GLR January-February 2023
The only missing element is the hankie code bandana. This image epitomizes Dean’s homoerotic appeal (Figure 3). In On the Road (1957), Jack Kerouac wrote of “his muscular neck, T shirted in the winter night.” He understood the symbolism of the T-shirt. The exhibit displays Bruce Weber’s well-known, con troversial photograph known as “Advertising campaign for Calvin Klein underwear, 1982, Model: Tom Hintnaus.” On the Greek island of Santorini, the suntanned Hintnaus was pho tographed like a bronze statue against the wall of a whitewashed cubiform house wearing crisp, blindingly white briefs. When a monumentally large ad was used on a billboard above Times Square displaying Hintnaus’ conspicuous bulge, rubbernecking motorists literally stopped traffic. A photograph of a jockstrap designated “Duribilknit, Jock strap. Wool and surgical elastic. New York, c. 1947” appears in the exhibition catalog. The jockstrap is a symbol of dynamic, athletic masculinity, and from its development in the mid-20th century, it has emphasized male virility for those wanting to look bigger, using seams around a pouch and an additional in side pocket in some cases. The erotic function of supportive garments for men dates back centuries. Long before jockstraps there were codpieces, such as the highly decorated ones from the 15th century that were worn to draw attention to men’s junk. In the essay “Hard and Straight: The Creation of Nineteenth-Century Masculin ity Through Corsetry” in Crossing Boundaries: Fashion to Deconstruct and Reimagine Gender , historian Alanna McK night wrote: “Codpieces were noteworthy not as sexual invi tations to women but as symbols for social, temporal, and territorial power.” Darth Vader and the Storm Troopers wore codpieces as genital armor in Star Wars (1977), and Tom Cruise wore one in the film Rock of Ages (2012). In the leather subculture, a re-envisioned codpiece appeared that was part cockring and part genital armor. When director William Fried kin was scouting locations for the film Cruising (1979), he went to the Mineshaft—the notorious New York sex bar—on jockstrap night and later reported: “Everyone was in a jock strap, some with leather boots and vests, executioner masks, or leather jackets. Men of all races, colors, and social status mingled as equals.” After Andy Warhol was shot by Valerie Solanas in 1968, he had numerous surgeries and was deeply scarred. He wore corsets to support his internal organs. Always the artist, many of the corsets were hand-dyed solid colors—blue, green, yellow, and pink. Historian Alanna McKnight says in her essay “Hard and Straight” in Crossing Boundaries : “Corsets are garments that are now seen as quintessentially feminine; however, through the nineteenth century men also wore corsets to not only form their bodies but also to form a masculine ideal.” They were worn by men in the 19th century to structure their bodies into paradigmatic masculinity. Corsets and harnesses have emerged along with male décolleté and exposed butt cleavage at public events: Timothée Chalamet in a rosette-embellished harness at the Golden Globes 2019; Michael B. Jordan in an embroidered bib at the SAG Awards 2019; Lenny Kravitz in a lace-ruffled bodice with a sheer corset at the Met Gala 2022, where Evan Mock showed up in corset-detailed suit and Ben Platt in corseted suit with black pumps. In 2020, Harry Styles made media history as the first man to January–February 2023
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