From Amanda Walker, this link to a piece from The Local: Switzerland’s News in English, on “In Pictures: Shock! Farmers in underpants are models!”. Ok, it combines Switzerland (one of my two ancestral lands), shirtlessness, and underwear — three topics of interest to me personally. I have my shallow days.
A controversy has erupted after an annual calendar featuring buff Swiss farmers was exposed for showing “pretty boy” models in their place. Have a look at these pictures from the 2014 Schweizer Bauernkalendar and judge for yourself. Should they have used 12 genuine farmers instead?
The cover:
(#1)
An item in the huge genre of Hunk Calendars — firemen, farmers, bodybuilders, male hustlers, what have you, in several languages and social contexts. Affording the pleasures of contemplating the male body. Some of them purport to present genuine members of the category in question, others (like the Boys Next Door) are obviously fantasy fodder using male models. The problem with Schweizer Bauernkalendar & Alpenboys is that it cuts across these lines (as you might have expected from Alpenboys).
Some of the photos can be seen as farmers (Bauern) plausibly on the job on the farm. But a number show implausibly buff and sleek guys in their underwear in happenstance farm settings. Like Mr. January and Mr. September:
(#2)
(#3)
Yeah, just like daily life on the farm.
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