(The male body, man-man sex, and roles in sex. You have been warned.)

Yesterday’s Daily Jocks ad brings us some commanding presences:

(#1)

Dominic in Dugout briefs

(#2)

Mester in an Alpha harness

Dominic’s in control, and he
Knows what he wants you to
Do; submit to him. Or you can
Serve his brother
Mester; they’re both ready to
Take you.

We’re in the CellBlock 13 world of high masculinity, doms and subs, masters and slaves, and sexual fetishes.

#1 and #2 show the top side. Then there’s the CellBlock 13 bottom side. From a DNA magazine spread of 5/16/13:

First time model Jared Newmeyer recently posed for a new CellBlock 13 campaign. Shot by Timoteo Ocampo, Jared wears the new styles from the Riot and Renegade collections.

(#3)

Jared on his knees, expectant but still defiant

(#4)

Jared tied in service

Meanwhile, we’ve seen a gayboy in an Ambush wrestling singlet from CellBlock 13. The image repeated here:

(#5)

The Ambush line comes with front and rear zippers, allowing the wearer to offer his cock or his ass, as he wishes. It’s consistent with a top or bottom presentation of the body and with a faggy or butch presentation of the self — faggy as in #5, butch in two (X-rated) images on AZBlogX, showing Ambush shorts (in yellow) and an Ambush singlet (in red).

More on ambushes in a moment. But first, some notes on CellBlock 13.

The firm has its own website here. And here’s JockstrapCentral’s description of the company:

CellBlock 13 designs jockstraps and fetish inspired sportswear is the answer to fetish meets fashion. Paying close attention to fit, comfort and fashion with consideration to how we all live, play and relax. For the guy who isn’t afraid to show off how he looks, how he feels and what he’s into.

Whether it’s ergonomically designed underwear, mesh pouched jockstraps, or wrestling singlets with the bum cut out, Cellblock 13 bridges fashion underwear and fetish play wear with bold colors and phenomenal design.

We’ve already heard about garments in the following lines from the company: Dugout, Alpha, Riot, Renegade, and Ambush. Further lines: Back Alley, G-Force, Enforcer (offering both ordinary jocks and “cruising jocks”), Ninja, Locker, Beer Bust, Deceptor, Stryker, Deviant, Cadet, Freshman, Samurai, Venom, Defender, Parolee. Unabashedly gay-oriented and offering allusions to stereotypically masculine locations and events (sports, the military, prisons, beer busts) and to force. aggression, and dangerousness. As far as I can tell, there’s no Back Alley cruising jock, but then nobody’s perfect.

On harnesses: Mester in #2 is wearing an Alpha harness (a wide bulldog harness), to show off his alpha-male power. On harnesses on this blog: a 8/10/13 posting with (cross) harnesses from Sears, of all places. And on AZBlogX, a 9/8/13 posting on harnesses, with five images, only one of them X-rated; both cross harnesses and bulldog harnesses are illustrated.

And now ambushes. The Ambush line from CellBlock 13 takes us into the military sphere, with extensions to other situations. From NOAD2:

noun: a surprise attack by people lying in wait in a concealed position: seven members of a patrol were killed in an ambush | kidnappers waiting in ambush.

verb [with obj.]: make a surprise attack on (someone) from a concealed position: they were ambushed and taken prisoner by the enemy; confront (someone) suddenly and unexpectedly with unwelcome questions: representatives were ambushed by camera crews.

ORIGIN Middle English (in the sense ‘place troops in hiding in order to surprise an enemy’): from Old French embusche (noun), embuschier (verb), based on a late Latin word meaning ‘to place in a wood’; related to bush. The noun use dates from the late 15th cent.

Following up on bush, we get:

ORIGIN Middle English: from Old French bos, bosc, variants of bois ‘wood,’ reinforced by Old Norse buski, of Germanic origin and related to obsolete Dutch bosch (now bos) and German Busch.

So there is, in a sense, a bush in ambush. This is the sort of thing that inclines people to give credence to preposterous invented etymologies.

A recent tv commercial ‘Clean Underwear’ for Charmin Ultra Soft toilet paper, featuring the four Charmin bears and their mother, skirts direct mention of feces stains on underwear (colloquially referred to euphemistically as skidmarks), while including a very slightly concrealed allusion to skids. A performance that some viewers found funny-cute and others found offensive. By going to this site, you can access a video of the commercial that loops through the thing again and again, until you shut it off.

Background. Toilet paper presents a serious challenge in engineering and design: it has to disintegrate in water, so as not to clog toilets; be strong enough to withstand vigorous wiping; and be soft enough not to irritate the user.

Meanwhile, as I’ve noted on this blog (for instance, on 12/12/12, here), underwear serves two central purposes:  protecting the body from assault by outer clothing, which is often rough; and protecting the outer clothing from the discharges of the body, especially feces and semen. (Some underwear also supplies support, for female breasts or male genitals. In addition, as clothing, underwear can serve aesthetic purposes. And underwear that encloses sexual parts can serve as sexual display.) In any case, the intersection of toilet paper and underwear is skid marks.

The commercial. In this partial transcript, I’ve given the bear cubs numbers; they probably have names in the Charminverse, but I don’t know them. Bear 3 seems to act as Head Bear, and Bear 2, in a baseball cap, seems to be the Kid. Bear 4, in glasses, has no speaking part in this ad.

The scene starts with Bear 1 bringing a pack of Charmin into what looks like a living room, where the other three cubs are hanging out. A stairway leads to a second story, where Mama Bear is.

The script:

1: Wow! This toilet paper reminds me of a washcloth!

3: New Charmin Ulta Strong, dude. Cleans so well, it keeps your underwear cleaner. So clean you could wear them a second day.

2: [some exclamation I haven’t been able to make out]

Mama [appearing on the stairway]: I did not just hear that!

3 [to Mama]: I said that you could, not that you would.

[voiceover here]

3: It cleans better. [to 2] Uh, you should try it, Skitz!

[further voiceover]

Skitz is so close to Skids as to make no difference. Apparently 2 is a Skid Kid.

(Not much about language here — mostly about men’s bodies and the projection of personas.)

Saturday’s ad from Daily Jocks, which led me to a rich collection of images from the PUMP! underwear firm. Four of them below the fold, and there are also notes.

(#1)

The lost boy

They crafted his body,
Scupted his abs, his pecs, his
Delts, his quads, pumped up a
Killer package for him, but
Nobody taught him
How to box.

PUMP! specializes in gym-oriented images (pumping iron and all that), though they also have a few pretty-boy models and a lot of models doing the slutty rentboy look, like Dan Bevan here:

(#2)

Whatever you need

Dan will be your
Bartender with
Benefits.

(Dan’s regular job, outside of modeling, is as a bartender in a Vancouver gay bar.)

Or you can get the rentboy look right there in the gym:

(#3)

Jockstrap exhibitionist

Sultry Boy
Blatantly
Displays himself.

(Dactyl time!)

In any case, PUMP!’s images lean towards the homoerotic, as in a series of shots of the Minnekhanov twins, Rubin and Reval:

(#4)

Classified

X seeks Y
For pouch play
In neon colors.

(See the Underwear Nation piece of 1/25/13, “The Twin Male Model Debate”, with three sets of twins, including these.)

Finally, here’s PUMP! model Nick Stracener away from PUMP!, in an ad campaign promoting condom use:

(#5)

Sheathed

Nick wants you –
To wrap it up.

(Nick’s regular job is as a flight attendant, based in Dallas — hence the play on Big D for Dallas and big D for big dick.)

Bonus: the title of this posting. It’s a (distant) play on Pump Boys and Dinettes. From Wikipedia:

Pump Boys and Dinettes is a musical written [premiered in 1981, on Broadway in 1982] by a performance group of the same name. The group, Pump Boys and Dinettes, consists of John Foley, Mark Hardwick, Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, John Schimmel and Jim Wann. The members additionally directed and starred in the Broadway production.

… The musical tells the story of four men (L.M., Jackson, Jim and Eddie) who work at a gas station and two waitresses (sisters Prudie and Rhetta Cupp) at the “Double Cupp Diner,” a dinette, located somewhere between Frog Level and Smyrna, North Carolina. The music is mostly from the country rock/pop music genres. They perform on guitars, piano, bass and kitchen utensils.

(#6)

The latest ad from the Daily Jocks company, with a caption:

  (#1)

The head-scratcher

He didn’t know
Where he was or
How he got there;
Last he remembered,
He was rocking to
“El Bimbo” at the
Blue Oyster Bar, in his
Pink and blue jockstrap,
With a really
Hot
Sweaty
Stud
Who called him
Sugar

Some notes:

Ad copy from Jocks:

Get the blood pumping with the all new Sugar Rush Collection from PUMP!
Made from quality micromesh and cotton fabric, each pair will help keep you cool while still giving you full support.
Available in jock and jogger in a funky pink and blue color combo!

Then the Blue Oyster Bar — the gay leather bar in the Police Academy films (link), where the guys dance to the song “El Bimbo” (played by Jean-Marc Dompierre and his orchestra); a Blue Oyster Bar scene can be viewed here. El Bimbo would of course refer to a male bimbo, otherwise known (by portmanteauing) as a himbo or mimbo: good-looking, buffed, focused on his grooming and his body, not very bright, and inclined to be a slut. In another variant, he’s a bimboy, as in the 2015 book Becoming the Bimboy, a male/male romance by Lance Abrusco:

  (#2)

But why Blue Oyster Bar? Well, the color blue has been associated with gay men, as in the (now-deceased) gay pornographic magazine Blueboy:

  (#3)

(plus the use of blue to refer to material with sexual or pornographic content).

