A few days ago, an intense Benno Thoma postcard from Max Vasilatos (in an envelope), with the note: “This could probably go in the regular mail, but I’m taking no chances.” The issue is whether the image counts as X-rated or not; Max and I fairly often puzzle over the categorization of images, sometimes for the purpose of mailing and sometimes for the purpose of posting in certain places on the net (like this blog). The line isn’t clear.
First, the case at hand. Then, some general discussion.
On AZBlogX, two postings about men’s underwear with maximum exposure (offered in an UnderGear sale): one set from the Good Devil company, one from the Male Power company (with leather-like fetish underwear). Many of them are distinctly unWordPressable — not for the kiddies or the modest.
(A little bit of language stuff, but mostly about male photography and homoeroticsm.)
As Mr. April was replaced by Mr. May in my Boy Next Door calendar (photography by David Arnot), I reflected once again on the inappropriateness of the label boy for the men in this line of calendars. And then, looking for net images of the calendar, I stumbled on the underwear model Philip Fusco, who like Daniel Garofali in an earlier posting, specializes in what I’ve called cock tease shots.
That is, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, the drag ballet troupe. The segue into that topic is my recent posting on dance belts (and ballet tights for men), and a comment from Mike McKinley on the functions of the dance belt (beyond support).
In their most recent ad, Undergear is back into shirtlifting, now combined with pants lowering:
Soft porn in the underwear catalog.
In a comment on my “dress left/right” posting on Facebook, Mike McKinley asks for a posting on dance belts. (We seem to be in the Crotch Zone at the moment, what with that posting, the one on Jon Hamm’s moose knuckle / freeballing, and the one on the NuttyBuddy protective cup — and now this one. Well, these things come in waves; one leads to another.).
Passed on by Karen Erickson on Facebook (with general agreement from the readers that I would appreciate it), this photo on the HappyPlace site from 9/10/12:
HappyPlace commentary:
Jon Hamm’s penis photographed shopping on Madison Avenue
It was a pretty muggy in New York this past week, and like most penises suffering through the humidity, Jon Hamm’s apparently tried its best to get a little fresh air. Either those are some very thin pants, or the ridges of his member are as well-defined as his jawline. We can practically count the veins. Never has junk sagged with such gravitas. (Also, his dick looks fat.)
While looking up the botanical term nut, I was taken to the page for the NuttyBuddy, a piece of protective athletic gear for men, combining a cup with compression shorts. That’s nut as in nuts ‘testicles’, with nutty a near or full rhyme (depending on your dialect) to buddy. News to me, though I did know about the ice cream cones called Nutty Buddies.
On AZBlogX this morning, three underwear postings:
“Sexy St. Patrick’s” (link), with an Undergear ad for St. Patrick’s Day (a model doing the Basket Gaze at his green bikini briefs), plus an ad for porn flicks from Falcon Studios for the holiday (definitely X rated)
“Underwear Poses” (link), again from the Undergear catalog, focused on the types of gaze — more Basket Gaze, plus the Gaze Direct, and the Sideways Gaze — and how they function in the ads
“Remarkable underwear update” (link): seven more garments from Undergear, plus links to earlier postings about underwear that’s remarkable in the way it emphasizes or exposes the cock (and/or balls)
(About male models, sexuality, and underwear. Not much language in here — but there is some.)
Not all male models do nude shots, and a fair number who do nevertheless avoid what’s usually called full-frontal nudity (though in fact what’s being avoided is shots with any significant display of the penis, no matter from what angle or viewpoint — what I’ll call dick shots). These models will do nude shots, but only from the rear or with the penis concealed naturally by some other body part. Some models who avoid dick shots nevertheless happily pose for shots in which their dicks are ostentatiously concealed (by a hand or some object) and shots in which they flagrantly display themselves just short of exposing the root of the penis; these are two types of what I’ll call cock tease shots, in which the homoerotic undercurrents of nude male photography are elevated to central aspects of the pictures.
Australian male model Daniel Garofali has made something of a career in cock tease shots (though he does many other sorts of modeling as well), working with photographers who seek out homoerotic content.
