One of the strands of gay is hypermasculinity: big blokes in leather or uniform, with cropped hair and buff to the power 3 bodies. Tom of Finland was the artist who made his and our fantasies of those sorts of guy real, in fact who defined our images of the leather stud, the soldier, the sailor, the manly queer. I confess to enjoying his drawings and cartoons, even though I know they are quite unrealistic, and that in fact this very hypermasculinity is probably a product of internalised homophobia ("we're not homos -- look how manly we are!") But at least the hypermasculine don't retreat into self pity. They work out instead. And buy leather.
I'll be posting a series of Tom of Finland's images. I like this one especially. Just look at the look in this guy's eyes! I can't work out what he's thinking with any certainty, but I know that if a guy looked like that at me, I should be both apprehensive and incredibly turned on.
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