Then there’s the rock band Blue Öyster Cult, but I don’t see any gay male association there, so it probably just contributed the words blue and oyster to the bar name.

As for oysters, they’ve been associated with virility since ancient times, no doubt because of the similarity in appearance of oysters and vulvas:

  (#4)

Now this is easily seen as a vulva, but it can also be seen as a (moderately complex) anus, and gay men are in any case inclined to view the male anus as a sexual organ, analogous to a vagina (with the vulva as its external part). That makes Blue Oyster a moderately subtle name for a gay bar, less blunt than, say Manhole or Tool Box.

(More common as symbolic of both vulvas and anuses are flowers, in particular roses.)

Today’s Daily Jocks ad, wishing us Happy Thanksgiving through a stud with a carefully sculptured body, wearing an Ibiza Brief in white, from Marcuse; and, as it turns out, offering gift boxes and gift vouchers “for a friend, partner, or even yourself!”

(#1)

On to a model of sad countenance showing off these briefs:

(#2)

He despaired of
Returning to Ibiza,
Having only these
Briefs to remind him of
Gay days in the sun.

He takes us to the Voucher Boys, Red and Yellow:

(#3)

The boys are wearing Rugger Jr. shorts from BCNU, in navy blue (with red trim and red-themed socks) and grey (with yellow trim and yellow-themed socks).

They’d been teammates and
Lovers for six years now, but
Hung back from talking about
Kinks: did Red’s red mean
Fist-fucking and Yellow’s yellow mean
Piss, or were they just
Color preferences?

Notes below the fold.

DJ’s copy on the briefs in #2:

Marcuse taps into Ibiza, providing the perfect themed look for our brand’s printed underwear. We reckon you’ll soak up the vibe in these classic ocean-inspired silhouette prints, fitted with elastic waistband to hug your masculine waist. Where ever you seek the sun and the pulsating rhythm of life, throw in your pair of Marcuse Ibiza briefs!

On Ibiza, from Wikipedia:

Ibiza (Catalan: Eivissa …) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea, 150 kilometres (93 miles) off the coast of the city of Valencia, in eastern Spain. It is the third largest [after Majorca and Minorca] of the Balearic Islands, an autonomous community of Spain.

… Ibiza has become famous for the association with nightlife and the electronic music that originated on the island. It is well known for its summer club scene which attracts very large numbers of tourists

Ibiza has a substantial gay presence, with gay clubs and a gay beach.

Now about possible color coding in #3. This would be the famous hanky code, now mostly a relic of the past of gay cruising. In its classic form, each color signifies some sexual practice; worn on the left, the hanky marks an insertive, dominant, or top man; on the right, a receptive, submissive, or bottom man. But shorts and socks are symmetric, so the only information they might convey is a sexual practice. For the record, the colors involved in #3 are, for the body colors:

navy blue: fucking
grey: bondage

and for the trim and the socks:

red: fist-fucking
yellow: piss

I start with yesterday’s Daily Jocks ad, with a Black Friday sale:

(#1)

Knocked Down

They put him on a Black Friday
Half-off sale, he felt
Devalued

(The briefs in the photo are apparently 2(X)IST Sweats Briefs, which are in the Daily Jocks sale in Earl Grey and Very Blue — normally $28 each, $14 on sale — but not in the vivid red shown above.)

Daily Jocks offers a number of lines of what have come to be called premium brands, emphasizing not just comfort but also style and sexiness, and in cost a step up from basic brands like Fruit of the Loom and Jockey. In fact, the world of men’s underwear has undergone a kind of revolution, from the days when 75% of men’s underwear purchases were made by women to the current scene, where only 25% are; men have become fashion-conscious and are shopping for themselves these days. Meanwhile, underwear modeling has gone from just a routine specialty in male modeling to a high-fashion specialty; men with good looks and hot bodies vie with one another for modeling jobs, and celebrities in sports and entertainment are courted by premium brands (for big bucks) to represent them in advertising.

Now the next stage: from premium brands to luxury brands. On to a wonderful piece by Guy Trebay in the NYT‘s Styles section on the 26th:  “As Personal as Luxury Gets: Men’s underwear goes premium, entering triple-figure territory” (head in print), “A Pair of Boxers for $400? Men’s Underwear Goes High-End “ (head on-line).

Some highlights — well, quite a few — from Trebay’s piece:

Once, they were known as unmentionables, and it only mattered that they were clean. You never knew, after all, when you might be knocked down by a bus.

“When we were young, you would never show your underwear,” the designer Tommy Hilfiger said recently, referring to an era when Dwight D. Eisenhower was president. “Now, if you don’t show your underwear, you’re just not cool.”

Mr. Hilfiger was marking one of those shifts in the culture that lurch along with a tectonic jolt. For generations, American men who were raised wearing generic boxers or Jockeys purchased in three-packs expended little thought or time or post-tax income on the foundation garments worn beneath their outerwear. The whole point of skivvies seemed to be encapsulated in the name given to the category under which they were sold: intimates.

That was before Justin Bieber, of course, before sexting and saggers and artfully lighted, half-clad Snapchat selfies. It was before baldly erotic videos of Rafael Nadal popped up on smartphones or monitors in advertisements depicting one of the world’s top tennis players doing a locker-room striptease in Mr. Hilfiger’s new line of sexy boxer briefs — images that even five years ago may have been flagged as NSFW.

It was also before a trend (most likely inaugurated by Calvin Klein in the prehistory of Marky Mark) that gained considerable momentum over the last dozen years, that of offering so-called premium underwear for men. [Language Log and this blog have tracked these developments for some time; see the “Underwear postings” Page on this blog.] “Underwear is where jeans were 20 years ago,” Mr. Hilfiger said. “It’s the new denim.”

Proof of that assertion can be found on The Underwear Expert, a startlingly comprehensive website dedicated to researching, testing, reviewing and even curating for sale underpants culled from the nearly 600 labels now crowding the field.

… Priced in a broad range from $24.99 (the figure at which men’s underpants are considered “premium”) to the $470 the French luxury-goods house Hermès charges for a pair of woven boxers are briefs whose virtues are sometimes described in terms better suited to the aerospace than the apparel industry.

… Teaming up with Frigo, a premium underwear brand developed by Mathias Ingvarsson, the Swedish entrepreneur who helped transform Tempur-Pedic from a no-name mattress brand into a global powerhouse, [Curtis Jackson III, better known as 50 Cent] last December helped close an $80 million licensing deal for a brand apparently pitched at the so-called urban market.

… The marketing of Frigo tends to favor innovation over style as a way to lure consumers to a product that costs up to $100 a pair. Like the patented AussieBum Wonderjock, or the SAXX Vibe “articulated contour pouch,” or 2UNDR’s “Joey Pouch,” or the “keyhole comfort pouch” made by the label MyPakage, Frigo briefs also feature a patented interior pouch designed to lift and display a man’s anatomical endowment to maximum benefit.

(On this blog, on pouch-enhancing underwear: “The Xmas package 2” on 12/17/10, “Bulges” on 4/17/11.)

Pouch enhancement predictably leads Trebay to material on codpieces (see this recent posting of mine, which has a section on codpieces).

Trebay’s piece is amply illustrated. The first photo:

(#2)

Matthew McGue, a model, auditioning for an event to celebrate the debut of a collection of high-end Parke & Ronen underwear. (photo by Deidre Schoo)

Back to basics. Basic lines continue, but even they have fashioned up some. The Fruit of the Loom site offers only three styles of men’s underwear — boxers, boxer briefs, and briefs — but the briefs come in several styles (in particular, there are bikini briefs, without flies, in many colors).  These are offered in 4-packs, 5-packs, and 6-packs (mostly at $18.99 per pack, which is way below premium prices). For instance,  a 6-pack of stripes / solids fashion briefs (with fly) for $18.99, a 5-pack of assorted-color bikini briefs for $15.49.

Meanwhile, Jockey has moved into fashion world. The Jockey site for men’s underwear offers eight styles:

string bikini, bikini, brief, trunk, boxer brief, boxer, midway brief (essentially a lomng boxer brief), quad short (even longer, covering the thighs)

in three fits (as described on the site):

classic fit (full coverage styles that offer long-lasting comfort), low rise (tailored underwear in fashionable colors and styles), sport (underwear designed to keep you cool and comfortable)

These are available in 2-packs, 3-packs, and 6-packs, all well under premium prices. For example: Elance String Bikini (2 for $19.50), Pouch Boxer Brief (2 for $25),  Elance Brief (3 for $19.50),  Classic Brief (6 for $36).

A different marketing strategy. While most menswear has moved in the direction of style, fashion, and sexiness, one firm, the Duluth Trading Company, has gone for a marketing strategy that elaborately pushes working-class masculinity, with pants (that is, trousers) claimed to be super-durable (even a grizzly bear couldn’t take them on), and the like. In the men’s underwear department, they offer their Men’s Buck Naked Performance line:

Boxer Briefs for $22.50 each, Boxers for $22.50, Briefs $19.50, Extra-Long Boxer Briefs $24.50

Just under premium prices (and, nice point, prices set to correspond roughly to the amount of fabric in a garment).

