Gay bdsm art by 'mitchmen' Mitchell and other artists featuring male erotic sexy fetish, S&M, men tied up, male bondage, domination, humiliation and spanking. Vintage photographs of men in uniform, Royale & Hussar Studios, humourous captions, gay pride articles
To my readers......
SITE UPDATE NOTICE
Thanks for visiting mitchmen, home of Mitchell's Gay Art
The Caps and Collars/ Flat Cap Gang story at Google Groups has been on a break since January, I am working on it and hope to resume shortly. (see Group News for link)
Link to the Royale Studio Archive in the right sidebar
There is a considerable body of art with modern sailors as subjects. Back in the early 20th century it was common to use drawings and paintings to illustrate adverts and press articles and I’ve reproduced a small selection here.
The gunnery pictures were popular but it’s hard not to see homo-erotic overtones in the way the theme is presented.
Look at the juxtapositioning of the shell and the sailor peering through the gunsight.
The next article looks at gay art interpretations of 'sailordom'
Dressing little boys as sailors was popular with the Victorians and inevitably, given the fascination with the image, the look finds it’s way into fashion wear every so often (39). The full blown look like this is probably too much like fancy dress for most lads
.
(39)
Even raunchy men dally with the iconography (40)
and this restrained use is more effective but not suitable as street wear!
.
(40)
The advertising media also draw on the imagery,
this example featuring the Ginch Gonch boys is rather nice (41).
(41)
The next episode will look at Sailors in Homoerotic Art
Erotic images featuring sailors were staple fare in the 50’s (35).
.
(35)
Near nudity was permitted.
These pictures are cute, but in a way they miss the point
and don‘t covey that essential earthy masculinity (36).
.
(36)
In the UK, the Royale Studio specialised in uniform pictures with S&M flavours exploiting the reputation of the service for harsh and cruel punishments which was probably undeserved (37).
.
(37)
The models in these pictures were supposedly real servicemen. The uniforms were sometimes worn in bizarre combinations but often used very effectively to display male characteristics -like chunky thighs!.
(38)
The sado-masochism overtones continue today (38) and I’m not complaining!
Sailors seem glamorous but the job they do is not.
To face the dangers and create an effective fighting unit,
considerable discipline is required (30)
.
(30)
Much of it will seem pointless and repetitive to the servicemen
but the comradeship and fun is real and good (31)
.
(31)
But there are long nights at sea to be endured (32)
(32)
Alone in a strange port (33) the roving life may not seem that great.
(33)
And sexual relief may require an unglamorous, seedy transaction (34)
(34)
Around these strange contrasting facets of the sailors life a fabulous gay iconography has evolved which we will look at in the next installment.
Before we leave the Sailors formal uniform I’ll just mention white coloured version which we have already seen. This colour emphasises the shape of the body and adds bulk. There are associations with cleanliness and purity as well. We all know that a white outfit on any man is a very bold advertisement! (26) .
(26)
I still remember seeing three USN sailors all dressed in white ambling down a street in my home town some years ago. It made an indelible impression, they seemed so tall, big and handsome!
Even in their fatigues sailors remain equally attractive - the buttoned breast pockets and epaulets emphasising chest and shoulders are universal military imagery of course but the trousers have the same allure as denim jeans with folds radiating out from the crotch area and worn areas emphasising rounded contours. And oh, those caps are so deliciously sexy! (27)
.
(27)
My fascination with sailors can be traced back to my formative years when Hollywood films depicting naval dramas in the Pacific in World War II were regular TV fare. Unlike the British Boys in the chilly Atlantic arena, our American cousins would strip off their shirts to fight……(28)
(28)
…… and to relax, creating erotic images that have never ceased to stir me. (29)
(29)
This picture illustrates nicely the comradeship of sailors
when it was still an exclusive male preserve.
To complete our rummaging through sailors uniforms we finally we reach the flaring bell bottoms which - seen through our fashion-oriented eyes - could be thought of as flashy and impractical.
In some of the previous pictures in this series the bell bottom can seem untidy (19) or camp (18) but on the right man they are very masculine indeed (5) making the wearer seem tall, solid and strong but individualistic. The picture below captures this masculinity (23).
.
(23)
But if you think the flared bottoms of these trousers are just for show, you’d be wrong. They come from the time when sailors went bare footed to keep steady on a wet pitching deck and rolled their trousers up to keep them dry and out of the way while working. The bell bottom is ideal for this as shown in (24).
(24)
Sailors uniform drill still includes folding trousers up with horizontal creases.
The picture above is a studio pose of course, (25) below shows the real thing.
In the Royal Navy the bottom hem of the jacket can be quite low showing off the crotch and lower buttocks to great effect - especially if the owner has chosen to tailor his trousers to a close fit (17).
(17)
The sailors jacket is worn outside the trousers so there is no belt to emphasise the waist. White belts are sometimes worn over the top to carry weaponry but to my mind the result is not particularly attractive. The cut of the body is sometimes close fitting so that a trim body can be displayed (18). These are real sailors by the way!
.
(18)
In other uniforms the lower hem is often at waist level (19)
allowing the fertile mind to visualise a pose with pants removed.
(19)
Underneath the USN short jacket the trousers sometimes have
a buttoned flap covering the flies (20).
(20)
This modern sailor (21) wears the same style if you look closely
- but I just wanted an excuse to show another attractive black sailor really!
(21)
The effect to the lustful male is the same as seeing the trouser zip. The obvious functionality is fantasy material whose erotic potential is exemplified by this fine erotic picture from the 50‘s (22).
