Arnold Zwicky's Blog

Left out of my AZBlogX posting of the 19th, “Spanish lessons”, was this item (#11 in the set), decidedly homoerotic but not actually X-rated:

A Daddy-Boy scene, illustrating el papá.

And ornamented with butterflies, symbols of fragility but also showiness, and so pressed into service as symbols of male homosexuality, especially effeminate — swishy, flagrant, and seductive — homosexuality.  Excerpts from Green’s Dictionary of Slang under butterfly, with dates of first cites:

1 an effeminate weakling [1892] 2 (US) an over-dressed, flashy person [1902] 4 (orig. US black) an attractive young woman [1930]   5 (US campus) a flirt [1949] 6 (also butterfly boy) an effeminate male homosexual [1960]

In fact, the Boy above looks satisfactorily submissive (and enjoying the experience) but not especially swishy. But then fags come in many flavors.

This entry was posted on October 21, 2016 at 4:35 am and is filed under Collages, Gender and sexuality, Language of sex, Signs and symbols. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.