A commercial (obviously meant to be funny) can be viewed here. The print ads are elaborately folksy-masculine:

TIRED OF SWEATIN’ AND SQUIRMIN’? GET “BUCK NAKED!”

No sweat. No stink. No pinch! “Almost feel as if you are wearing no underwear at all!” says Ric from Richmond, VA. If you’re like most men, you’re still wearing the same kind of ‘tighty whities’ you grew up with. Our Buck Naked™ Briefs (previously known as Performance Underwear) are making working guys all across the country change their underwear. They’re stretchy, yet supportive too, for extra ease when you’re climbing or kneeling. (“Great comfort and gentle control of all my parts” as Doc from Michigan so carefully put it.) They also wick sweat far more efficiently than any cotton skivvies out there to keep you drier. Plus they’re treated to fight odor.

None of that fancy-pants stuff, but underwear for Real Men!

The most recent Daily Jocks ad, with a darkly brooding model in Jack Adams  briefs who’s performing the first step in a cock-tease show, pulling down one side of those briefs, hinting that he might be willing to give us more:

(#1)

I love my Jack Adams

When Adam delved
Into his briefs,
Seeking his identity,
He named himself —
For his belovèd
Underwear.

In its ads, the underwear firm Jack Adams (JA) — it specializes in jockstraps, but offers a full range of styles — focuses on masculinity, with an unmistakable homoerotic subtext, though its statements are tamer, emphasizing athleticism and stylishness, as here:

Jack Adams – Defined By The Man Who Wears It: Founded in 2010, Jack Adams is an underwear and activewear brand that’s defined by the man who wears it. We appeal to the athletic man with a masculine style – and a strong sense of style at that. We are one of the few brands that clearly acknowledge the confidence that can come from a fashionable, maybe even sexy pair of underwear. That’s why the quintessential Jack Adams man is self-assured, comfortable in his own skin, and even more comfortable in Jack Adams style.

The firm’s name conjures up (no doubt intentionally) a huge assortment of associations, masculine and sexual, with Jack, jack, and Adam.

JA uses a wide range of model types (though they’re all in fantastic shape), with a variety of presentations of themselves. The guy above falls pretty far out on the male-hustler end of the scale.

I’ll look at a bunch of Jack Adams models in a little while. But first, notes on two of the allusions in my caption above.

The title. An echo of the British singer-songwriter Donovan’s song “I Love My Shirt”, from the 1969 album Barabajagal, a song you can hear at this YouTube link.

Delving.  That is, ‘digging’. Here the echo is of a famous couplet:

(#2)

From the Victorian Web site, this is a William Morris illumination of A Dream of John Ball (1892), on the words of reformist preacher John Ball during the 1381 peasant rebellion (a sermon about the unequal distribution of wealth).

Previously on this blog. Two postings with JA in them. On 1/16/13, a posting on “The H fly”: the horizontal or army fly, which allows a man to fish out his penis from above with ease, illustrated by the JA Army Fly Jock Brief (in case you’ve forgotten, a jock brief is a brief in front, a jockstrap – hence open-rear – in back; sort of like a mullet, business in front, party in the rear).

And then on 9/14/15, a posting on “Alex Minsky and his underwear”, on 2014 JA model Minsky: heavily tattoed, very hot, and with a prosthetic lower right leg.

Jesse Jordan. That was 2014. The 2013 JA model was Jesse Jordan, a favorite of mine. Also tattooed, but more lightly, and given to facial expressions that suggest he might be about to smile — certainly, neither overtly seductive nor challenging. Three items. First, the JA Footballer Lace Up Jockstrap (in red and black), a preposterous but entertaining garment:

(#3)

Then a JA Army Fly Brief (with H fly), in black (and now we see the tattoing on his right pec: “Ich Liebe” ‘I love’):

(#4)

And the JA Core Boxer Brief, in grey, with a great big jutting pouch:

(#5)

From the Model Mayhem site, we learn that 34-year-old Jesse Daniel Jordan, who lives in L.A., is a big man (6′ 2″, 203 lbs.). From his sweetly enthusiastic personal statement, we learn that he’s also a hair stylist:

I [have] been very fortunate to work in many different avenues of entertainment. I have modeled for magazines and billboards, was on a reality tv show on Bravo called “Workout,” acted in commercials, and I am a licensed hair stylist. As a hair stylist I have worked with some of the top magazines and celebrities. I am open to both modeling and hair jobs. I consider myself a kind and hard working person so feel free to message me about potential jobs. THANK YOU!

Dylan Austin Scott. Male fitness model Scott was the 2012 JA model. As far as I can tell, he’s inkless, and he’s clean-shaven. Two poses, in the JA BodyFlex Mesh Jockstrap, in black, snapping a strap; and in the JA Trainer Trunk, in white, with another big jutting pouch:

(#6)

(#7)

And then, out of his underwear. showing off his muscles and smiling devilishly through cock-teasing:

(#8)

One more JA model: John Strand, shown here in a JA Air Mesh Track Short:

(#9)

One of his moods. In a wilder mood and a different presentation of self, he’s posed for a number of cock-tease shots by David Wagner, for instance:

(#10)

Assembling materials for my posting on Jack Adams underwear for men took me further into the world of homowear, premium men’s underwear brands (pricey, emphasizing athleticism and stylishness, plus comfort and sexiness, and also homoerotically tinged) and the world of the male underwear models who are used by these brands — both crowded and competitive fields these days. And there I came across this David Wagner photo of model José Parra displaying his muscular body and offering his crotch (and one armpit) in a wrestling singlet (aka wrestler) from N2N:

(#1)

I’ll be posting a few more photos of Joey Parra (as he is also known), mostly doing enthusiastic cock-tease performances, and also information about some of the homowear brands he’s worked for, starting with N2N.

Wrestling singlets. Strictly speaking, #1 is not a cock-tease performance, since this wrestling singlet is cut super low by design, so that anyone wearing it will be displaying pubic hair. The garment is not a piece of athletic gear at all; it’s a piece of homowear. Note the stylish fabric and the pouch enhancement.

Here’s a genuine athletic singlet, from a wrestling supplies firm:

(#2)

It has a U neck, like many athletic shirts, but it’s not scooped low.

An intermediate case, from the style-conscious firm Pistol Pete:

(#3)

This has a scoop neck, designed to show off the wearer’s manly chest, and it’s stylish, but it has no pouch enhancement, and it could in principle be worn on a wrestling mat (especially if your team’s colors are gold and black).

Homowear singlets are scooped way low, below the navel, to display the whole torso; they are pouch-enhancing; they’re likely to be made of sexy materials (faux leather, shiny fabrics, camo fabric, fabrics in intense colors); and sometimes they have open rears, offering the wearer’s butt as well as his crotch (the singlet in #1 does not). They are for fun and display, not athletic competition.

Of course, the attraction of a wrestling singlet, even one not homo-enhanced, is the combination of the high masculinity of  sports and the high homoeroticism of two sweaty, minimally clad men in prolonged close physical contact with one another.

The N2N brand. From the Underwear Expert site:

Designed to offer a flattering fit, N2N Bodywear offers a wide selection of men’s underwear, swimwear, active wear and loungewear specifically for gay male consumers or adventurous metro-sexuals. Founded in Los Angeles in 1997 by fashion designer, Andrew MacKay, N2N (short for “Next to Nothing”) offers an apparel line that embraces the male physique and provides customers with a number of options. N2N Bodywear’s mission is to provide the most comfortable, quality apparel to make any man feel masculine, sexy and confident.

The N2N Underwear line offers a variety of styles such as revealing G-strings or jockstraps as well as trunks or long johns that hug the body. The brand utilizes natural and synthetic fibers such as cotton, polyester and spandex to achieve a lightweight, smooth feel. The brand provides a variety of selections with different colors and prints. For a flattering contour enhancing silhouette, N2N offers its own nHANCE pouch, which lifts and supports your package. N2N Mens Underwear also provides a sensual touch with several ranges featuring see-through fabrics.

N2N underwear is in the premium range (mostly $20-$30 apiece), but they also offer some specialty items, especially in the Erotic category, where you can find

(1) The C-Strap (for cock strap), essentially a nylon/spandex cock ring, which N2N bills as a “bulge booster” and “ball lifter”. In various kicky colors, at $14 apiece.

(#4)

(2) The N2N Suede Harness, which goes for $40:

(#5)

(3) And another homowear wrestling singlet, The Liquid Skin Wrestler, which sells for $44:

(#6)

On José “Joey” Parra. He’s now in his late 20s. Lives in Montebello CA (in L.A. County, east of downtown L.A.). His entry on the Model Mayhem site says he doesn’t do nude shots… but he’s clearly an adventurous fellow. From a 12/13/13 feature in Next Magazine, “Colby Melvin, Brent Corrigan and [José Parra] model the smallest men’s underwear you’ve ever seen [NSFW]”:

Looking for a stocking stuffer that won’t take up too much space? PetitQ has taken revealing underwear to a whole new level with their latest line of incredibly skimpy products. (Seriously, you could use some of these to floss.) [with a link to an entertaining video; a screen shot from the video]

(#7)

Joey’s big break was modeling for Andrew Christian. Here he is, younger and tamer than above (but still intense), modeling an AC jockstrap:

(#8)

On the Andrew Christian brand. From the Underwear Expert:

Based in Los Angeles, California, Andrew Christian underwear was founded in 1997. Led by the brand’s namesake creative director, Andrew Christian, the brand is best known for its devoted fan base, viral video campaigns, innovative pouches and designs and, of course, the ever popular Andrew Christian models.

