Some ghastly social experiments have indeed gained force with the dawn of gay equality. A reader writes:
I was a beta-male (basement dwelling, video gamer, overweight, unfashionable, creepy around the opposite sex) until I was about 20. The change was gradual, but the single biggest factor was my acceptance and emulation of gay culture: dressing well, enjoying high culture, reveling in your eccentricities.
Will Wilkinson addressed the Menaissance a while ago with the same conclusion. And the use of the term "retrosexual" is just proof the spectrum of masculinity is here to stay. "Heterosexual" wasn't a category until "homosexual" was; now, a "retrosexual" isn't an archetypal male, just one type among many. Really, gay men and lesbians figured all these little gender nuances out ages ago (bears, butches, femmes, twinks, etc.), but the straight world is a bit slower on the uptake.