Archive for the ‘Gender and sexuality’ Category

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Briefly: Rainbow Doritos

April 12, 2016

Something I missed back in September, when it was fresh (and colorful, not to mention crunchy) news:

The head in AdWeek on 9/17/15: “Doritos Has Launched Limited-Time Rainbow Chips in Support of the LGBT Community: All proceeds go to the It Gets Better Project” by Kristina Monllos.

So: an affirmation of the LGBT community, and in support of an excellent cause. Of course, there there calls from the agents of homo-hatred (flying under the cover of sincere Christian belief)  to boycott the company. (Note: nothing says that expressions of pious religious belief cannot also be expressions of hatred, rejection, and condemnation. In fact, such linkages seem to be commonplace).

 

Posted in Gender and sexuality, Language and food, Rainbow | Leave a Comment »

Color scheme

April 2, 2016

(Men in underwear, but no actual street talk or X-rated images.)

Yesterday’s Daily Jocks ad (with a caption of mine):

(#1)

Ben ran through the
Watermelon patch in his
Fruity jockstrap, hunting for
His boy Dino, Di, Princess Di!, in
Diamond Dash Pink briefs that
Drove Ben crazy for him,
Slim on slim, take a
Bite of the fruit, baby.

Ben’s boy Di, in the Supawear Diamond Dash Brief in Pink:

(#2)

Like the caption says, slim on slim.

DO NOT WRITE ME about the problems with the image of a black man on a field of watermelon slices. I will write separately about the racist stereotype and its long, very sad, history, and about street vendors’ calls, the watermelon woman in Porgy and Bess, Herbie Hancock’s jazz standard “Watermelon Man”, Melvin van Peebles’s in-your-face movie Watermelon Man, and more. I frankly can’t imagine what was going through the DJ ad writers’ heads when they put together the image in #1, which would have been merely heavily gay-sexual (like premium men’s underwear ads in general) and playful (with its outrageous colors and its in-your-face flaunting of the anti-gay slur fruit). if it hadn’t been for those watermelon slices. I was, in fact, affronted, but I’ll put off explaining why to another posting. This one is for a fantasy pairing of two gay men, as in the caption.

(more…)

Posted in Captions, Gender and sexuality, Language of advertising, Underwear | Leave a Comment »

A kitten-killing God?

March 31, 2016

The t-shirt I put on this morning, taken from the top of a big pile I rotate through, happened to be the “Every Time You Masturbate, God Kills a Kitten” number, which is of course a joke — but one that taps uneasily into attitudes about masturbation. And then it turned out that the history of the slogan (with a different graphic from the one on my t-shirt) has been nailed  down. The original computer graphic:

(#1)

(more…)

Posted in Gender and sexuality, Language and religion, Language of sex, Linguistics in the comics | 1 Comment »

From the Zwicky diaspora: spinning and trimming in Denver

March 24, 2016

Thanks to Google Alert, a pointer to a story in Westword (Denver News and Events) yesterday, “One Track, One Trim at a Time: DJ and Stylist L.A. Zwicky Promotes Self-Expression” by Bree Davies:

(#1)

Lauren Zwicky, mixing

(more…)

Posted in Gender and sexuality, Names, Zwickys | Leave a Comment »

Rainbow Peeps

March 20, 2016

It’s the Vernal Equinox today (and as sometimes happens on this day, snow is predicted in parts of the Eastern U.S.), and also Palm Sunday, one week before Easter, so Easter foods, especially candy, so we’re subjected to a barrage of candy ads. Among the strongly Easter-associated candies, at least in the U.S., where they’re made, are marshmallow Peeps (discussion on this blog in the posting “Peeps” of 3/18/13) — appallingly sweet but cute candies, classically in the shape of chicks.

And now, a mixture of food genres. Ellen Evans reports on Peeps specifically in rainbow, the colors of the Pride flag; rainbow food is something of a specialty on its own — there is a Page on this blog listing postings on such food — but I don’t think I’ve seen the flag colors deployed for Easter candy before:

  (#1)

(more…)

Posted in Gender and sexuality, Holidays, Language and food, Rainbow | Leave a Comment »

Bulking up for Thor

March 20, 2016

(Not much about language. Mostly about actors and the male body, focused on Chris Hemsworth.)

