good journalism too, not just the C-list YouTube Video Essayist summarize-the-wikipedia-article type of stuff.

Wait, shorts were gay? Does that include cargo shorts? Cuz there were a lot of cargo shorts at the time.

Source: used to wear cargo shorts back then. I still do, but I used to too.

Asian dude who went to high school in the 90s.

We were constantly called metro or straight up gay because we dressed like BTS before BTS was born.

But they called us that in a hateful way.

Ya 90s high school sucked for minorities.

Theres a southpark episode about this.

Me in the 2000s: No lotion, no conditioner, no umbrella, no scarf. Just ashy skin, nasty hair, and choking on the rain and cold.

Not because I was afraid of being made fun of, but because I was stupid and gross.

You young GenZ homies knowing how to groom are the real champs.

Was a mid 2000s hipster wearing skinny jeans and bright colors. Non hipster girls thought I was gay. Honestly frat bros were generally more pleasant and if they thought I was gay never said anything and just handed me a beer.

Before we had been introduced, my wife’s BFF told her I might be gay because I like opera.

I have a degree in musical theatre and am a member of a music oriented fraternity. The fraternity was called "the gay" fraternity by the typical frat bro organizations within the last decade. Its not just relegated to the early part of the 2000s.

Sounds like my experience in the USA end of the 2010s but OK. Got called gay for not doing a fist bump, amongst other crazy homophobic behaviour. Glad that happened though, I didn't waste time thinking about staying there