(Men’s bodies and practices involving them.)
The latest Daily Jocks ad is an offer of Mystery Underwear, with the model apparently about to snap the strap of his jock:
But he might be doing a cock-tease display, suggesting that he might use the strap to pull his jockstrap down — a jockstrap counterpart to pulling underwear down on one side. Or he might be about to snap the strap as a way of calling attention to the package at the center of his jockstrap.
In any case: the ad copy:
One of our Most Popular Shopping Events has started! We’re offering the first 100 people the opportunity to purchase Mystery Underwear for $14.95.
Snap up those cut-price skivvies!
Earlier on this blog, in a December 2nd posting on Jack Adams underwear, #1 has a model lowering underwear on one side (via fingers hooked in the waistband) as a tease, and #6 has the model Dylan Austin Scott offering a counterpart play with one strap of his jock.
Out in the real world, strap snapping is a not uncommon bit of locker room horseplay by teammates, with one guy snapping one strap of another guy’s jock; it stings, but only mildly. Then there is towel-snapping in the showers, and more advanced body play, like fingering a teammate’s asshole.
The guys involved in this horseplay are usually straight; gay guys tend to do their best not to put themselves into potentially arousing situations like the ones I’ve just described. (I’ve seen strap snapping and towel-snapping at first hand, but not asshole-fingering, though there are plenty of accounts of locker room play in which fingering plays a part.) The emotional resonances of this apparently aggressive play are complex: part jockeying for dominance, part male bonding in which the targets are accorded membership in a tight group and show that they can good-heartedly “take it like a man”. The play is ritualized and almost never dissolves into actual aggression.
(It clearly takes experience and work for a straight boy to successfully negotiate this world. See Michael Kimmel’s 2009 book Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men.)
But underwear ads live in a homoerotic fantasy world of their own. The guy in the Daily Jocks ad seems to be presenting himself as a (gay) muscle twink. The most common presentation in premium underwear ads is as an intense and dominant street hustler, but there’s also a more neutral (sometimes even smiling) presentation as a buddy: Dylan Austin Scott with strap in hand in the Jack Adams posting.
Leave a Reply