Clik here to view.
Summer 1971: Donald Duck's Double Life
When I was a kid in the 1960s, my favorite comics were the Harveys (Casper, Richie Rich), followed by Gold Key jungle heroes (Tarzan, Korak, Brothers of the Spear), and then Archie, and maybe some...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Czech and Slovak Small-Town Beefcake
Searching on "swim team" and "swim club" in local languages is hit or miss. Bulgarian, nothing. Czech and Slovak, pay dirt. Unfortunately, the translation is a bit of a problem.1. Swimmers with...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Homoerotic Icons of George Platt Lynes
George Platt Lynes (1907-1955) was an intimate of many of the gay writers and artists of Paris between the wars, such as Gertrude Stein, Thornton Wilder, Rene Crevel, and Jean Cocteau, as well as the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tony Sansone: Jazz Age Bodybuilder and Gay Icon
Born in 1905 in New York City, son of Sicilian immigrants, Tony Sansone began working out at age 14, and drew the attention of physical culturalist Bernar McFadden and early strength-and-health...
View ArticleClik here to view.
10 Gay Reasons to Visit Malta
Malta is one of the smallest countries in the world, 122 square miles (smaller than Philadelphia), and one of the more isolated, but you can fly there from Paris (3 hours) or Athens (2 hours), or take...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Small-Town Beefcake, Italian Style
Italy is one of my least favorite countries in Europe. It has some architectural marvels, sure, but the crowds! The traffic! The hetero-romance! But at least I know enough Italian to be able to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Drew Carey Show: All About the Beefcake?
When I was living in New York, my favorite tv program was The Drew Carey Show (1995-2004). I'm still not sure why.Not because of the beefcake: Diedrich Bader (left) rarely disrobed on screen, and the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Beefcake of Suburban Cleveland
Cleveland is one of my favorite cities, with great museums, the best Thai restaurant in the U.S., and the best bath house outside of man's country, which has closed. The only problem is, there are no...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Horrible Beefcake in the Horrible Hometown of Horrible Comic Artist...
Howard Cruse is the most depressing gay cartoonist of all time (and that's saying a lot: gay cartoons are typically cries of agony and despair). His stories are about pain, loneliness, homophobia,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Heterosexism on Netflix
In spite of the gains that we have made during the last two decades, mass culture is still overwhelmingly heterosexist, endlessly portraying boy-meets-girl hetero-romances and erasing gay people from...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Magyar Izom: Hungarian Muscle
Hungarian is a Finno-Ugric language, distantly related to Finnish, and not at all related to the Germanic and Slavic languages that surround it. I want to go to your room.German: Ich möchte auf dein...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Top 10 Hunks of "Malcolm in the Middle"
We're in the midst of a Malcolm in the Middle marathon, and I must admit that the dysfunctional family sitcom (2000-2006) was not particularly gay-positive. There were some gay references here and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
African Muscle #1: East Africa
Searching for "swim team" or "swim club" in sub-Saharan Africa has proven fruitless. I tried French, English, Swahili, Yoruba, and Hausa, and got nothing but photos of kids or swimming pools at posh...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Fright Night
In the summer of 1985, I was too busy exploring my new home, West Hollywood, to bother much with movies, so I missed a lot: The Goonies, D.A.R.Y.L., Back to the Future (with Michael J. Fox), Explorers...
View ArticleClik here to view.
African Muscle #2: West Africa
West African countries tend to have a higher population density and a higher GDP than East African countries (though about the same level of homophobia), so we expect more gyms, more fitness, more...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What's Wrong with the Word "Homosexual"?
Some people who comment on this blog actually use the term "homosexual." I delete their comments. The word makes my ears hurt. I will not permit it to be said in my classrooms. I never use it in my...
View ArticleClik here to view.
In Search of Greek Men
My semester of New Testament Greek 30 years ago didn't help me much in my search for modern Greek beefcake. I looked with the key words ομάδα κολύμβησης, κολύμπι κλαμπ, γυμναστήριο, and so on, and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Five Summer Camps of Tuxedo, North Carolina
Tuxedo, North Carolina is in the far southwest of the state, where it borders South Carolina. It has nothing to do with the formal costume; it was named after Tuxedo, New York (which did give its name...
View ArticleClik here to view.
American Werewolf in London
There have been many gay-coded werewolves on tv and in comics, but not a lot in movies. David Kessler (David Naughton) in An American Werewolf in London (1981) is the most famous, and the most...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Parker Stevenson and the Big One
In the fall of 1977, the question most gay boys were asking was: "Shaun or Parker?"Most chose Shaun Cassidy, the fey, impestuous Joe on The Hardy Boys Mysteries (1977-79), the legendary gay-subtext tv...
View Article