Apparently Dan Savage appreciates the kind of male I do…at least judging by the ribbing he gets every now and then on Slog.  Yes, I am well aware that tastes such as mine (and apparently his) are not all that well respected, anymore then the guys themselves are.  I am reminded of this fact every year when the new calendars come out, and all I see on the racks at the gay bookstores are Chippendale types, or super models with body builder torsos, or big furry bears dressed in odd leather accessories.  

I can say for a fact I’d fare better at seeing what I like reflected in gay culture in other parts of the world, particularly Asia and South America.  But here in America men, both gay and straight, have to be double-plus Y chromosome Manly or they’re…well…you know…faggots.  Look…I can appreciate how after generations of having our maleness called into question by prejudiced straights, gay men have been busy reclaiming that manhood thing for themselves ever since Stonewall.  And that’s not a bad thing, really.  Unless it descends into that same sterile brain dead fear of femininity thing that’s got the KulturKrieger here in the U.S. all worked up.  Then it gets tiresome.  It wasn’t the Manly Men who fought back at Stonewall…it was the drag queens and the girly boys.