Protests - Part 33

Karbi Protest, India, 2017

In Annam, the northeastern part of India, more than 300 youths (all male) marched naked to the Karbi Anglong deputy commissioner's office on April 21, 2017.

They were demanding revision of electoral rolls to prevent outsiders from casting votes in the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council election in May.

The Karbis are an indigenous community.  They claim that their political rights to self-government are guaranteed by the Indian Constitution, but immigrants have diluted their voting power.  In 1951 they made up 88% of the district's population, but they now only constitute 44%.  They are demanding a revision of the roll of voters to prevent "outsiders" (immigrants) from casting votes.

One protester said, "The communities, who were covered with a protective law, are now politically naked. Hence we decided to carry out this naked demonstration."

We close with two short videos of the protest.  First, naked protesters chanting.

Second, protesters marching and chanting.  Interestingly, their signs are in English, and they're chanting in English.  This may be for maximum publicity across India.  India has 121 "major" languages (with at least 10,000 speakers) and hundreds of "minor" languages.  When India became a British colony, English became a de facto common language, and apparently it still is.

Artists - Part 36

 Alessio Slonimsky

Alessio Slonimsky is a Spanish artist living in Barcelona who specializes in gay illustrations, some quite explicit.  Above, Saint François, 2013, in which St. Francis, preaching to the birds, with one of them perched on his erect penis, is modeled after porn star François Sagat.

This is Workers of the World, dated May 1, 2014.  In many countries, May 1 is International Workers Day.

Another holiday-themed work, Happy Halloween, 2015.  It reminds me of a joke I heard recently, about that awkward moment when a zombie looking for brains walks right past you.

In this untitled painting, the wallpaper is the same as the wallpaper in Happy Halloween.

The wallpaper was designed by Slonimsky, and it's actually available for purchase.  It shows a naked guy with a butterfly net, a naked guy by a stream, and a naked guy rowing a boat.  You can buy wallpaper or fabric with this design and other designs by Slonimsky featuring naked and semi-naked men at www.spoonflower.com.

Here's another Slonimsky design that's available as wallpaper or fabric, a takeoff on the classical Greek caryatid columns.

In Drawing Class, 2019, Slonimsky himself is the naked model that the art students are drawing.  The student on the left is drawing his head.  The other student is drawing another body part.

Flower Power, 2019, looks like a self-portrait as the top hat- and monocle-wearing mascot of the New Yorker magazine.  Would an artist in Barcelona be familiar with the New Yorker?  It turns out that Slonimsky studied art in the U.K. and U.S., getting his Master of Fine Arts degree in New York.

On January 1, 2020, Slonimsky produced this optimistic view of the new year as a rising sun.

Little did any of us know what 2020 would bring.  This 2021 work is called Quarantined.

This recent work is called Morning Glory.  It depicts a domestic scene with Slonimsky lying down and a man recognizable from other paintings as Armando Santos, who I'm guessing is Slonimsky's lover.  Oh, and the family cat.

We end with the first page of an 8-page comic called Fetuccini Carbonara (apparently he can't spell fettuccine).  The main character is called Alessio, who is clearly the artist.  After his helper spills sauce on his pants, the pants have to come off, and you can guess what happens next.  The comic was a hit with his fans and has been translated into Spanish, Portuguese and Russian.  You can see the rest of it on Slonimsky's website here: Fetuccini Carbonara.

And you can see lots more of his work on his website here: alessioinwonderland.blogspot.com.

Festivals - Part 32

 Frequency Festival 2013

The Frequency Festival is a music festival in Austria promoted by radio station FM4.  The first festival was held in 2001 near Salzburg, and in 2009 the festival moved to St. Pölten.

The 2013 festival was graced by the presence of the Naked Heart project, the brainchild of photographer Gerrit Starczewski.  In 2010 a young man streaked at a festival and the crowd was delighted.  Starczewski decided to bring a group of naked people to festivals to form a giant heart shape, to make the viewers feel happy and free, which he called the Naked Heart project.  Above are the Naked Heart participants at the 2013 Frequency Festival.

Some of the Naked Heart people carry hearts to symbolize love.

A picture of sweet love.

The Naked Heart people wandered around the festival.  There were naked men and women, but of course, I've concentrated on the men.

Here are a couple of them at the festival campground next to the river.

Here are a bunch of them lying in the sun.

And, of course, they posed for Starczewski, front ...

and rear.

I think these guys are just riding on the little cart.  Or maybe the guy in back is demonstrating his love.

These guys are taking a break in the stands.

Starczewski made them form a giant peace symbol.

Then they were gathered at one side of a plaza.  The things they're holding are glitter bombs – giant packets of glitter.

And then they ran across the plaza, throwing the glitter in the air.

The Naked Heart group also appeared at other festivals, so we may see them again.

Vintage Athletes - Part 36

Billy Papke

Billy Papke (1886-1936) was an American boxer.  He was the world middleweight champion in 1908.  Previously, we saw this photo of him weighing in for a fight in France in 1912.  In those days, fighters weighed in naked and nobody thought twice about it.  No need for false modesty.

