Arnold Zwicky's Blog

(Very much about men’s bodies as sexual objects, so clearly not for everyone.)

Today’s Daily Jocks sale ad, carefully posed and quite steamily direct, also with an anatomical feature I don’t recall having seen in real life: a blood vessel running down the outside of the model’s leg, quite prominently visible on the surface of his leg (presumably because the model has so little bodyfat to conceal it):

The sexual essence of a jockstrap. As a vehicle for sexual display (rather than as a functional garment for support and protection during exercise and sports), a jockstrap highlights the two foci of gay male desire: the penis (pushed forward in its protective pouch) and the anus (within the buttocks, which are open for inspection).

As it happens, the DJ model seems to be wearing not a jockstrap (with its two side straps attached to the waistband, going under the crotch, and attaching to the pouch), but a thong (with a single strap attached to the back of the waistband, going under the crotch, and attaching to the pouch), with even more of the wearer’s body visible — or a strapless jock (with the pouch held in place entirely by elastic). In any case, no side straps. (I have never worn a strapless jock, but I’m inclined to view them entirely as vehicles for sexual display, rather than as useful support during physical exertion — or simply as minimal underwear.)

The DJ photo shows off the model’s lower body, focusing on, going from left to rght: his pouch, that blood vessel, and his very ample buttocks. (Incidentally, also his large flat feet — pretty much the only thing I share physically with the model.)

Everyday anatomy. I tried to discover what blood bessel that was, only to run aground on the relentless technicality of Wikipedia’s treatment of anatomy. There’s nothing for questions about “everyday anatomy”, asking what easily visible or palpable features of our bodies are called (and what their functions are).

This is a general defect in Wikipedia, which tends to treat fully technical discussions of domains as the only valid ones, consequently often providing no introductory material that would answer Wikipedia users’ everyday questions. This is a defect I’ve noticed in some of the entries on plants, in which sections on identification and the roles of the plants in everyday life tend to be eliminated over time in favor of essays on plant classification based on genetics — the real stuff.

So I still don’t know what that blood vessel is, nor have I found any photos of people with such a visible one.

[Or it’s not a blood vessel at all; see Ellen Kaisse’s comments below, with a much better account of what we see in the ad.]

This entry was posted on January 29, 2021 at 11:26 am and is filed under Clothing, Gender and sexuality, Language and the body, Underwear. 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.