The brand is perhaps most well known for its anatomically correct Almost Naked range of men’s underwear. The range features a hang-free pouch designed to enhance the profile of the package and maximize comfort.

AC on this blog:

“Male vanity” of 3/30/11: the AC Shock Jock Flirt Brief (with “a soft hidden cup, sculpted into a penis shape”)

“For Stonewall Day” of 6/28/12: including “a puppy pile of Andrew Christian football boyz”

“Color and advertising your preference” of 2/27/15: ad copy for AC; photos of the CoolFlex Retro Brief Jock and the C-Ring Brief Jock (brief jock = jock brief, brief in front, jock in the rear)

David Wagner and Rufskin. In Joey’s next big career move, he hooked up with L.A. male photographer David Wagner for work with Rufskin garments (underwear and jeans), both for ads and for cock-tease play. In all of these shots, the man is sexily intense. I find these shots really hot and at the same time really funny.

Two underwear cock-teases, with Joey using both hands to pull his skivvies down to show some pubes and suggest that he might be willing to go all the way for you:

(#9)

(#10)

And then a nice sequence, with the ad first (with both armpits displayed), followed by a one-handed cock-tease pants-lowering (the other hand in use for an armpit display):

(#11)

(#12)

In the jeans cock-teases, Joey has undone his fly and pushed his jeans down to expose his pubes and (usually) also his cockroot, leaving both his hands free to do whatever he wants with them:

(#13)

(#14)

In the underwear cock-teases, Joey is naked except for the underwear, so all the muscles on the front of his body are on display. In these two jeans cock-teases he’s exposing some of this musculature, by opening his shirt in #13, by shirt-lifting in #14.

The Underwear Expert (in January 2013) on the Wagner / Parra / Rufskin shoot:

David Wagner recently photographed this series of Jose Parra Rufskin photos. Parra pulls Rufskin off like a champ – the 25 year old model really isn’t shy in front of the camera and is more than willing to give us a peek at what’s going on underneath in these Rufskin photos. We see Parra in briefs, boxer briefs, button-fly jeans and even a bow tie. The tan and muscular model reminds us just how seductive and sensual the California based apparel brand can be.

(As far as I can tell, WagnerLA has appeared on this blog only once before, in yesterday’s posting on Jack Adams underwear — with cock-tease shots of model John Strand.)

The Rufskin brand. A San Diego firm founded by Hubert Pouches and Douglas Coats. From its website:

Rufskin began with a desire to fill a void in men’s fashion, starting with the ethos of our brand: a well-cut, sexy men’s jean. The business grew from its original artisan denim line, created from a garage in San Diego, to a global menswear company encompassing swimwear, underwear and athletic wear. It is built on the foundation of being at once vintage, sexy, masculine, athletic, futuristic and above all, well crafted.

“About Rufskin: Ruf but Smooth” by Darren Styles, who interviewed the founders:

Coats: “Hubert and I met in Paris back in the ’90s, where he ran a modeling agency and I was one of the models. He’d previously worked for a couple of fashion labels there, Bernard Perris and Courreges, and after a decade together we decided to become business partners, too”

… The kick-start for Rufskin was the founders’ realisation that there was a gap in the men’s denim market, where men were going into women’s stores to find jeans with a fitted, sexier cut – as styles elsewhere had morphed into something altogether more workmanlike. “So we started with low-rise jeans with unique styling and made that our signature,” recalls Pouches.

… some of the Rufskin output has a reputation for being somewhat risqué

Rufskin came up in this blog in a 7/1/10 posting with the poem “Golden State Rufskin Tit”, based in part on a Rufskin ad — one that features, among other things, yet another homowear wrestling singlet.

Today’s Daily Jocks ad, offering a sale on 2(X)IST items:

Trapped between
Gymnast Dude on one side and
Sock Freak on the other, he came to
Question his orientation towards
Boxer briefs — what to do?

(Lots of gay sex stuff in here, so use your judgment.)

The most recent Daily Jocks ad:

  (#1)

BCNÜ have launched their all new Varsity collection of sports tanks and shorts!
The slick, sporty gear has been designed for the active man, with form-fitting contouring and mesh paneling for extra breathability.
Both tanks and shorts are made from polyester and elastane fabric and come in 3 color styles so you can match up your complete workout look!

The ad inspired me to write a fantasy short story, in the form of (relatively) long-line free verse.

Bradley Chase and Charlie Nash
Fled their home towns at 19 to
Seek a life of gay porn in
San Francisco.

Both were solidly gay, loved sex with
Other men, loved displaying themselves
Theatrically, both had gorgeous bodies –
Part a gift of nature, part
Hard work at the gym – both
Enthusiastic, inventively dirty, fiercely
Energetic, versatile, and

Mostly oblivious to the indignities of
The business, surmounting the need to maintain endless
Hard-ons, meeting the challenge of being paired with
Strangers to perform a long menu of
Sex acts, no choice of their own, even
Coming to wryly enjoy douching their manholes.

They kept their initials, performing as
B.C. and C.N. and under the cheesy
Porn names Baloney Cumming and
Cocky Naked. They fell in love, thinking
No one else could appreciate them
The way they appreciated each other. They
Parlayed their porn fame into steady
Incomes as rentboys and giving live
Sex shows. They were married at
SexHawk Studios in S.F. in June 2008.

They left SexHawk a few years later to form
Their own portmanteau production company, BCN,
Churning out outrageous in-your-face flicks, starting with
Faggot Sluts, that also managed to be both
Funny and romantic.

Then they discovered BCNÜ and
Took it on as their company brand: their
Actors would disport themselves in
Prominently labeled BCNÜ gym gear, until their
Engorged cocks and balls burst out of the
Skimpy (but eminently comfortable) garments and
The boys ripped them off each other’s bodies and
Went at it like crazed minks —

A sturdy formula that earned them a small
Fortune, though they still hustled for money,
Just for the pleasure of giving their johns
What they needed.

Notes:

The referential ambiguity in the last line — does they refer to the johns or to B.C. and C.N.? — is intentional.

As far as I can tell, Baloney Cumming and Cocky Naked have not been used as names by any gay porn actors.

There’s also no gay porn SexHawk Studios (meant to suggest Falcon Studios), but sexhawk has been used as a name in several contexts, most notably as the name of a “Minnesota sleaze rock” band (link here). A thumbnail:

(#2)

Nicely sleazy album title — plus a crude crotch grab.

I don’t think Faggot Sluts has been used as the name of a gay porn flick, but  the expression faggot slut is so widely used that I could be wrong. Bonus here: a new posting on AZBlogX, “The pleasure of humiliation”, with a thoroughly X-rated BDSM image with the caption “Two faggot sluts being led by their worthless dicks”.

(Men’s bodies and practices involving them.)

The latest Daily Jocks ad is an offer of Mystery Underwear, with the model apparently about to snap the strap of his jock:

But he might be doing a cock-tease display, suggesting that he might use the strap to pull his jockstrap down — a jockstrap counterpart to pulling underwear down on one side. Or he might be about to snap the strap as a way of calling attention to the package at the center of his jockstrap.

In any case: the ad copy:

One of our Most Popular Shopping Events has started! We’re offering the first 100 people the opportunity to purchase Mystery Underwear for $14.95.

Snap up those cut-price skivvies!

Earlier on this blog, in a  December 2nd posting on Jack Adams underwear, #1 has a model lowering underwear on one side (via fingers hooked in the waistband) as a tease, and #6 has the model Dylan Austin Scott offering a counterpart play with one strap of his jock.

Out in the real world, strap snapping is a not uncommon bit of locker room horseplay by teammates, with one guy snapping one strap of another guy’s jock; it stings, but only mildly. Then there is towel-snapping in the showers, and more advanced body play, like fingering a teammate’s asshole.

The guys involved in this horseplay are usually straight; gay guys tend to do their best not to put themselves into potentially arousing situations like the ones I’ve just described. (I’ve seen strap snapping and towel-snapping at first hand, but not asshole-fingering, though there are plenty of accounts of locker room play in which fingering plays a part.) The emotional resonances of this apparently aggressive play are complex: part jockeying for dominance, part male bonding in which the targets are accorded membership in a tight group and show that they can good-heartedly “take it like a man”. The play is ritualized and almost never dissolves into actual aggression.

(It clearly takes experience and work for a straight boy to successfully negotiate this world. See Michael Kimmel’s 2009 book Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men.)

But underwear ads live in a homoerotic fantasy world of their own. The guy in the Daily Jocks ad seems to be presenting himself as a (gay) muscle twink. The most common presentation in premium underwear ads is as an intense and dominant street hustler, but there’s also a more neutral (sometimes even smiling) presentation as a buddy: Dylan Austin Scott with strap in hand in the Jack Adams posting.

