We have discussed a lot on the Forum the Kinsey Scale and maculinity and have noted repeatedly on the college and pro athletes thread that college swimmers and wrestlers display their aroused masculinity the most with their form fittiing swimming speedos and wrestling singlets. In that spirit the NY Times for tomorrow (for some reason I get my Sunday supplements on Saturday mornings) has an interesting book review of "The Male Gazed: On Hunks, Heartthrobs, and What Pop Culture Taught Me About (Desiring) Men" by Manuel Betancourt, a gay male. "Masculinity . . . is a concept currently at war with itself. It is simultaneously a display of force and also a delicate dance - It's a construct that has stuffy, rigid rules and also great potential for the romantic and, of course, the homoerotic . . . [The author] understands these contradictions and offers insight from the trenches as a queer person who is both a casuality of masculinity's stringent conventions and a connoisseur of masculinity's erotic delights." One of the essays in the book is entitled "Wrestling Heartthrobs", where the author is attracted to one wrestler, who shows "both aggression and eroticism; the male body so revealed is both a come-on and a threat . . . It is manhood distilled." And later the author "[t]urns the tables on masculinity by returning its gaze. Machismo is, after all, an often homosocial project that encourages men to peacock for other men, but becomes hostile when a gay man accepts the invitation to ogle." The book reviewer concludes that the book: "provides a welcome perspective on a thorny, timely subject. Readers are sure to leave with a useful lens through which they can give masculinity a second look."
This thread is on the heavy side, so I don't expect a lot of response, but it does address an ongoing Forum discussion we have been having for many years. Have a great weekend and go back to the sexy videos and other Forum posts!
This thread is on the heavy side, so I don't expect a lot of response, but it does address an ongoing Forum discussion we have been having for many years. Have a great weekend and go back to the sexy videos and other Forum posts!