What boxers wore in the ring was also less regulated.  It was not uncommon in the early 20th century for prizefighters to wear only a jockstrap.  In this 1910 fight, Joe Thomas, on the left, is wearing boxing trunks, but Papke is wearing some kind of jock or thong that leaves his buttocks exposed.

In 1908 and 1909, Papke and Stanley Ketchel fought four times for the world middleweight championship.  The video above has some clips from the fourth fight on July 5, 1909.  Papke is wearing what the announcer called "abbreviated shorts" that expose his buttocks.  Papke lost the fight.

In an earlier fight against Ketchel in 1908, Papke is wearing a jockstrap with a cup protector, which was said to be his usual attire in the ring.

This view of that fight shows that the audience was all-male.  They didn't care that Papke's butt was exposed.  As I've said before, we think we're more liberated than previous generations, but when it comes to male nudity, our great-grandfathers were less prudish than we are today.

This closer view shows what Billy was wearing, apparently some kind of leather jockstrap (maybe with a protective cup) with a cloth jockstrap over it.  Was Billy bothered that his rear was exposed to hundreds of spectators?  He didn't give a (rat's) ass.

Ivy League Posture Photos - Part 12

Ivy League Posture Photos

Yale started taking nude photos of incoming freshmen in 1919 as part of a program to detect and correct posture problems.  The Yale photos have erroneously been associated with William Sheldon, a psychologist at Harvard and author of Nazi-like eugenic theories who used Harvard nude posture photos to illustrate his theory of somatypes.  But, as far as I can tell, the Yale photos are not connected to Sheldon's work.

Here are four more posture photos taken at Yale that I had the opportunity to acquire.  For privacy reasons, I redact the names of men who might still be alive; however, all these men have passed away.

This is Yale freshman Daniel Dettmers Piel on January 15, 1948.

Yale installed the apparatus to photograph front, rear, side and top views in 1952.  Before then, all posture photos were side views only.

This is Yale freshman Henry Stewart Dunn, Jr. on March 1, 1948.

Note the strange pins stuck to each student's back and chest.  The pins were stuck on at specific points for later posture analysis.  Supposedly, by examining the angles formed by connecting the points where the pins touched the body, certain posture problems could be detected.

This is Yale freshman David Lincoln 'Bud' Edwards on March 2, 1948.

This is Yale freshman Sloane Elliott on March 22, 1948.

Were these photos an invasion of privacy for the students?  By today's standards, yes.  By the standards of the day, not so much.  In that era, guys were routinely naked around each other in locker rooms and in swimming pools when women weren't present.  Being asked to strip and even being photographed naked as part of a posture examination would not seem too outrageous, since the staff conducting this was all-male (and remember that Yale was an all-male school).

The Naked Farmer - Part 9

State of Nature

We continue our series of photos by Australia's Naked Farmer, Ben Brooksby, who posts photos of naked Australian farmers to get attention for his mission to promote mental health.

I've organized his photos by the Australian state where they were taken, but these photos didn't specify a location, so I don't know what state these guys are in, aside from a state of nature.

Much of Australia is dry, and water is precious.  The photo above was labeled "A boring job."

This one was called "All downhill from here."

This was called "Animals don't judge."  The cows don't care that he's naked, so why should we get so hung up about it?

A bale of hay.  I'm afraid you won't see frontal views here, since Ben posts his photos on Facebook, which doesn't allow frontals.

A farmer with his dogs.  Dogs don't care that you're naked, either.

This was labeled "Bottoms up."  Aussies love their beer.

Apparently these guys have been woolgathering - literally.

This was labeled "Bee happy!"  Yes, those are beehives., and that's a brave beekeeper.

Time for a wash?  Or just having fun with the hose.

We end with a photo labeled "Aussie day spa."  A bit of Aussie humor, but some people would pay for the mud bath that this guy got for free.  Note where the mud is scraped off his chest, revealing a tattoo of the Australian flag.  Add a can of beer, and he's the perfect Aussie.

Lots more Naked Farmer photos to come.

Boys and Their Balls - Part 31

 Beach Balls

No, not that kind of balls.  Well, those too, but today, we're going to look at the big inflated kind of beach balls.

This studio photo was said to be from the 1930s, but I have no other information about it.

I got this photo of Bob Heppe with a beach ball from Vintage Muscle Men.  Thanks, Jerry!

This photo of Joe Napolie and Jim Giussi, taken by Mike Scott, is from Bob's Naked Guys.  Thanks, Bob!

I got this photo of John Nero, taken by Bruce of LA, from Men From Back Then.

This was taken by Bruce of LA in the 1950s.  The model was not identified.

A third Bruce of LA photo.  My friend Jerry from Vintage Muscle Men identified the model as Jimmy Hart.  Thanks, Jerry!

This shot gets the prize for the number of balls.  Beach balls, that is.

We end with a different kind of beach ball at Lighthouse Beach on Fire Island.  Inside it is one of my favorite unashamed males, the late Kirill Tokarev.