Gay Erotic Art: Artsy’s Tom of Finland Page

I almost missed this in my e-mails for whatever reason. I’m not sure, but I think it might have gone to spam. I’m glad they got back to me to double check. I love this stuff.

There’s a new web page that’s devoted to Tom of Finland, whom I’ve posted about several times here on the blog. Here’s that link.

From my inbox:

We strive to make all of the world’s art accessible to anyone online. Our Tom of Finland page, for example, provides visitors with Tom’s bio, over 15 of his works, exclusive articles, and up-to-date Tom exhibition listings. The page even includes related artist & category tags, plus suggested contemporary artists, allowing viewers to continue exploring art beyond our Tom page.

I’ve checked out the link and it’s very good. This is hug part of gay culture and pop culture. I hope you check it out, too.

 “My whole life long I have done nothing but interpret my dreams of ultimate masculinity, and draw them.”
-Tom of Finland

I wish I could share an image but I don’t have permission.

Twitter and Pork Faggots

I received quite a few DMs on Twitter yesterday from gay men in the US who were offended at a few tweets that were circulating that had to do with “pork faggots,” and a specific food product that’s sold in the UK. Of course there’s nothing wrong with “pork faggots” because that’s cultural to people in the UK. I think this was one of those Twitter things that just took off for like an hour or so.  

But it bothered a lot of people…not all were gay men…who were too afraid to mention it aloud. As I said, it was done in a passive aggressive way and the people doing it played it very safely. 

First, pork faggots really are a food product in the UK, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. This is all about context. This is from wiki…

Faggots are a traditional dish in the UK,^[1][2] especially South and Mid Wales and the Midlands of England.^[3][4][5] It is made from meat off-cuts and offal, especially pork.^[3] A faggot is traditionally made from pig’s heart, liver and fatty belly meat or bacon minced together, with herbs added for flavouring and sometimes bread crumbs.

So when you see someone in the US coming from a place of privilege making jokes about pork faggots, and referring to gay men in derogatory ways, just ignore them. In this case, it’s not worth the effort. They are only goading you to get a reaction. 

But more important, in some cases it might just be totally innocent. You can’t jump to conclusions. Or, the person really might be joking and they just aren’t very good at it. Not everyone can be clever and we can’t jump to conclusions every time. 

Protocol After Hooking Up With A Straight Guy

This is interesting. It happens to a lot of gay men, and it can be very awkward.

A gay man who claims to have hooked up with a straight guy on his birthday wonders what he should do now that the candles have been blown out and the cake has been eaten. So, naturally, he’s turning to the Reddit community for guidance. 

“I went out with some friends to a straight dive bar,” the birthday boy explains. “This guy approached me to wish me a happy birthday … and I decided to be flirty even though I was out of my element.” 

You can read the whole thing here. It’s hard to comment because I think every circumstance is different. And it does happen. The odds are you’ll know when it happens and you’re not going to be emotionally devastated after sex, when the straight guy pats you on the ass, says thanks for that, and then leaves. Just move on.