From Daily Jocks this morning, this ad:

(#1)

Kendall has a rock-hard body and a
Menacing look, but he’s a
Muscle bottom who wants only
Black tops for sex – for years he
Searched for one who would
Humiliate and verbally abuse him
During sex but affectionately
Treasure his cute ass when they’re done
Playing – now he’s accepted M-Dig as
Master, they have matching black
Strap Jocks, and Kenny Boy is being
Fitted for a collar, happy man

M-Dig:

(#2)

#2 is from the C-IN²  site, which is way gay. Also on the site is this scene of men modeling The Basics:

(#3)

What’s the drama here? Two men competing for the affection of the third, in the middle, who can’t make up his mind? Whatever, everybody’s got serious abs and package-flattering underwear in basic skivvy white.

The ad copy from DJ:

Go H+A+R+D or go home!

The all new H+A+R+D range from C-in2 [pronounced “see in two”] combines old school style with new cutting edge design in this exciting new collection.

Featuring ultra-thick straps and ribbed cotton pouch, these jocks and briefs give you superior support while remaining soft on your skin.

The range features jockstraps and briefs in white, black and red that are bound to move fast, so don’t miss out!

Further information on the DJ website: the firm, headed by designer Gregory Sovell, is based in NYC.

Things to take up, some of them echoing previous postings here: the expression his cute ass in the caption; the name M-Dig; the Strap Jock, versus your classic jockstrap; slave collars; black on white sex; the mindset of submission.

His cute ass. An ambiguity here: M-Dig treasuring Kenny Boy’s buttocks, and the anus that is their centerpiece; or him treasuring Kenny Boy the man, with his cute ass used as a pronominal expression. For the second sense, with possessive pronoun + ass used as a pronominal, there is in fact some linguistic literature, namely

John Beavers & Andrew Koontz-Garboden, A universal pronoun in English? Linguistic Inquiry 37.3.503-13 (2006)

One example (of a number) from this paper: “their asses sure know how to fuckin’ jam” ‘they sure know how to jam’. Yes, the construction is very much street vernacular (but not specifically black street vernacular).

M-Dig. The name was meant to suggest, at considerable distance, mandingo, now slang for ‘black man with a huge dick’, ultimately from the ethnonym Mandingo, for a West African tribe. Possibly through the medium of a book, a play, and a movie, Mandingo came to connote intense black sexuality, threatening and emasculating to white men in general, but attractive to many gay white men (especially in the South) as a symbol of virility.

On the movie, from Wikipedia:

Mandingo is an American motion picture released by Paramount Pictures in 1975. It is based on the novel Mandingo by Kyle Onstott, and on the play Mandingo by Jack Kirkland (which is derived from the novel). The film was directed by Richard Fleischer and starred James Mason, Susan George, Perry King, and boxer-turned-actor Ken Norton. It was widely derided when released, although some reviews are positive. It was followed by a sequel in 1976, titled Drum, which also starred Norton.

… [In the movie,] Hammond [Maxwell, played by Perry King] purchases a Mandingo slave named Ganymede (Ken Norton). Nicknamed “Mede”, the slave works for Hammond as a prize-fighter. … Hammond also breeds Mede with female slaves on his plantation.

(#4)

The Strap Jock. The garment in #1 and #2 is a variant of the classic jockstrap. It has broad leg straps that cross over the pouch to attach to the waistband in front, rather than narrow straps attaching to the waistband at the hips.  In both variants, the straps attach at the other end to the bottom of the pouch, to provide support for the genitals.

Side views of, first, a strap jock and then a classic jock:

(#5)

(#6)

#5 shows a jock from the C-IN2 Super Bright collection, which comes in neon colors: Toxic Green, Cone Orange, and (above) Shocking Pink. #6 has one from the C-IN2 Zen Street collection, which comes in several colors, including Garden of Eden (green), above.

#1 and #2 have Mr. Cop jocks from the C-IN2 H+A+R+D collection, which comes in Cadet (blue), Mr. Cop (black), and Gray Knight. Mr. Cop from the rear:

(#7)

Slave collars. In the caption, M-Dig is taking his slave Kenny Boy to get a collar — a piece of fetishwear that will signify that Kenny Boy is M-Dig’s property. (There are slave collars crafted to look like male necklaces, so that the slave is not publicly advertising his status as property so overtly — but still with a lock on it.)

Here’s a low-intensity slave collar — it’s from Sears — with a leash attached:

(#8)

But here’s a hard-core number, paired with a heavy-duty gag on the slave’s mouth:

(#9)

This from a site for gay masters and slaves; text there, directed at masters:

This is a high quality leather collar. It is comfortable for your slave to wear for training sessions and long periods. It’s a good width, which means your slave won’t forget it has it on, but it won’t obstruct movement or weigh it down. It can be locked on, so only you can take it off, not your boy. I really like [that] it has several rings, which are strong enough to be used for bondage. Attach a leash to the middle one and bind its hands to the 2 side rings. A very effective position to train your boy in.

(Note that the slave is referred to with the pronoun it, not he. The slave is mere property.)

More on slavery, dominance and submission, bondage and discipline, and humiliation and abuse to come.

Black on white sex. We’re recently been on this topic, in “The gay gangbang fantasy” of  December 10th. Ok, the gangbang by a crowd of black men is mostly just a fantasy for most gay men, though it’s an evergreen subject of gay porn. But quite a few gay white men fantasize about being taken by a black man, some seek it out in the venues of gay sex, and some desire it passionately, seeing themselves as faggots in need of being used by a powerful, virile stud, especially a black one: a gay Mandingo, in fact.

[Digression with material about my own life that some might want to skip. In my wild days of long ago, I had sex with quite a few black men, in one case on a more or less regular basis, but with one exception, the sex was mutual and, as far as I could see, without notable racial overtones; our drive for sexual connection outweighed any racial issues in the background.

The one exception was a black man seeking submission and offering verbal abuse and humiliation, in part on the basis of race, in part because he saw himself as a powerful stud and saw me as a worthless faggot. I was astonished at the strong arousal of my response: there were submissive kinks in me I hadn’t appreciated before. On occasion I pursued those kinks, but, as it happened, only with white men. The race thing really didn’t move me.]

Still, it does move a surprising number of gay white men, who celebrate their worthless faggot state and beg to submit to a black man who will treat them like honky shit. Their websites ache with need.

Gay black men are mostly appalled by this attitude, which they find creepy, but some will play along for the sake of the sex, and men who see themselves as dominants and masters often welcome the chance to display their dominance in a new arena.

The mindset of submission. In principle, independent of racial preferences, there are preferences for roles in sexual relationships bottom, top, versatile) and (for some men) in emotional relations: Kendall in my caption is a bottom and seeks black men, but he’s also a submissive, the sort of man I posted about in my December 11th AZBlogX posting “The pleasure of humiliation”, illustrated by a photo with the caption “Two faggot sluts being led by their worthless dicks”, showing two naked men bound with rope, hands tied behind their backs, one with a ball gag in his mouth, both being publicly humiliated in front of a crowd of onlookers — and both enjoying the experience to such a degree that they have serious hard-ons.

The photo is surely from the Kink Men / Bound in Public site, which specializes in videos of such scenes. And this site is just one on the larger kink.com site, which describes itself this way:

Kink.com’s mission is to create the most authentic BDSM experiences that foster community and empower people to explore their sexuality. The company was started in 1997 by bondage enthusiast Peter Acworth. After launching his first website – Hogtied.com – and running it from his graduate school dorm room for a full year, Peter moved the company to San Francisco, where it has continued to grow into the world’s most recognized and respected company promoting the acceptance of human sexuality.

Kink’s studios are headquartered in the San Francisco Armory, a 200,000 square foot 1914 reproduction of a Moorish Castle that served as a National Guard Armory and Arsenal until the 1970s. The historic landmark was purchased from a private owner in 2006.

Kink.com operates eighteen premium subscription sites with content ranging from sex machines to rope bondage to erotic wrestling and much more. … Kink Men offers the best and most authentic gay bondage.

The videos show consensual sex. The guys in Bound in Public have sought out these experiences. A typical video starts with an interview between a staff member and the target or targets for this particular video; the plot of the scene is described in some detail, and everybody involved shows that they understand this, agree to it, in fact look forward to it. Often they explain what they hope to achieve from this scene (usually they say that they look forward to being tested). After the scene has been shot, there’s another interview in which the scene is reviewed. Both interviews are remarkably good-natured.

As far as I know, these interviews never have guys saying what a fair number of guys say, in one way or another, on their websites and in comments on porn sites, namely that they want to be treated as worthless faggot pieces of shit by superior men (gay or straight) and to understand that that’s just great — they embrace and celebrate this identity, defiantly and proudly, even saying things like “These superior men helped make me the man I am”. They welcome verbal abuse, public humiliation, bondage, (carefully calibrated) physical abuse (flogging, cock and ball torture, and much else), slavery, being pissed on, and more.

The mindset is some paradoxical combination of showng that you can take it like a man (I’m a better man for having been tested) and absorbing true virility from serving a superior man.

(The title pretty much tells the story. This is a spin-off from a posting yesterday, and it doesn’t have much to do with language. On the other hand, there are no blunt descriptions of man-man sex or anything like that. Just the jockstraps.)

