My Writing.
CRUIS’N — Uncovering Gay Design
History Through Collecting
I am obsessed with collecting historical gay memorabilia.
What started as an eye-ogling attraction for hunky beef-cake models, my collecting intensified and deepened because of my ever-growing curiosity for gay history. I wanted to know more than what I was taught through the lens of white heterosexual America. I wanted to uncover as much as possible about the stories and heroes who were kept from me in my youth. Read more.
J.C. Leyendecker’s Ideal Man
The Arrow Collar Man
J.C. Leyendecker has to be one of my favorite artists of the twentieth century. As the most famous illustrator of his day, his work was published for decades in premier magazines like The Saturday Evening Post and Collier’s. Read more.
The Marlboro Man
A Homoerotic American Hero
It’s hard to believe today, but Marlboro was initially marketed as a cigarette for women. The brand had targeted a high-class female audience beginning in 1924 with its “Mild as May” campaign. To strengthen its ability to compete with major brands like Lucky Strike, Camel, and Chesterfields in the 1950s, Philip Morris, with the help of the Leo Burnette advertising agency, set out to create a campaign targeted to me. Read more.
Etienne
Flipping stereotypes of what being “gay” should look like.
Under the pen name “Etienne,” Dom Orejudos drew and licensed a body of gay erotica that sexualized muscular, sharp-jawed, hyper-masculine men. At the time, Orejudos’s sexy illustrations were considered revolutionary — challenging the universal link between heterosexuality and masculinity and flipping stereotypes of what being “gay” should look like. Read more.