Swish Exhibitionism

A little silliness for the weekend.

My e-mail from commercial “gay supplies sites” has recently brought me several more instances of homoerotic photos of shirt-lifting (in the more or less literal sense of the word, in which shirts are lifted), one of which (from 10percent.com, below) has a listing of lines of t-shirts carried by the company.

Among these is the deliciously named Swish Embassy — a name that clearly codes the audience the company is aiming for. From the website:

Swish Embassy is a Gay-owned and operated casual apparel company started in 2008. The inspiration for starting Swish Embassy was the observation that there should more options for fun, suggestive, relevant and appropriately fitted wear for gay men than the oversaturated chains that cater to Tweens rather than Queens.

The t-shirt slogans shy away from representing male genitalia, but they’re often frank in their language. Some of the shirts are indirect (nudge-nudge-wink-wink) in their approach: one with an image of a rooster, conveying cock. Then they get progressively more direct:

i like it dirty

I ♥ [image of a caulking gun, again conveying cock]

SOFA KING GREAT

Dimitry’s GREEK-STYLE Deli, with an image of a chef tending the vertical spit on which gyros are cooked, with the caption Eat the meat!

EATIN GOOD IN THE GAYBORHOOD, with a hot dog in a bun

LET’S COMPARE BATS, with crossed baseball bats

Cockylicious & Addictive, with a gold rooster

BUTT PIRATE, with a pirate’s head

No gag reflex

I’ve got more than enough to reach the back of your throat!

Does my cock look fat in these jeans?

FURRY FUCKER

There’s more, including more ordinary puns, visual puns, and allusions to sexual content.

[Language Log has touched several times (for instance, here and here) on playful word formation with -Vlicious, seen above in cockylicious, which (as far as I can tell) wasn’t covered in these postings, though bootylicious and hunkalicious were. Lots and lots of webhits for cockylicious, and a fair number for cockalicious too.]

Now, I’m not at all opposed to politically provocative t-shirts and the like, and have been known to wear such apparel on occasion. Some of the t-shirts above are merely sexually suggestive, but some amount to sexual advertisements and boasts, and these I would be very reluctant to display in public.