Yesterday’s posting “Go H+A+R+D” had a section on the Strap Jock pictured in #1 there and its differences from the classic jockstrap. That led me back into the astounding world of jockstraps and the men who love them — a huge and varied world of websites (like The Underwear Expert), companies that design jocks, companies that sell them, and blogging by fans. With tons and tons of photos.

Background. Your basic jock is a piece of athletic gear for men, worn under athletic clothing and designed to support and to some degree protect a man’s genitals during sports or other active endeavors (bicycling, working out, etc.).  It has three components: an elastic waistband, a support pouch for the genitals in front, and two straps (one for each leg) that attach to the waistband at one end and to the base of the pouch at the other. Some pouches are designed so that the wearer can insert a protective cup in them. The classic jock is white or off-white in color, but sporting goods stores usually carry models in other “masculine” colors — black or various shades of gray.

The classic jock highlights the genitals in front (cradled in the pouch) and the buttocks in the back (framed by the straps and open to the world), so it’s ripe for sexualization (it highlights the two foci of gay male sexual desire), all the more so because of its high-masculinity associations — with men’s sports, locker rooms, and the male sweat the pouch absorbs. Gay men have fetishized even the most conventional of jocks.

The degree of sexualization is muted somewhat in two hybrid garments: the jock brief,  brief in front and jock in back; and the support brief (aka sports brief), resembling a jock in front but a brief in back (where it has a back panel).

But then we move to fashion jockstraps, displaying a sense of style through color (pretty much any color you can think of, including eye-popping neon colors), fabric or material (pouches of leather, lace, crocheted mesh, see-through material, whatever), and modifications in design, often in extraordinary ways. From The Underwear Expert site on 8/9/13, “Where to Shop: The Top Ten Fashion Jockstrap Brands” by Christopher Hernandez, with a remarkable image for each of the ten brands

Baskit, C-IN2, Go Softwear, Good Devil, Gregg Homme, Jack Adams, Modus Vivendi, N2N, Nasty Pig, Pump

These brands are all gay-oriented, and their wares tilt rapidly from displays of style into clearly sexual displays: sexwear that would probably not work in the locker room (unless it’s a really really gay locker room), but would fly in a setting where you want to advertise your dick or your ass (or both) quite directly, while still preserving the emotional appeals of a jockstrap: trolling for sex in a gay bathhouse, at a gay sex party, or with a partner in private.

Riding the Rainbow. Background music: Elvis Presley singing “Riding the Rainbow”, from the 1962 movie Kid Galahad, which you can watch on YouTube here.

Now that we’re had the jockstrap tour, let’s ride the rainbow. There’s a “Rainbow postings” Page on this blog, with three Pages under it, including a “Rainhow underwear” Page, with two postings on it with rainbow jockstraps. It turns out that there are two ways to ride the rainbow in your underwear: subtly, with a rainbow waistband; and boldly, with a rainbow body. You might not get grief sporting a rainbow waistband in a typical locker room, but a rainbow body amounts to a declaration of identity that might not fly in such a locker room; a fair number of straight guys are uncomfortable (ok, unreasonably, but still uncomfortable) about hanging out naked or nearly so with an openly gay guy.

In any case, the first of these postings, from 8/6/10, has a number of guys in underwear, including a jockstrap, that has a rainbow waistband but is otherwise not highly sexualized.

The second posting, from 8/21/10, is on rainbow jockstraps specifically, most with rainbow waistbands, but then there’s this number, from Activeman (or ActiveMan), with a rainbow pouch:

(#1)

This Rainbow Pride jock has a narrow white waistband and white straps; narrow-band jocks are known as swimmer’s jocks or swimmer jocks; the narrow band allows the jock to be worn under a swimsuit without showing. The rainbow stripes are vertical.

Now, the fruits of yesterday’s jockstrap searches. First, another Activeman Rainbow Pride jock, with a black waistband and straps:

(#2)

This is a larger image, in which you can see the fabric of the pouch (from the Activeman site: 96% poly / 4% Spandex for extra support and shrink resistance). It looks comfortable.

The Rainbow Pride jock is available in all four combinations of color and waistband width (broad and narrow).

Activeman has been around for quite some time. From its site:

The Activeman Designer Jocks. The #1 Choice for Athletes and Today’s Active Man. Quality jocks made in the USA since 1898

The firm is obviously gay-supportive.

Next, another firm with an interesting history, Joe Snyder, and its entry is the Joe Snyder Rainbow:

(#3)

This is a scoop jock. with an opening at the top of the pouch, a thin white waistband and straps, and horizontal stripes. (Lots of firms make scoop jocks, but this is the only one I’ve found in rainbow.) On the opening, from the Joe Snyder website:

The Joe Snyder Jockstrap provides traditional jockstrap support, but with a twist. The opening on top allows for a sneak peak at what’s below.

Probably more significantly, the wearer can fish his dick out easily, to piss or for sex.

(The pouch looks to me to be on the small side, so this jock might not be for everyone.)

On the history, from the site Topdrawers: The Men’s Underwear Experts Since 1992!:

In 1958, Mr. Jesús Vargas Abín established in México ‘De Vargas’, a store where he sold men’s clothing, underwear and accessories. In 1977 Mr. José Vargas Snyder started working with his father.

I’d guess that José Vargas Snyder is gay, because the firm’s underwear is now way gay, and its jockstraps in particular are mostly sexwear, many of them quite extraordinary.

Next up: the Jor (or JOR) company, with this rainbow model, another horizontally striped (conventionally attached) pouch, in white with a medium-width waistband:

(#4)

On the company, something of a rave from The Underwear Expert

Founded in 2000 by Javier Ortega, former creative director of Gigo underwear, Jor Underwear fights for no specific demographic, but instead makes underwear for people around the world. The brand, based in Medellin, Colombia, is made for those who enjoy the vibrancy of the Latin spirit, and now they can enjoy it in the form of a long lasting and durable pair of skivvies.

Jor Underwear comes in the styles of briefs, boxer briefs, boxer shorts, jock straps, as well as other undergarments like tank tops, board shorts and t-shirts. Created with fabric such as microfibers, nylon/lycra and supplex combinations, Jor underwear strives to provide its wearers with complete comfortability.

Ortega’s goal is to create a garment that allows men to feel 100% sexy and safe at the same time and to be able to freely express his sexuality and show of all of his hard work on his body. “As today’s man is very active from dawn till dusk, you will feel just as confident wearing Jor to the office, the gym, or out on the town,” Ortega said.

Jor underwear is made with 100% Latin spirit, and all of the brand’s collections focus on comfort in fit, high quality construction, top of line fabrics as well as an incredible style. The brand’s designs can feature striking patterns and designs essential to Latin heritage while also offering simpler styling of underwear with solid, bold colors.

Whether you go for a eye-catching design or pattern in your underwear or a bright red mesh look, Jor Underwear can provide you with the right product.

Jor makes some really handsome, and not especially extravagant, underwear and swimwear.

On to Diesel, a big operation that offers stylish but not extravagant underwear, including a horizontally striped rainbow jock (gray waistband and straps) in very bright colors, with the rainbow broken up by bands of white:

(#5)

(The same pattern is available in a boxer.)

Diesel has an on-line store that sells not only underwear and swimwear, but also jeans, other clothes, shoes, wallets, jewelry, watches, and more. And it has bricks-and-mortar stores in Big Gay Cities, mostly in California: L.A., Santa Monica, San Diego, NYC, and S.F.

Finally, NDS Wear. No, I don’t know what the initials stand for. A lot of their underwear and jockstraps is extravagant sexwear, and much of it is gay-themed. Here are two odd rainbow-pouch  jocks, not representing the gay flag, but using the colors of the flag in patterns: snake-skin scales and a  geometric pattern:

(#6)

(#7)

(Yes, the very same image in every detail. Only the pouch varies.)

From the website (not edited):

We are one of the premier designer label brands of men’s apparel.

We have a wonderful selection of Men’s underwear and mens swimwear including thongs for men or jockstraps, buy your sexy mens costumes and much more by NDS WEAR

(including sheer underwear and jockstraps, giving the wearer an entirely visible dick.)

The company is based in Phoenix AZ, but I don’t know anything else beyond what’s above.

An offer from Daily Jocks yesterday, with an image that will be #4 below, from Obviously Apparel, advertising their new Lumber collection. Manly underwear for lumberjacks (and the men who love them). Especially for well-endowed lumberjacks (and the men who love their endowments). Four images of a single model, worked into a story.

But first, a word from Monty Python. You can view the video here.

The sadness of the new morning

(#1)

Already he misses Simon,
Even though the man’s
Smell is still on his body
And in his mouth.

The dick of death

(#2)

He takes his coffee outside, to
Ponder the day, thoughtlessly strokes his
Pouch (Patrick jokes about
Il Monstro, but Simon, that shameless
Size queen, worships him).

The impalement

(#3)

First task of the day, taking WOL out for
His morning hunt, to plummet
Down
On small
Woodland creatures.

The felling

(#4)

Then to hard work, wielding his
Axe on the trash trees that
Spring up everywhere. His body glistens with
Sweat, his smell mingling with the
Fading scent of Simon’s furry
Chest and the sweet taste of Simon’s cock.

Patrick doggedly chops away.

…..

The company’s statement:

Obviously Apparel is an Australian designed and world renowned premium men’s underwear and undershirts brand. Our online store offers the ultimate in comfortable underwear and undershirts coupled with sophisticated design.

