Written by Storm Rafael:
This is a rather brief blog entry, but substantive nonetheless…
One of the pitfalls of a number of effeminate gay men is the fixation with hyper-masculine male stereotypes.
For example, you have some effeminate gay men who tend to entertain a fetish for the down-low 50 Cent type, then contrastingly, we see a similar parallel in effeminate gay men who will idolize the Hollister surfer type.
These “types” are just a couple of mere examples, but what they share in common is that they both serve as simulations of traditional/typical “hetero” male identities, upon which so many in the gay community fixate.
By conflating these notions and ideal images of what constitutes a desirable “masculine” man, some in the gay community (inadvertently) reinforce and perpetuate the tendency towards aping hetero identities, which have become a stumbling block for so many men within American society.
While there is nothing wrong with a preference for a certain type of man, the central point is to accept and celebrate manhood in its various forms, not just the hyper-masculine hetero archetypes.
Leonardo da Vinci’s illustration of the “Proportions of Man” portrays the perception of what proportions (geometrically speaking) constituted the ideal human physique.
This illustration could hold some relevance with regard to the ideal hetero-aligned male images/types that we have constructed and readily worship within the gay community.
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