Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Gay Bear 'Alternative'
I love all of the attention being given to a gay male sub-culture rising that seems to strongly identify with a strange combination of american apparel and bear appeal. Relying on the rhetoric of 'queerness', these is new art, centering largely around photography, is a kind of play on gay masculinity/femininity. These particular pictures, taken from Pinup Magazine, are emblematic of the new gender play surrounding a sort of co-option of an aesthetic that, until recently has been reserved as acceptable for straight men and the gay men who make clear their distaste for 'feminine' gayness. These pictures, based on a host of classic and commonplace poses and images used typically to display women in clearly exploitative context are being mocked, but oddly eroticized in a way that blurs the instant association of feminine with those poses. This man, standing in a pose that suggests he is presenting himself as a sort of passive object, already challenges and makes unclear that pose with the presence of an erect penis, being the object closest to the camera. I think its fabulous, and if nothing else, isn't about the typical blonde 'twink' that pervades global, let alone, american gay conceptions of identity. The site description:"Pinups is a quarterly periodical that features one, sometimes two nude male models. There are no words—just an exaggeration of the classic centerfold. The magazine exists in book form but can be taken apart and then tiled together to reveal a life-size image."
"Photographically sophisticated (mixed with some delicious typography) I ask myself "Is this porn?" The fact that I can ask that question is precisely why the magazine is so interesting. I want to say no - the book is far too honest to be categorized as such (tho I'm sure Sarah Palin would disagree). It is post-porn, just as the magazine considers itself post-bear. You can pick up issues for around $14 a pop at certain locales in the city and on the site. Issues are printed in limited editions of 1000 so get to it."
