… with vivid pops of genital color in their underwear, plus waistbands that celebrate peace and freedom, also exhibiting sharply differentiated roles in their relationship. Lots of stuff packed into just one Daily Jocks ad (for the Modus Vivendi Peace line of underwear) from 7/15. There will be plain talk about men’s bodies and mansex, so this posting is not suitable for kids or the sexually modest.
The ad, featuring two men I’ll call Pink and Blue:
(#1) Both men gaze at us intensely, Blue projecting dominance and control, Pink open-mouthed seductiveness and dependence (meanwhile, both men have absurdly developed and defined abs)
Themes to be developed below: pouches, the waistband design, and b/t roles in gay relationships.
But first, the DJ ad copy:
Colour your world with Peace!
The Peace collection is made from ribbed cotton elastane fabric and features the iconic MV logo on the front side of the elasticated waistband which has the colours of the peace flag. This vivid pop of colour is sure to make you stand out.
Specifically, to make your dick and balls stand out in some visible detail, in their minimal pouches. Pink and Blue live in Pouchland, where every man’s junk is on display, just barely covered by a thin layer of cloth. And can be used to sell homowear. (This is not a put-down; I myself love to stroll through Pouchland, savoring the junk on display and enjoying the mild arousal it provokes. It’s an innocent pastime. Meanwhile, Pouchland’s obsession with dick can be unintentionally funny, because it’s often so earnestly over-the-top. I say this as a proud avowed peniphiliac.)
From the MV site on the Peace line
Inspired by the colors of peace and freedom of being, the Peace line will make your day. A retro favorite design in a modern palette with updated silhouettes. Hit the gym, beach or the streets in this stylishly colorful icebreaker, featuring the multiple expression of one’s self, the mood for the day and the need for a statement. BRIGHT, BOLD, AND COLORFUL: PEACE RETURNS. Express your true colors. Solo or combined, these new styles feel like old favorites being revamped. The Peace Line comprises of [sic] jockstraps, briefs, boxers, tanktops, t-shirts, kaftans, shorts & pants [in a variety of intense colors].
Flags. The MV waistband is something of a puzzle. First thing: its background color, throughout, is bright yellow, regardless of what the pouch color is. So that provides yellow stripes at the top and bottom, which aren’t stripes in whatever flag is being reproduced in the waistband.
There are then some number of other stripes, with a white one clearly in the middle. I’ve enlarged the waistband in #1 (and other examples on the MV site) without being able to determine how many other stripes there are and what their actual colors are; color reproduction on the net is an iffy thing.
Then I thought to try to find the “peace flag” referred to in the DC ad copy. Many many obvious dead ends, but this is the closest I could find:
(#2)
Of course it’s possible that the flag on the waistband is just something the MV people invented themselves.
The MV company. Two earlier postings on ths blog about the company:
— on 5/8/18 in “My skivvies are my lifestyle”
(#3) Ad copy: “Their name, Modus Vivendi, is their philosophy. From Latin, Modus Vivendi translates to lifestyle or way of life. Their name reflects their design and manufacturing approach to everything they make; it is not just a product or just a brand, it reflects a lifestyle.”
— on 4/16/20 in “The Grim Mouser”:
(#4) Ad copy: “Sleek, stylish and renowned for its powerful designs, Modus Vivendi underwear is a Thessaloniki based brand with a God-like aesthetic”
Yes, they really are that visionary. But as you can tell from #1, also really queer.
b/t roles. Pink and Blue in #1 are not only presented as a gay couple, their roles in this relationship are spectacularly differentiated. To start with, Pink displays his body in the now conventionally feminine color pink, and Blue displays his in the now conventionally masculine color blue.
Then, as noted in the caption to #1, in their facial expressions and the alignment of their bodies, Pink projects open-mouthed seductiveness and dependence (both feminine characteristics), while Blue projects dominance and control (both masculine).
Pink sports a fashionable hair style, while Blue’s is conventionally butch.
Pink is seated, while Blue stands, so that he is physically above Pink.
Pink clutches his man around the waist, while Blue has his arms proprietarily on Pink’s shoulders.
The overall effect is to mark Pink as hugely less masculine than Blue and subservient to him; subservience is a role that many gay men find enormously satisfying emotionally. (Note: these classifications are not value judgments.) The suggestion is that for fucking, Pink is a bottom, Blue a top, though they no doubt trade blow jobs in everyday sex, as most gay couples do. (Again: note that no value judgment is imputed here; remember that my own inclination has alway been to serve as an enthusiastic bottom.)
The larger topic here is developed in my 12/18/10 AZBlogX posting “The Bombardier 4: b/t”, about scripts for the unfolding of action in gay porn:
Back in 2005-6 I came to appreciate just how pervasive a particular kind of relationship is in male-male pairings in gay porn — so pervasive that you can make pretty good predictions about how a sexual encounter will unfold from various pieces of background information about the men. (The whole topic is vast and subtle; I’m doing just a little piece of it here.)
The pieces of background information are those that have to do with relative degrees of gayness and with relative degrees of masculinity (warning: these are sociocultural properties, not characteristics given in nature.) Also important is who’s “in charge” during the encounter.
… The roles are what i’ll call b (an extension of “bottom”) for the gayer man and t (an extension of “top”) for the more masculine man. The script goes: b takes t’s dick first; sometimes this is the end of it (t doesn’t take b’s dick at all), but things can then go on to t taking b’s dick. t gets serviced first.
And more follows from that. (There’s a Page on this blog listing postings about b/t roles.) In #1 Pink is massive coded as b, Blue as t.
A final note: these observations are about the fantasy world of Gayland, especially as presented in gay porn (and reproduced as a still image in #1). Real-life gay relationships are much more complex than this.
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