Caught last night, a Saturday Night Live re-run of the December 15th show (season 41, episode 8), with actor Chris Hemsworth as host, sometimes being charming, also doing a long bit as an aggressive practical joker (exposing the malicious display of dominance in much practical joking, which is not just playful “kidding around”); in a skit with a bunch of men hired as male strippers who instead do a Broadway show-tune revue, inciting the fury of the women who had come to see their ding-dongs (nice inventive euphemism); in another skit masquerading as a woman singing the praises of CH as Thor; and more. So: surely not by accident, a lot of material putting a spotlight on masculinity, gender displays, and gender politics.

(Yes, I’ll get to CH wielding his phallic hammer as Thor, and of course to a shirtless shot of a carefully developed, muscular CH.)

(more…)

Posted in Actors, Gender and sexuality, Language and the body, Masculinity, Movies and tv | 1 Comment »

Smooth operator

March 19, 2016

From Daily Jocks yesterday (with my caption):

(#1)

Joey Jockstrap was a cheap con man who
Preyed on gullible gay men, luring them through his
Intriguing slicked-back retro look and his
Intense, urgent sexual presence – but he couldn’t
Restrain himself from ripping off his clothes to
Parade the jutting package in the jockstrap.that
Gave him his alliterative street name.

Lift! Support! Enhance!

(more…)

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

Late for St. Patrick’s

March 18, 2016

… but then he’s not Irish, but English.

(Note: mostly about men’s bodies and gay porn. Not in plain street talk, but still you might want to exercise your judgment.)

Below the fold, an ad from the gay porn studio Channel 1 Releasing, with an image of gay pornstar Harley Everett under the header

I’m not Irish! But you can still GET LUCKY.

(by taking advantage of sale items and getting off to them).

(more…)

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

Boxing

March 17, 2016

A Daily Jocks ad (for their underwear club, but featuring Pump! wear) from the 14th, with the man we know as Lukas (sometimes as Joe) in the Pump! Cruise Boxer (with pockets), in Pump!’s home town of Montréal:

(#1)

And Lukas’s boyfriend Ken, doing a cock tease in his Pump! Touchdown Cruise Boxer (with a fly):

(#2)

My caption for #1:

He boasted he was
Monosexual – “Only guys,
All the time” – not any kind of
Multisexual, but he was
Aggressively multicultural,
Multilingual, working in
Gay porn in several languages,
Hustling guys in many countries,
Lukas in Czech in his
Native land, Joe in English with his
Boyfriend Ken in San Francisco.
Eventually, proudly, Lukas everywhere:
Finland (for Helsinki Athletica),
Montréal (for Pump!), and he’s a damn good
Papi.

(more…)

Posted in Bilingualism, Captions, Gender and sexuality, Language of advertising, Underwear | 1 Comment »

Fruit loops

March 12, 2016

My posting on breakfast cereals for kids and the way they are marketed focused on Kellogg’s Froot Loops, an extraordinarily sweet cereal in the shape of small rings (or loops), whose rhyming name was chosen to suggest, mendaciously, that the rings are made from fruit, or at least fruit juice — but in a spelling that avoids making such a claim explicitly; the spelling is not merely orthographically playful (as commercial names often are), but deliberately misleading.

Meanwhile, fruit loop came to have at least two slang senses, both distinctly North American and, apparently, neither current before (roughly) 1950: ‘a crazy or foolish person’; and, incorporating the slang slur fruit for a gay man, ‘locker loop’ (a feature of certain men’s shirts, also known slurringly as fag tag or fairy loop).

That discussion will lead tangentially to another informal use of fruit, in fruit machine, BrE corresponding to AmE slot machine.

(more…)

Posted in Clothing, Gender and sexuality, Language in advertising, Slang, Slurs | 2 Comments »

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