(Underwear models performing displays of their bodies as sexual objects and, through their attire, stance, and facial expression, projecting personas. So: definitely carnal, but not down and dirty — mostly reflections on styles of masculiity and styles of male homosexuality — but not to everyone’s taste.)
The Daily Jocks ad from the 9th is another in a series of DJX Varsity mesh offers featuring a forbiddingly / seductively hyper-masculine character I’ll call the MeshMaster, from the tough-top persona the character projects. But this time the MeshMaster has accessorized with a bit of high-gay fashion, a neon pink harness under his black mesh crop top:
(#1) Macho on the outside; on the inside, behind the black mesh curtain, flamboyance — which he secretly treasures (his right hand, inside, pointing to the harness, is the visual center of the composition)
Yet another chapter in what I’ve called butch fagginess, sending mixed messages: simultaneously high-macho and flagrantly gay.
The 10/9 display. The ad copy:
Channel your inner quarterback with the new Varsity Mesh crop top, featuring a slim athletic cut cropped just above the belly button showing off just enough to leave them wanting more. [On male crop tops, see my 8/2/18 posting with that title. Yes, athletic wear, but also designed to display a man’s abs, either young and vulnerable or muscular and solid.]
Pair with a Neon DJX harness to make your outfit pop. [Send a second, fashion, message.]
The crop top on its own (now with a more prominent pouch):
(#2)
And the harness on its own:
(#3)
A DJX contrast. The DJX line has been using another model in its ads, in the character I’ve called Mango Meshman in earlier postings, in particular in my 5/24/19 posting “The ballet of Mango Meshman”. A sample ad, with Mango Meshman showing off in a DJX Trough [suggesting pigs] ensemble in blue:
(#4)
Mango Meshman in perfectly color coordinated clothes (harness, jockstrap, shorts, and socks) — fetishwear with style, for fun. He’s a playful, amiably exhibitionistic, sex-sweaty hunk who often displays his ass — a sex toy on the hoof.
Contrast this with the Meshmaster, above and in my 10/5 posting “A man his hands, his pants”:
(#5)
Butch fagginess: the DJ history. It started with my 8/14/18 posting “Butch fagginess”:
(#6)
Some premium men’s underwear firms advertise to men in general (and women who buy clothes for men), though with a special pitch to gay men, but a few — among them, Barcode Berlin — aim themselves directly at a queer clientele. BB’s crop tees display attractive midriffs, and the models project muscular masculinity — solidly butch — but the tees also convey sociosexual messages in teasing and boastful ways that echo the open banter of queer men amongst themselves, acting faggy: faggy minus fem(me), butch fagginess).
… These garments scream “I’m queer! And butch! And that’s wonderful! You too?” They’re advertisements for one specifically gay style of masculinity. There are others: celebratorily fem(me)/sissy styles …; gender-fluid styles; “regular guy” homosexuality (attempting to adopt all the trappings of heteronormative masculinity except for the sex of one’s partner); MSM “just sex” configuration of male-male pairing (embracing mansex as celebratory male bonding while rejecting gay as identity, community, or source of affectional partnership); and hypermasculine homosexuality (Berlin Barcode caters to this audience in many of its products).
And went on to a second chapter in my 8/14/19 posting “Il Leopardo di Sparta”, about the Italian brand Sparta’s Harness, offering premium harnesses as fetishwear for men:
(#7)
An item of classic leather gear, the harness (offered by a company named after the warlike and stoic Spartan state), pressed into service in the latex items as playful, fashion-conscious, kicky (recalling the delicious excesses of the Versace firm). Simultaneously conveying a high-macho identity and a flagrantly gay one: the message of what I’ve called, in a 8/14/18 posting, butch fagginess
And from there to the MeshMaster.
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