August 10, 2007
S&M, OSU Style
A shirt on sale at Operation Straight Up’s website, courtesy of Jonathan Hutson, the man who exposed the Left Behind videogame.
Hutson writes:
And given the Pentagon’s policy of discrimination against gays in the military, it is ironic that the Christian missionary group that they promote sells T-shirts that display what can only be described as homoerotic art. In short, the Pentagon seems to have adopted a new missionary position for the Operation Straight Up Tour and its “Tough-Men Meetings.” Basically, the OSU Tour is promoting a holy war against the alleged enemies of Christ — not unlike, say, a jihad. But there’s a difference: jihad does not come with a homoerotic T-shirt.
August 10th, 2007 at 11:42 pm
Honestly, though, isn’t most of our pop culture that’s hyper-masculine somewhat homoerotic? I remember listening to Michael Eric Dyson talk about this in the now-canceled “Paula Zahn Now” when she did a special on Hip Hop, and he was explaining the homoeroticism in the images of Fiddy Cent, Ja-Rule, LL Cool J., and others, detailing how in essence Hip Ho[‘s hyper-masculine culture could be viewed as a drag culture—i.e., a reverse version of camp. Since many of these artists use a lot of homophobic remarks in their music, it was ironic, as Dyson put it, how homoerotic their machismo posturing can be and are when scrutinized. But I see it in a lot of American popular culture, from old Westerns, 30s Gangster films, 40s film noir, Al Pacino movies (particularly the remake of “Scarface”), “Fight Club,” etc. I’m not quite sure if it’s just an American phenomenon, but this type of super-machismo/hyper-violent/homophobic/homoerotic iconography is deeply ingrained in America popular culture, to the point where some of it has become so inconspicuous it’s a tradition. Therefore, I’m not shocked that the most masculine institution in the United States that excuses homophobia, inadvertently embraces homoeroticism. Both tend to come in pairs.
August 10th, 2007 at 11:45 pm
Ugh! A damn typo! I didn’t mean to say “Hip Ho’s” (no, no, don’t laugh folks, it wasn’t intentional), I meant to say Hip Hop’s hyper-masculine culture.
August 11th, 2007 at 10:28 am
I’m guessing that only straight men would think a drawing of one buff guy beating on another buff guy qualifies as homoerotic. The rape scenario is deeply rooted in male (hetero)sexual fantasy, but many argue that rape is more about violence and dominance than sex. So unless one believes that the nature of sex is the nature of dominance, there is nothing remotely sensual about the above shirt. It’s just violent.
August 11th, 2007 at 11:26 am
It’s a very interesting observation isn’t it Preston?
I don’t think we can even estimate the number of young to middle aged women…even older women who sat up late at night in a dark room while their male partners were sleeping and drooled over Brokeback Mountain.
However, there still exists that weird homophobic energy that seems to sweep over any hint of homosexuality that occurs in culture. Maybe it’s a way that many “macho” people make up for insecurities? Like Rod Majors…
August 11th, 2007 at 9:12 pm
The technical name of the jujitsu move pictured on the shirt is the Mount.
So is mounting another man homoerotic? Dunno…
August 12th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
LOL! You’re too funny. You betta leave ol’ Matt-I’m-going-to-a-prestigious-college-but-can’t-write-if-my-life-depended-on-it Sanchez alone. He might track down your email address, as he did with Max, and send you an email asking if you find him sexy.
I’ve been reading a lot of Queer Theory and one of the topics that many theoreticians tends to touch on is the conception of feminism and masculinity, and the relation it has with gay identity. One theoretician points out that the whole violent/machismo/hyper-masculine iconography can be traced back all the way to Marquis de Sade.
By the way, did you happen to see the early morning smack-down that Markos Moulitsas gave to Harold Ford, Jr. on “Meet The Press”? Man, it was incredible to watch Kos mopping the floor with Ford (the latter who is gradually molding himself to be the black Joseph Lieberman). It’s been quite some time since I’ve seen someone in the “liberal media” actually representin’ those of us with a backbone. I get the impression that members of the conservative-lite DLC are petrified and feel threatened by the growing power of the netroots movement—as it should be! Here’s the LINK for you to watch it.
August 12th, 2007 at 7:48 pm
Hmm, for some reason, Matt, my post isn’t coming through—I responded to your post and it’s not showing up. I guess I have to wait until Max authorizes it to appear on the forum.
August 12th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
LOL! You’re too funny. You betta leave ol’ Matt-I’m-going-to-a-prestigious-college-but-can’t-write-if-my-life-depended-on-it Sanchez alone. He might track down your email address, as he did with Max, and send you an email asking if you find him sexy.
I’ve been reading a lot of Queer Theory and one of the topics that many theoreticians tends to touch on is the conception of feminism and masculinity, and the relation it has with gay identity. One theoretician points out that the whole violent/machismo/hyper-masculine iconography can be traced back all the way to Marquis de Sade.
By the way, did you happen to see the early morning smack-down that Markos Moulitsas gave to Harold Ford, Jr. on “Meet The Press”? Man, it was incredible to watch Kos mopping the floor with Ford (the latter who is gradually molding himself to be the black Joseph Lieberman). It’s been quite some time since I’ve seen someone in the “liberal media” actually representin’ those of us with a backbone. I get the impression that members of the conservative-lite DLC are petrified and feel threatened by the growing power of the netroots movement—as it should be! Here’s the LINK for you to watch it.
August 12th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
Preston I was having similar problems last week.
I think its something wrong with the blog, because usually our comments get posted instantly without having to wait for max to approve them. I talked to Max about it and he said he accepts everything so I’m pretty sure its just something that’s up with the blog.
August 13th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
If we accept the premise that one man dominating another is homoerotic in and of itself, then all all male interacation, including golf, would be homoerotic. And one might even be tempted to view the Markos/Ford slapdown as homoerotic. Personally, I think it gives the definition too broad a meaning to be meaningful anymore, even if the discussion did give me a bit of a wiggle. Hehe.
August 13th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
Echoesohio, perhaps I was generalizing there a bit, therefore I do apologize; however, I can’t deny that there is a lot of homoeroticism in much of our pop culture pertaining to male dominance and machismo posturing. Many gay film critics, notably Armond White and David Ehrenstein, have written many, many essays about this undercurrent theme in film. Furthermore, since both use semiotics and structuralism to scrutinize films, they tend to reveal more leitmotifs in iconographies than an average person can detail. This is not to say that ALL male domination and violence is connected to homoeroticism, but in many cases, if one examines closely the nuance in a particularly image or action, then it does become apparent.