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Archive for the ‘Clothing’ Category

A riot of hibiscus

January 16, 2021

Extracted from my 1/15/21 posting “Flat on his back at the solstice”, this image:

(#1) A guy in Hawaiian mode, with beachcomber hat, lei, coconut drink, ukulele, and Hawaiian beach shorts

These Hawaiian beach shorts are only modestly floral. But ads go past me all the time for just gorgeous shirts, and bottoms as well — beach shorts, board shorts, and swim trunks — many in recognizably Hawaiian patterns (from traditional fabrics of several kinds), others of new, riotously colorful and often playful, design.

I started to assemble a collection of some of my favorite patterns, only to realize that they were all based on hibiscus flowers — some stylized, some more realistic. So this has become a hibiscus posting. (Information about the flowers in a while.)

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Posted in Clothing, Language and plants | Leave a Comment »

Flat on his back at the solstice

January 15, 2021

Today’s Wayno/Piraro Bizarro, framed as an instance of the Psychiatrist cartoon meme:

(#1) (If you’re puzzled by the odd symbols in the cartoon — Dan Piraro says there are 6 in this strip — see this Page.)

The patient is lying on the therapeutic couch, but he’s also flat on hs back suffering the affective disorder that comes to many with the winter solstice (Wayno’s title for the cartoon: “Bummer Solstice” — playing on summer solstice).

Then the title “Tropical Depression”, ordinarily referring to a meterological phenomenon, involving lowered atmospheric pressure (depression) arising in the tropics (the geographical band surrounding the equator)[*see note after this paragraph]; but here referring to a mental condition (depression, characterized by lowered energy and affect), in this case, specifically, seasonal affective disorder (aka seasonal melancholy) triggered by the short, dark, cold days around the winter solstice — which the patient seems to be counteracting with cultural symbols associated with the bright, hot, and humid tropics (Hawaii, to be specific): beachcomber hat, lei, coconut drink, ukulele, and Hawaiian beach shorts.

[*Note added 1/17: this account of the tropical in tropical depression is grossly oversimplified. For a more accurate statement — from an actual meteorologist — see Sim Aberson’s comment on this posting.]

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Posted in Ambiguity, Clothing, Comic conventions, Language and food, Language and medicine, Linguistics in the comics, Metaphor | 2 Comments »

Fun jocks and their models

January 13, 2021

(This posting starts with a charming jockstrap ad, but works into the world of sex between men, so its not suitable for kids or the sexually modest.)

Today’s Daily Jocks ad brings us the very hunky, super-cute, and grinning models Aaron Scott and Adam Scott — yes, they’re twin brothers, and I don’t know which is which — in some PUMP jockstraps from the company’s Play collection:

(#1) Yes, they are wearing fun jocks

(As twins frequently do, they always use their full names in coordination — Aaron Scott and Adam Scott — rather than a reduced coordination — Aaron and Adam Scott — so as to maintain their separate identities.)

Images of very attractive near-naked men always allow a viewer who’s so inclined to project his sexual desires onto the men, but the guys in #1 aren’t adding any fuel of their own to this fire.

It turns out that Adam Scott and Aaron Scott are perfectly happy to present themselves homoerotically (Daily Jocks ads usually have a homoerotic kick to them; #1 is unusual in its sexual innocence.)

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Posted in Gender and sexuality, Masculinity, Underwear | Leave a Comment »

Callipygian in his Levis

January 10, 2021

(About the male body, in particular, men’s buttocks as objects of male sexual desire, and, eventually, about sexual acts between men, so not suitable for kids or the sexually modest.)

Two things from Pinterest recently: a vintage Levis ad prominently focused on the model’s buttocks:

(#1) My caption: fanning the flames of desire around the campfire with butt-flattering jeans

and a link to a comic piece “How the West Was Worn” (from 9/18/14, by Christopher Harrity) on the Advocate magazine’s site, about the history of callipygian men in Levi’s ads, with mocking captions added to the ads. (Note: the Advocate provides news and features for LGBTQ readers.)

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Posted in Argument structure, Clothing, Gay porn, Gender and sexuality, Language and the body | Leave a Comment »

Work up a sweat with Franky

January 9, 2021

(I have a number of much more serious things to post about this morning, but I was struck speechless by today’s mailing from the Daily Jocks people, with an image of high-quality high-intensity soft porn aimed at men — presented as if it were just an ad featuring work-out shorts. Warning: this posting shows no male genitals, but it reeks of sex, and might strike some as unsuitable for kids and the sexually modest.)

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Posted in Gender and sexuality, Underwear | Leave a Comment »

The flannel guys

December 28, 2020

It starts with a photo that came up in a slideshow of things from Elizabeth Daingerfeld Zwicky’s image trove: Steven Levine and me, both in flannel shirts, in a time and a place and on an occasion that neither of us could identify — and EDZ wasn’t any help.

(#1) The flannel guys

Steven put it at roughly 20 years ago, because the shirt he’s wearing is one that he wore lovingly to death some years ago (cue Donovan singing “I Love My Shirt”). I still have my shirt, however, because it was one of a set of 5 or so L.L.Bean flannel shirts I bought late in the last century and have been carefully rotating over the intervening years, to make them last through as many winters as possible (I do love those shirts; among other things, they are lined).

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Posted in Clothing, Gender and sexuality, Logos, Music, My life | Leave a Comment »

The Boxing Day special

December 25, 2020

(References to male genitals and sex between men, in sometimes very plain language, so not suitable for kids or the sexually modest.)

A wonderfully lubricious Daily Jocks sale ad for Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, taking advantage of allusions to box in several different sexual senses:

Muscular glutes and a broad, somewhat goofy, smile. On a Christmas theme, without any actual underwear — just red DJX Football Socks (which are advertised as partywear).

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Posted in Clothing, Language of sex, Underwear | Leave a Comment »

The joy of swimwear

December 18, 2020

Just now, day 5 of the DailyJocks 12 Days of Christmas 🎅 sale on swimwear: in the surf, two arm-linked swimmer-body dudes radiate joy as they contemplate their Elia swimwear (or possibly their crotches — or, of course, both), in the baby blue, pink, and white Pool Party pattern: Titan swim shorts on the left, Kos enhancing swim briefs on the right:

I post this not just because the guys have hot, though not heavily gymmed-up, bodies, but mostly because they do indeed radiate joy, especially Enhanced-Cup Dude, who’s smiling broadly. Joy is a precious commodity these days; this ad made me smile myself as soon as I saw it. And then they’re presenting themselves as a couple, and that gave me still more pleasure.

So I wanted to share them with the rest of you. I don’t think you have to be a gay man to find enjoyment in the ad — or to be intrigued about what’s in their minds as they stare down at their swimwear.

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Posted in Language and the body, Underwear | Leave a Comment »

Bobobear

December 8, 2020

From Ryan Tamares, a gay Xmas and pandemic-chasing card “Adam Likes Santa: Red Santa”, featuring cartoonist Bobo Nisi’s gay bear character Bobo-Bear (sometimes Bobobear or Bobo Bear):