Yikes, that’s not porn!

Nope, Gawker doesn’t have some new obsession with gay hazing videos but rather a new collection of photos of American private security contractors currently working in Afghanistan:

At least now we know why gays aren’t allowed in the military — they want that hottie on the right all to themselves!

Like the right-wing politicians hiding in toilet stalls and the fundamentalist preachers sneaking away from their wives, these frat boys highly paid military contractors would be the first ones to denounce gay people while wallowing in gay sex play. It seems increasingly common and always bizarre.

That’s why so refreshing to read writer Will Wilkinson, noting the shifting and confusing ideals of masculinity in recent decades, insisting that his fellow straight men could find masculine role models in gay men:

“the virulent homophobia that remains in most American dude subcultures
has cut most young men off from the possibility of modeling their
manhood after any of the delightful variety of types available to the
homophile. And that really doesn’t leave them with much to work with…most of
us have not yet given up on oppressively restrictive, strongly
normative conceptions of hetero masculinity.”

It’s a normal polymorphous sexual impulse that, locked in a pressure cooker of hetero machismo, combines with binge drinking to become homoerotic hazing rituals. Or maybe that’s too pointy-headed — maybe they’re just having fun. Why not just say so?

A former editor of the late, lamented fab magazine, Scott has been writing for Xtra since 2007 on a variety of topics in news pieces, interviews, blogs, reviews and humour pieces. He lives on the Danforth with his boyfriend of 12 years, a manic Jack Russell Terrier, a well-stocked mini-bar and a shelf of toy Daleks.

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