Hobosexual

In its broadest sense, Hobosexual is a word describing men who, beyond rejecting consumerism-based standards of fashion, acquire very few wordly possessions, and go out of their way to defy society's notions of proper dress or hygiene. As with any other term popularised recently in the media, the precise definition of hobosexual varies from publication to publication.

In recent years, the term has been embraced in literary circles to describe a minimalist style of art and writing similar to dirty realism, but with more explicitly destitute characters.

Origin and meaning
The word is a punning conflation of "hobo" and "homosexual". It can be traced to an article by Mark Simpson titled "Here Come the Mirror Men," first published in a 1994 issue of The Independent—the same article that spawned the term "metrosexual"—

"...and, to establish the dialectic, we come to the antithesis. There is another segment of the male population, equally remarkable, mirroring the Metrosexual in the sense that, while nearly identical in size and visibility, the two groups are opposite in orientation. Tattered greatcoats, unkempt hair, and unshaven necks are emerging from the railway yard and into high fashion: I give you the Hobosexual." (Simpson, Mark. "Here Come the Mirror Men", 1994. The Independent.)

It was not until Simpson's 2002 Salon.com article "Meet the Metrosexual," and the term's subsequent media coverage, had popularised the term "metrosexual" internationally, that hobosexual became a household term.

Hobosexuals in popular culture
Celebrities and characters commonly identified as hobosexuals include:
* Bernard Black
* Raymond Carver
* Leonard Cohen
* Glenn Gould
* Oscar the Grouch
* Richard M. Stallman
* Jean Valjean
* Tom Waits

The style was infamously lampooned in the 2001 film Zoolander, when a fashion designer introduced a line of clothing called "Derelicte".

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