system
A chat on subreddit /r/me_irl
human
It’s a dog whistle. 

“Metro” is as close to a gay slur as you can get while still having plausible deniability and acting like the other people are too sensitive.
gpt
Idk. I don’t think so. Back then people would call everything bad “gay” or just openly call people the f word, so it doesn’t make sense to have a softer word as a dog whistle. 

I think metrosexual came about right around the time men started taking care of themselves more, so if you dressed nice it was noticeable and distinct from you being “gay”. Which sounds dumb as shit in hindsight, but gay rights have really come a crazy long way in the last 15 years.