Muscles, toupees and waxing: how the 'tronista' influenced the wardrobe of young Spanish people

What is a

tronista

?

The stylist Alfredo Santamaría is clear about it: “The first thing that comes to mind is the open ankle, the

pinkie

[ankle sock], skinny pants that are tight almost like a troubadour's mesh and, of course, a high toupee , very high".

José Viruete, a Mediaset collaborator as well as a writer and pop culture expert, defines it like this: "He is a young man who likes to go out, flirt, go to the gym and, above all, would kill to be part of the Mediaset universe" .

The

tronista,

one of the most powerful neologisms that have appeared in our language ,

though not in the nomenclature Rae loses the substrate creation.

The

Women and men and vice versa program

has come to an end this March after 13 years in Mediaset and it remains to be seen if its most important contribution to our popular culture, that of the

tronista

, will survive it.

This is how the participant who sat on a throne and received suitors who aspired to conquer his heart was called in the program.

Whose style ended up being, for years, the most frequent aspect of the young man in much of television.

And also on the street.

"It is not the type of clothing that everyone wears, it does not reach all layers of society and it is still from an urban tribe, but it is becoming larger and more visible," says stylist Baptiste Lauron.

With the tattoos, the V-neck, the degraded haircut, the plucked eyebrows and the fitted T-shirts or sweaters (which at the least flew through the air) as a hallmark, the

tronista

jumped from his original program to the rest of the programs and , later, to the streets.

His legacy became massive.

Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the great supporters of the 'tronista' aesthetic, in an image published on his Instagram account.

In other countries, programs like the American

Jersey Shore

on MTV were a mirror of this stereotype, which responded to a very complex sociological reality, encouraged by the economic crisis and the power of fame for its own sake.

Certain celebrities were famous for being famous (Paris Hilton is often credited with the honor of starting that trend).

And it was not an innocent term: it implied criticism and contempt for the one who received the nickname, considered almost a caricature.

The screenwriter and writer Diana Aller, a regular contributor to Mediaset, explains: “At first it did not have to imply something derogatory, but the use that has been given

a posteriori

to the term

tronista

refers to a class and places the person who says it by on top of it.

We dismissed

what we used to

call

choni as a

tronista

”.

The maximum incarnation of the

male

tronista

was the biggest star that

Women and Men

gave

and vice versa

: Rafa Mora, first suitor of the contestant Tamara Gorro,

then

tronista

, a mass phenomenon later and today a regular collaborator of several Mediaset programs, always ready to make money a success making it feed back to your entire grill.

Mora assumed the role of pimp, the classic pimp who was suddenly capable of singing a David Bisbal song for the purpose of his sleepless nights.

"In the end he had enough intelligence to know when he had to abandon that role and start doing something else," reflects Viruete.

But I think it has not yet managed to reinvent itself.

He has a formal girlfriend, he has softened the speech ... He is trying, but before Rafa Mora was the biggest rooster of

Mujeres y Hombres

and now he is one more collaborator in

Save me

.

He needs to star in some great moment in his new identity ”.

At the height of the show's success, Rafa Mora was touring the nightclubs in Spain attracting crowds of young people who dressed, spoke and acted like him, or at least tried.

Some of them ended up being

tronistas

or participants in other television programs, with which the concept was fed back.

Diana Aller develops: “It has been 13 years of broadcast and this has greatly influenced the styles of other programs such as

Big Brother

, where they had a clothing and a type of being that was completely mutating that of the participants of

Women and men and vice versa

.

The boys were as is!

I remember, for example, Suso, a muscular and handsome boy who entered

Big Brother

at the height of the program ”.

In an exercise of coherence, Suso would also end up being a

tronista

, in the

usual

tour

of the Telecinco

shows

-

Women and men, Big Brother, Big Brother VIP, Survivors

, then

The island of temptations

- which end up giving the ―in principle― anonymous characters who showed greater charisma and popular pull.

It was also the case that the

most representative

looks

of this stereotype were until very recently the heritage of part of the gay world.

Alaska reflected on this in 2013 in an interview with

El País Semanal:

“There comes a time when you see the polygons with their shiny earrings and plucked eyebrows, their shirts, their muscles, and you think: 'Well, it seems to me that no, he's not gay, my radar is failing me. '

We have triumphed, we have imposed extreme aesthetics that long ago were fagots, whores and transvestites.

I love it".

Rafa Mora, in a pose Instagram photo @rafamoratete

Something similar is what has happened with the display of men's physique, turned into an object of desire and display at a very similar level to which female bodies have been for decades.

This reification was once associated with gay dating apps and then the

tronista

world

,

but

today it is already omnipresent.

"

MYHYV

normalized certain things like showing the male torso to a minimum," says Diana Aller.

“We have to thank him for his disregard of the male body, which, on the other hand, entails tremendous demands since it is sculptural bodies that have become normative because of or thanks to them.

Male aesthetics have changed a lot.

Now it is a very hedonistic aesthetic, they are in front of the mirror or the camera, they adopt those poses on their dates and, for years, on Instagram ”.

In part, if the

tronista

universe

has become so recognizable it is because it managed to transcend that label of

choni

to even become something aspirational linked to the elitist.

Baptiste agrees: “The border has been erased and what we saw before as something vulgar and ordinary can now be cool and can be vindicated.

It is, for example, everything that happens with

chandalism

or

cani

”.

"Now reggaeton sounds in any room with bottles at 1,000 euros," concludes Alfredo.

"And brands like Vetements or Balenciaga have

spent

years investigating

chonism

and the aesthetics of a nightclub doorman."

During a talk with EL PAÍS, the stylist and fashion expert Josie also left her opinion on the triumph of sportswear over dress: “Right now, the less you smell like cologne, the more garters.

We have become more primitive: people prefer to smell like skin than Álvarez Gómez.

Today the elegance pulls back a massive public ”.

In his day, the appearance of a muscular, groomed and exfoliated man received the name of

spornosexual

, which differed from the

metrosexual

in that he no longer cared for himself and did not embrace his feminine side to attract women, but to conquer himself from the mirror.

Idols outside the orbit of television, such as Cristiano Ronaldo or Mario Casas, have also joined this aesthetic.

Did they copy the

tronistas

?

No. And the other way around?

Either.

Everything is part of a pact between the media and brands and society itself to put sex on the table, to celebrate skin and meat like never before.

The

tronista

could be the masculine answer to the Kardashian aesthetic.

The sisters' famous reality show (which is also coming to an end this year) began airing only a year before

Women and Men and vice versa

.

In 2009,

Jersey Shore

would arrive

, which in Spain met its adaptation

(Gandía Shore)

in 2012. Did the paths of

tronistas

, participants of

Gandía Shore

and Telecinco programs and contests end

up crossing

?

Of course.

His aesthetics may already be so accepted that he has completely detached himself from the

tronista

world

, but it remains to be seen if other aspects of the concept, somewhat more conflictive because they are associated with toxic masculinity, do the same.

"Natural wear and tear, the pandemic,

The island of temptations

[natural daughter of

Women and men and vice versa

and its firm successor in creating new celebrities for Mediaset] and social networks have ended the

tronista

", sums up Aller.

But, perhaps with another name and completely unrelated to the program that saw him born, some predict that this male stereotype will survive.

"A lot of kid needs that lighthouse to orient himself to so much message that confuses him," concludes José Viruete.

Is it the most suitable lighthouse?

Maybe not, but it is the one that shines the most.

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