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First - three posts in a day. I'll note that I'm not that prolific. I'm recovering from a recent injury, nothing major or life-threatening, but just enough to use up sick days and take advantage of insurance options. In other words, I'm on crutches, cooped up, out of circulation, and going a little stir crazy. Given that I'm also shopping the resume around, it's just as well. But even with that considered, I'm not used to having some time on my hands.
Second - I have another blog, on Yahoo 360 (http://360.yahoo.com/profile-s06w9FMlfrCN1n0QgK1FoO.ETVMX), launched for the same reason at about the same time. Ideally, I plan for for these two little projects to diverge and depart a bit in ton e and subject matter, but for now - the growing pains. In any case - a different version of this post also appeared there - the Yahoo blog has lots more pics, including a slideshow gallery of guys that I find sexy, along with various other odds-and-ends.
Which leads me to more shaking my fist at the monstrous heaviosity of life, the world, and all found within. The guy gallery on my other blog was specifically tailored as a nice, enjoyable little gallery of reaally hot non-white guys (a few of my favorites are pictures on this page as well). The idea came to me after flipping through Out magazine sometime back in the spring - the only black guy was in an ad for HIV meds, there was an Asian guy in another ad, and that wazaboutit. And people wonder why some non-white gay communities are so aloof to the gay world in general.
And - as the years pass - I am more often attracted to other black, and Asian and Latino guys; I guess my taste has broadened. And when I first came out, the ONLY images you'd find in the gay press were lean, Nordic-looking types, so I think it was natural at the time that I went for guys who looked like that. Everyone did.
But then, after getting a little lucky with some of the same lean, Nordic-looking types (and a few others), I started to notice how easy everything was for those guys, and how hard everyone else had to work it. Which sometimes made the everyone else (y'know - those of us who don't have the luxury of taking anything for granted) a lot more fun to be with.
I recall a friend who grew up in Asia bitching about the ubiquity of clones who look like rejects from an Abercrombie & Fitch ad (someone should show those Aryan youth a Leni Riefenstahl film; halfway through Triumph Of Will or Olympiad and they'll never view body fascism in quite the same way, unless of course they simply surrender to Nazi-themed sex fantasies); after several years the look is starting to get a little played out and - to him and me as well - it betrays a certain lack of personality and originality, which of course are two of the primary things that keep the gay community going. Of course, its also kinda creepy to spend your days worshipping 6 ft manboys who look like emaciated Yale fraternity rejects - y'know - the next generation of Young Republicans. It's kinda the gay erotic response to the concept of the house ...ahem... negro.
I keep coming back to diversity - it's exploding in the area in which I live, but not so much in the gay community here, which is strangely far more segregated  than the rest of the area's population. Several big universities, plus Research Triangle Park have a lot to do with this - the Asians and Latinos make up the fastest growing demographic in this area, and though the area remains far too provincial in far too many ways, and though the state remains overwhelmingly conservative, this little left-wing pocket of left-leaning internationalism is exciting. However, spending time in the local gay community is - racially speaking - almost like taking a trip back in time - lots of little separate gay (psychological) ghettoes.
 Crossing those lines is an unnecessarily odd experience as well - imagine the looks you get (usually it's surprise, or absolute befuddlement, sometimes actual anger) in an interethnic relationship when neither of the guys are white. I want to write a story or a screenplay along these lines - a big, multi-character gay drama, where nothing revolves around anyone who looks like a big, blonde, blue-eyed Abercrombie model. The racial politics and fetishes of the gay community are strange and comical, and oft swept under the rug.
But - after diving into the politics - we also just don't see enough sexy non-white guys. Everyone knows blue-eyed, lean Nordic types are gorgeous - they're pretty much a dime-a-dozen these days - even straight guys are trying to cultivate the look. But there's a greater, much more vast world of beauty, life, culture and humanity out there. I guess I do my small, and self-interested part in expanding the view.
And...as for the pics? No - I didn't take them. My involvement, unfortunately starts and stops with creative use of photoshop on found images. Sigh. |