Obviously Apparel can be found in stores across Australia, the US, Canada, Russia, UK, Japan, France, India, and we are constantly expanding our global network of partners. Obviously Apparel puts an emphasis on what we believe is the most important aspect of clothing – comfort.

Our meticulously engineered anatomical pouch design is what places our brand at the forefront of the underwear market. In order to provide you with the ultimate in superior quality of underwear we have chosen to use nothing but the finest natural fabrics – Bamboo Rayon and Licensed Lenzing Modal. These fabrics allow us to create underwear that is perfect to convey the feeling of softness, durability and support. Our fabrics have significant health benefits over regular cotton and synthetic underwear fabrics, they are highly UV resistant, non Genetically Modified (GM), sustainable and environmentally friendly.

In their advertising, all premium men’s underwear companies play on the homoeroticism of their products, and Obviously is no exception: the photos above dwell lovingly on the model’s body, even at the cost of not showing much of his clothes (except in #2, where the long boxer briefs, with their prominent pouch, are the centerpiece). In #1, in fact, the model is wearing underwear with the new AnatoMAX design, with a truly huge pouch, but you can’t tell that from the picture, which focuses on the model’s handsome face, his well-developed biceps, and his nice (but not extraordinary) abs. (Unusually, the model is not tanned. But par for the course, his body is smooth, except for very light fur on his forearms; whatever their natural state, underwear models are usually presented as smooth, often the result of shaving. Me, I would have liked some fur on his chest.)

(I haven’t been able to discover the model’s name or anything about him as a person. Underwear companies rarely identify their models, though there are a few notable exceptions.)

That said, Obviously’s advertising and its products are remarkably restrained, showing none of the extravagant (and often entertaining) fagginess that many companies display. (Examples in many of my earlier underwear postings, including a fair number that had to go on AZBlogX because they were too explicit.) They really do focus on comfort, in the design of the garments and in the fabrics they use, which wick moisture away from your privates.

On design: this review on the Underwear Expert site:

Well endowed men who love all the styles Obviously has to offer will be happy with their newest pouch design! The Obviously AnatoMAX Pouch aims to maximize comfort by providing extra room where you need it most.

The AnatoMAX is the largest pouch ever produced by Obviously! It will provide extra comfort, room and size for men who need it. … This collection is available in four colors: graphite, gray, white and black. These colors are perfect for everyday wear as well as the nightlife. [That is, in or out of your other clothes] If you’re someone who tends to love specific styles in underwear, you won’t be left without options. The Basics Collection is available in eight styles: 9 inch boxer brief, 3 inch boxer brief, jockstrap, thong, bikini brief, brief, hipster brief, and hipster trunk.

Eight styles and four pouch sizes; the new AnatoMAX is one step above the previous top size, AnatoFREE.

Two male-hunk calenders, one with an image for the Christmas season. Mr. December from the Meet the Bern calender, supporting Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders:

(#1)

And the cover image from the Calendrier des Pompiers calender, with homoerotic male photography celebrating French firemen:

  (#2)

(Hat tip to several Facebook friends for #1, to Kim Darnell for #2.)

Bern. The Sanders calendar (note: not an official product of the Sanders campaign) has attractive men in little or no clothing, most having bits of language play (including double entendres) supporting Bernie. From BuzzFeed:

Twelve months of dudes wearing not much more than a Sanders sticker — sometimes even less than that — plus a centerfold.

#1 above has a minimally clothed underwear model putting a Bernie doll at the top of his Christmas tree. Here’s Mr. May (the models are of a wide range of physical types) with a jokey caption and a Bern pun:

  (#3)

Les Pompiers. From the Bright Side website, which says:

These firemen from France have released the most stunning 2016 calendar you’ve ever seen

#2 I recognized as the work of male photographer Fred Goudon, who I’ve posted about twice on AZBlogX: “Concealing and revealing: Fred Goudon” of 11/16/10; and “Concealing and revealing: more Fred Goudon” of 11/23/10. In the latter posting I wrote:

Cinq is thoroughly erotic in tone, focused on beautiful, sensuously presented, young men (as are Goudon’s four other books).

(A sixth book, Summer Souvenirs, has now been published.)

Wikipedia on Goudon:

Fred Goudon is a French professional photographer. Originally from Cannes ([in the] south of France), he is now based in Paris.

He started shooting when his father gave him a camera as a gift on his 16th birthday. His work includes shooting of the 2006 issue of Dieux du Stade, (English: Gods of the Stadium) calendar and DVD, featuring nude and semi-nude photographs of members of Stade Français, a Paris-based domestic French rugby team as well as at times players from other rugby union clubs and athletes from other sports. He was invited again to shoot both the 2014 calendar issue and the 2015 issue of the series. He publishes some of his work in books through Bruno Gmunder publishers.

Two covers of the Dieux calendars, for 2014 and 2015:

  (#4)

  (#5)

And one more shot from the fireman calendar, a voluptous nude shot (but with the man’s penis concealed):

  (#6)

Intensely masculine men. And then Goudon does underwear photography as well, for a number of companies. A fabulous video spread of this work can be viewed on YouTube here, set to the song “Let Me Be Your Underwear” by Club 69.

(Only a little about language here, beyond the hanky code, but there is plain talk about gay sex, so this is not for kids or the sexually modest.)

On the 22nd from Daily Jocks, with a sale offer:

Get a massive 20% off the entire DailyJocks Neon Sports Range!  No minumum [note anticipation of the U in the last syllable] spend and no promo code needed + free global shipping! [On the nouning of spend, see my 8/23/12 posting on this blog.]

All made from a super breathable Airmesh and cotton/spandex blend, the jock is a brief-jock style giving you all the front support of a brief with plenty of room at the back [that is, there’s no seat panel], while the [low-rise] trunk features deep side pockets in case you need to keep anything handy.

Available in black and white with a variety of fun neon inspired highlights!

Kent just loved the pockets in his
Neon trunks. For the right, a neat
Pocket square, in navy blue –
Fuck me – or light blue – wanna
Suck your cock; for the left, his
American Sexpress card, to pay the man.
He had a magenta hanky –
Armpit fetish – but never used it, ’cause
Guys confuse magenta and mauve, and
Navels don’t do a thing for him.

The gay hanky code has been ridiculously elaborated from the high days of bar and street cruising, when navy blue (fucking), light blue (cocksucking), black (S&M), red (fistfucking), yellow (piss), white (jacking off), and maybe a few others were widely understood as signals of what you were looking for in a sex partner. Now one site lists a ton of colors, subtly distinguished; in the pink/purple range:

light pink (dildos), dark pink (tit torture), mauve (navel fetish), magenta (armpit fetish), purple (piercing), lavender (drag queen)

I mean, how many guys, even fashion-conscious fags, can reliably distinguish mauve and magenta? (Like Kent in my caption, I’m into armpits, but unmoved by navels.)

Then there are absurd things like gold lamé for muscleboys (on the left if you like them as bottoms, on the right if you like them as tops), and light blue for cocksucking (that’s standard) plus colored dots for the desired race/ethnicity: white, black, brown (latinos), or yellow (asians). There’s the Union Jack for skinheads, but nothing for men with hairy forearms or smooth-bodied men.

(Mostly about underwear, but a bit about language.)

Stumbled onto the StevenEven premium underwear site, with tons of astonishing stuff on sale, in particular things in the company’s Pikante collection. Two items from that collection: a double rainbow band thong brief, and a piece of extraordinary pouchwear, the Castro bikini brief.

The company’s blurb about the Pikante line (I have downcased the ad’s many things in SCREAMING ALL CAPS, but preserved its penchant for Initial Caps and its sometimes notably non-native syntax):

Pikante Underwear is our exclusive brand. We carry 100% of the Pikante Underwear (Spicy Underwear) Collection. If you are a Unico Underwear lover, you will absolutely fall for Pikante Underwear. What we love about Pikante Underwear is the combination of the extreme design with a sexy fit. We also recommend you this lovely brands, Xtremen Underwear. Checkout This New Brands: Joe Snyder Underwear, Candyman Underwear, Zylas & Wildmant

On the double rainbow band garment (again leaving the ad copy untouched):

Pikante 8009 Thong Lollipop Black [also in White]: The Pikante Rainbow Double Band Thong gives you minimal coverage but double the dazzling effect, thanks to the super bright double rainbow waistband. This comfy thong hugs your masculine contours, and shows off even more skin in the front through the sheer mesh pouch. If you want to go fancy, but still sport minimal coverage, this thong will do you proper. Fabric: 80% nylon, 20% spandex sheer mesh fabric pouch

(#1)

The rear, in a thumbnail:

(#2)

Oh my.

On to the Castro bikini brief (bikini in front, brief in back), with its extreme pouch. The ad copy:

Pikante Underwear Brief/Bikini Castro Black [also in White, Grape, and Green (to my eye, more like turqoise)]: The Pikante Castro Brief’s most outstanding feature is the anatomically-shaped pouch that’s elongated to cradle your package. The result is amazing comfort and a super sexy profile. The microfiber fabric forms an ultra sleek fit that won’t show under clothes, making this style ideal for when you want supreme comfort with a risque look. Composition: 85% nylon, 15% spandex stretch microfiber fabric forms ultra smooth, sleek fit

(#3)

(#4)

The pouch seems to have the ability to give its wearer a permanent half-hard-on (or it has a penile sleeve built in). Meanwhile, it doesn’t seem to have much room for the wearer’s balls.

