The Further Future of Gay
Erotic Art
by Michael Kirwan — April 3, 2010
[This rant was revised and printed in
a book of my art "Just
So Horny"]
Recently during the last few hours of the 2010
Tom of Finland Foundation’s Erotic Art Fair Weekend (in West
Hollywood, California),
Durk Dehner interviewed me on camera and
asked a few very pertinent questions regarding the state of the Gay
Community and whether the artistic representations of our tribe will
continue to resonant with the oncoming generation of Queers. It's a
subject which I've given a great deal of thought over the years and
since I was pulled into the conversation "cold" I don't think that I
adequately voiced my current position. So, I'd like to expand and
clarify on the matter in this forum.
I told Durk that I see a great fissure appearing
in the Gay Community. Eventually, a significant portion of our
brethren (I don't know enough about Lesbians to claim to speak on
their attitudes in this discussion. Ladies, please opine) will join
the ranks of those who clamor for monogamous marriage and the "white
picket fence;" adopting Romanian or Asian or African babies or going
the surrogacy route; lining the pews of the supernaturalist's domain
while going to PTA meetings. In general, becoming exactly like
straight people "with a twist" [tee-hee]. On the other side, there
will be the "sex pigs." This appellation is used with respect,
revolutionary zeal, and the most heartfelt affection as I am a
lifelong devotee. These are the Queers who will not conform to
someone else's rigid expectation of how they should conduct their
lives. These are the rebels who will reject the demand for
"normalcy." These are the boys who will choose to chart their own
destiny without the obtrusive and demeaning guidelines for "how
things are supposed to be done" by the culture at large.
So, I see two very different camps emerging in
Fag World. The first is comprised of those who willingly adopt a
parallel "straight" existence. The second is filled by the creative
core that celebrates our difference, our outcast status, and our
unique contribution to civilization (by sucking off strangers in
public restrooms and thinking about the world from a outsider's
perspective — a stance that has created the best art in the history
of mankind). I make a distinction between guys that just hook up and
spend years or decades enjoying each other's company (and probably
conducting independent sex lives) and those that mimic straight
behaviors (monogamy=good, a less structured libido=bad) in their
attitudes. There will be couples that identify with QueerVille and
those that see themselves as just part of the "real" society.
Asshole couples with children and straight cohorts will NOT be
honoring the tribe by hanging artwork featuring giant drooling
cocks. So as far as I'm considered, they are TRAITORS. But then
again I'm no fan of Queers that don't decorate their abodes with
COCKS. Hahaha!!!!
The straight-life clones will eventually become
even more of an enemy to the sex pigs than the current batch of
haters ("You can't cruise the parks where I bring my
precious children, Tiffani and Joshua!”) but that's another
story for another day.
I just learned that the ADVOCATE'S skin-rag titles
FRESHMEN and MEN have bit the dust as have the Mavety titles HONCHO,
MANDATE, INCHES, PLAYGUY, TORSO. On my trip to the Fair, I saw that
the "Different Light" bookstore on Santa Monica was no more. There
seems to be a Gay bookstore or Gay bar closing happening on a
regular basis in this country. These were the main outlets for Gay
artists producing erotic imagery to survive commercially. Without
the magazines and other establishments that supplied some measure of
financial support for those like myself to disseminate our artwork
(and get some survival compensation), there seems not to be a
traditional structure available for the promotion of artwork dealing
with sex between/amongst males. The internet? Who knows? I'm
probably the worst "business" person alive and I'm incapable of
prognostication as I pretty much live in the moment. Really! I
couldn't tell you what I'll be doing or thinking half an hour from
now with any certainty.
But, I'll tell you this… the "Picket Fence" crowd
will start insisting that all the sex pigs either join their
bandwagon of boredom or disappear completely. Then, the new
generation of Queers, preferring to identify and determine their
right to be who they want to be, will find a way to spread the
images, literature, films, and music that exemplify their beliefs to
be seen by those who are like-minded. We've been doing it for
thousands of years, and we will always be better, smarter and more
creative about messaging to each other than straight folks. When our
own same-sex brothers attack (and they will), a whole new realm of
homoerotic art will develop to combat the threat and unite the
freedom-loving core adherents of the cleaved tribe. Nothing sparks
the creative impulse like repression.
There will be significant differences in the
visuals to what we have been accustomed to as Gay art evolves. I
doubt we'll see the fixation on uniforms. The "New Fags" see cops as
corrupt and inept oppressors. They see soldiers as men willing to
suspend personal morality for a paycheck while murdering and
maiming other human beings in foreign lands at the say-so of some
creepy, corporate-owned politician. They'll remember Abu Ghraib.
They'll have seen Marines taking it up the ass for dollars on
various websites so the "nonattainability" factor is removed. So, the
law enforcement and military figures that fueled the fantasies of
bygone multitudes of Gay artistic expressioneers will probably
become quaint and hopelessly "retro." The whole notion of men so
conditioned to conformity that they don identical outfits will seem
outmoded. And, the New Fags see the existing motorcycle culture as a
bunch of middle-income old farts play-acting instead of as
rebellious, bad-ass, Marlon Brando/James Dean types that caused
earlier generations to swoon with secret awe. Hence, those leather
standards will cease to be a defining aspect of how Queers envision
rugged individuality. And let's face it, the entire arsenal of
B/D/S/M has been co-opted by the "fashion" sector. The depictions
of helpless tethered victims (which I believe reflected the
constraints of the closet) being raped by cruel masters (again,
ascribing our "other nature" to being absolutely responsible for
any homo-pleasure derived) may also seem somewhat trite and
overwrought. So the iconography will change and morph and develop as
the need to unite the tribe moves our propaganda needs forward.
Firefighters and athletes will probably survive as symbolic Man/Hero
representations. I don't know. We'll all see what happens.
This is not to say that the images that galvanized
us as a "people" for the past half-century should be discarded or
disrespected. They are important because they brought us together
and bestowed a universally understood "language" that we needed to
form a coherent identity which could (and did) effect social change.
How we saw ourselves included in drawings and words clarified how
different, valuable and viable we were in the fight against our
enemies. The art of Tom and Blade and Domino and Harry Bush and
subsequently myself (well, really, did you think I'd not exercise my
ego? Hahaha!!!) and all of the artists since are part of a
continuum. It was/is an act of defiance. GAY ART will always exist.
Sure, pornography is available all over the place but artistic
vision of the same subject matter appeals to people on a different
level. Porn is solely about sex while erotic art is about
sharing an artist's perception on what the sex truly means. The
early and current depictions of homoerotica are just part of a long
line of creative efforts that solidify our genuine and unique stake
in the world. It's important to understand how our tribe dealt with
role expectations then, how it is reflected now, and what will be
seen in the future.
The fragments and fabric of what has evolved as "Gay Culture" are
all inter-related and as the
New Fags take over they'll be wise to honor and build on the
legacy we have imparted. I'm sure the "Picket Fence" contingent
would like nothing more than to disabuse and bury all the drawings
and photographs that edify cocksuckery (to SAVE THE CHILDREN!!!! no
less) but, they underestimate us sex pigs. A lot of us would rather
take our chances in the free and open sea rather than march forever
partnered into the confines of Noah's Ark. By our artwork, we will
tell them so.
THE END |