Spornosexual is a
blend of sports and the
clippingporno,
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]
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
Look up spornosexual in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Mitchell, Vincent Wayne; Lodhia, Amar (10 April 2017). "Understanding the metrosexual and spornosexual as a segment for retailers". International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management. 45 (4): 349–365.
doi:
10.1108/IJRDM-05-2016-0080.
ISSN0959-0552.