My recent “boxboys and transitive bottoming” posting led me to the informal English vocabulary for talking about the male genitals euphemistically: package, box, basket, junk, stuff, sack, unit, … (photo #1 there is an entertaining presentation of packages and boxes) — what you might think of as packagecabulary or boxcabulary. (NOAD2 has package ‘a man’s genitals’, but none of the other boxcabulary.)

That posting probably primed me to think of the premium underwear company Baskit; in the very crowded field of homoerotic underwear marketing, the company manages to be profoundly gay, starting with its name.

On to a November 17th piece “Baskit $12 Tuesday – Contrast Low-Rise Trunk” by Colleen Hennessy on the Underwear Expert site. An ad from the company, showing two boyfriends holding hands and displaying the waistbands of their Baskit underwear:

(#1)

The guy on the left is flagging blue/gold, whatever that might mean (possibly fellatio in a three-way, either two looking for one or one looking for two, with fellatio as the main course). Here’s a model in that style, illustrating the package-flattering pouch and the low-rise styling that barely, but just barely, covers his public hair:

(#2)

From Hennessy’s piece:

Give yourself a little credit. You’ve made in this far, and Monday wasn’t so bad, right? Well, whether you came out unscathed or not, treat yourself to this week’s $12 Tuesday deal on the Baskit Contrast Low-Rise Trunk!

The Contrast Low-Rise Trunk features a low-rise waistband, so you can show off those beautiful abs you’ve been working on! This is a square cut trunk so the leg openings cut off on your upper thigh for minimal coverage. The contoured pouch will keep your boys in place while you go through your daily routine.

The wide logo waistband and leg seams contrast with the color of the fabric for a fun look! Some of the styles also have contrasting season [??] in the contoured pouch to give it a little something extra. This style is available [in] five colors: orange/grey, red/black, blue/gold, grey/purple and white/turquoise. Each color combination is available on this $12 Tuesday, so stock up on every color!

Well, the sale day is long past, but we can still admire the underwear and the models who wear it.

The Contrast line comes in a number of styles (in addition to low-rise trunk: at least, (regular) trunk, brief, bikini brief, boxer brief, jock, jock brief). And there are two color combinations in addition to the ones Hennessy lists: green/gray (which is what the guy on the right in #1 is wearing, apparently conveying that he’s into stud hustling, either as hustler or as john, as the main course, and bondage) and yellow/green (piss and stud hustling). Can this coupling survive?

(Not about language, but about hunky guys doing cock teases. Yes, it’s shallow.)

Two images passed on to me by Mike McKinley (with Chris Ambidge):

(#1)

(#2)

Both guys are sporting moose-knuckles, and intentional display of a moose-knuckle is in itself a kind of cock tease. But the guy in #2 (who’s also lowering one side of his dance pants to expose his body down to the root of his penis) is more clearly toying with the viewer. On the other hand, his dance pants are thicker than #1’s briefs, and #1’s briefs are white and wet, so his moose-knuckle is really honkingly prominent (while #2’s is subtler).

#1 is a male model working for the Andrew Christian (famously homoerotic) premium underwear firm (it appeared on the AC Facebook page). The photo comes from the website for AllAmericanGuy, a membership site offering male fitness models in still shots and videos; I think the model is Luke Bryans (but I’m not entirely sure). In any case, he’s definitely ripped, with especially substantial arm muscles.

#1 is doing a carwash-in-underwear routine, a form of soft porn that AC is certainly fond of. A bunch of hunky guys (all in the same model of cute blue AC briefs and nothing else) working it and horsing around at the Andrew Christian Car Wash can be viewed in the video here; there’s also a video of cops stripping off their uniforms to wash their patrol car, and bump and grind, in a variety of AC briefs).

While we’re at the carwash, you might want to check out a Philly GayCalendar video, Boys of Summer Fiat Car Wash 2013, featuring Philadelphia gay boys, in quite a range of underwear styles, washing a car and one another.

On to #2. This came to me from the Facebook site Male Ballet Dancers, where it was posted by a Jordan Wolf, but without any information about the source of the photo, the model, or the photographer. Several people have commented that the guy doesn’t have a dancer’s body, though it’s certainly well-developed and he’s doing an entertaining cock-tease offer of it.

I put the second photo through a Google image seach and got ten or so hits, all thoroughly uninformative, though several of the sites took the model to be a body-builder (one of them offered to sell you the leggings he’s wearing). So for the moment he remains a sultry unknown.

(Underwear, men’s bodies, and gay sex, though nothing hard-core, and there will be some material on language. Use your judgment.)

Yesterday’s ad from Daily Jocks, with a racy caption of my own devising:

  (#1)

Sporty is solid working-class
South Boston, accent and all,
Quit high school to
Work construction, realized
Petty crime could be more
Profitable if you had a solid
Gang behind you, got approached by a
Needy fag for sex, discovered he liked
That work too and made a sideline as
Rough trade, looking and acting
Dangerous, slapping johns
Around, treating them like
Shit, but reliably never actually
Hurting them, so now he has a solid
Roster of johns paying good money to
Get Sporty.

The ad copy that goes along with #1:

Welcome to 2016! We’ve got an amazing year planned for you with new styles, brands and extra-special offers to help you look your best above and below the belt. [It’s a rare piece of premium underwear ad copy that doesn’t make an allusion to the crotch and its treasures; here, it’s “below the belt”.] Get started with 20% off Sportswear this week from brands including Pump, BCNU, Teamm8, Jack Adams, Marcuse Supawear and more. Workout harder with your new look.

Lots to cover here. Start with the gay slang rough trade: ‘rough or lower-class men sought, and sometimes paid, as casual sexual partners by more privileged or affluent men’ (NOAD2)

Here we see male model Christian Hogue playing at being rough trade:

  (#2)

To come: more on Christian Hogue (because he loves displaying his body, including in cock-tease shots); on the adjective sporty; and on Elmore Leonard’s novel Get Shorty and the movie made from it, as well as on Leonard’s writing, which (among other things) celebrated the vernacular speech of the working class and, and especially of lowlifes (like Sporty in the caption).

Christian Hogue.Here’s the man modeling C-In2 Core Basic (photo by Rick Day):

  (#3)

The underwear is pulled down low, and he’s got fingers hooked in the waistband to pull them down further.

And then all the way, with cock-tease Hogue naked but covering his crotch:

  (#4)

The adjective sporty. The ad in #1 exhorts the (male) viewer to get sporty, using the adjective in one or both of the first two senses from NOAD2, but also in a sense related to the fourth:

[main sense] flashy or showy in dress or behavior.
[a] (of clothing) casual yet attractively stylish: a sporty outfit.
[b] (of a car) compact and with fast acceleration: a sporty red coupe.
[c] [of a person] fond of or good at sports.

Certainly sense a, maybe also the main sense, but also in something related to sense d, namely a sense along the lines of ‘(of clothing) intended as or good as sportswear’.

Get Shorty. But the ad slogan is surely also intended as a play on the title Get Shorty. From Wikipedia:

Get Shorty is a 1995 crime thriller comedy film based on Elmore Leonard’s novel of the same name. Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and starring John Travolta, Gene Hackman, Rene Russo, and Danny DeVito, the plot remained true to the book except for a few minor details. A sequel, titled Be Cool, was released in 2005.

  (#5)

Russo, DeVito, and Hackman standing in front of Travolta

The plot is extraordinarily intricate, but here’s a bit (from a 10/20/95 review by Roger Ebert) that explains where the film’s title comes from:

Harry Zimm [(Gene Hackman)] … is found in bed with Karen Flores (Rene Russo), a “scream queen” who is the kind of actress who becomes a cover girl for Fangoria. She used to be married to Martin Weir (Danny DeVito), a major, if short, movie star. They all scheme to get “Shorty” into their picture, and the movie’s single best scene is one where Travolta gives DeVito acting lessons in how to look filled with menace.

My caption carries this ‘get Shorty to play in a movie’ sense over to the sense ‘get Sporty to serve as a sex partner’.

Elmore Leonard and his writing. The characters in Leonard’s books talk incessantly, and they do so in the accents (and grammar) of the working class, especially working-class crooks, petty criminals, grifters, and other lowlifes. (Petty criminals like Sporty in my caption, with his working-class Southie accent.)

Leonard on Wikipedia:

Elmore John Leonard, Jr. (October 11, 1925 – August 20, 2013) was an American

novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. His earliest novels, published in the 1950s, were Westerns, but Leonard went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures.

Among his best-known works are Get Shorty, Out of Sight, Hombre, Mr. Majestyk, and Rum Punch (adapted for the movie Jackie Brown). Leonard’s writings include short stories that became the films 3:10 to Yuma and The Tall T, as well as the FX television series Justified.

Elmore is famous for his representations of vernacular speech and also for his masterful use of free indirect style in representing the internal speech of his characters. Two relevant postings on this blog: “Lowlife dialogue” of 6/6/12, and the first section of “Two stylists” of 8/23/13, which is an obit for Leonard; the other section is an obit for pianist Marian McPartland).