(About gay male presentations of self, but with a fair amount on men’s bodies and mansex in plain language, so not suitable for kids or the sexually modest.)
Yesterday’s mailing from Daily Jocks, with an ad for Sparta’s colorful fetishwear: harnesses and underwear (in this case, a jockstrap), plus my (parodic) caption (apologies to Rick Blaine):
(#1)
Of all the dungeons
in all the queer clubs
in all the world,
he walks into mine.Play me, Sam.
Play My Ass Gets Hot.
(The original Casablanca quote:
Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine. Play it, Sam. Play As Time Goes By.
And then Sam does. You must remember this.)
The actual ad copy. All fierce and warlike:
30% OFF SPARTA’S HARNESSES
Built and bred for battle, ancient Spartans centred their culture on dedication, discipline and service. Well, when it comes to the bedroom, we don’t think much has changed. Show off your fierce warrior side when you buckle and secure yourself into a Spartan’s Latex Harness.
Well, the men might be fierce and muscular, but their fetish apparel is decidedly fashion-forward, in luscious intense colors and designs. Would straght guys wear such things? Probably not, but then it wasn’t designed for them. It’s butch fagginess, designed for macho queers who flaunt their sexuality.
It’s a homomasculine genre of clothing to accompany a particular brand of homomasculine presentation of self. A genre that brings us stocky muscle bears in bright pink mini-briefs:
(#2)
And even sweaty scruffy muscle hunks embracing passionately:
(#3) An early stage in the Michigan-Princeton game, no goals yet scored — but their briefs are beautiful
An earlier posting on the company’s harnesses: on 8/14/19, in “Il Leopardo di Sparta”, with a section on butch fagginess
Postings about butch fagginess. Beginning with the 8/14/18 posting “Butch fagginess”, which sets the stage:
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).
(#4)
The tee above advertises “I’m a slut, honey”, while the rest of the model’s presentation shouts “And I’m all man!” (Others are more outrageous). And if you ask me, that’s just as it should be: we’re men, and we should be comfortable with that; we desire men, so we should value (some forms of) masculinity in other men; however, we reject central aspects of heteronormative sexuality, and our behavior should reflect that (proudly and defiantly, if necessary); and we embrace means of establishing and reinforcing communities with one another, so we adopt (some) ways of behaving that both unite us and set us apart from other men.
… 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 (about which I’ll have more to say in another posting); 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).
Then other mentions:
— on 3/31/19, in “Moon short 1: the Moons”
— on 4/21/19, in Let’s have a kiki … in me
— on 8/14/19, in “Il Leopardo di Sparta” (above)
— on 10/12/19, in “Butch fagginess, take 3”
— on 10/14/19, in “Space Candy”
— on 10/16/19, in “Adventures in homomasculinity: the pink jock”
— on 4/2/20, in “Astride the jockstrap trail”
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