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TheMaleNudeStock In reply to Tondro [2015-03-30 02:58:04 +0000 UTC]

hmmmmm. Its hard to know where to start with your note. I am a gay artist, and I make my living selling my paintings of gay love and erotica. So I make lots and lots of paintings on gay themes (and lesbian themes as well) since its how I pay my rent. That doesn't seem very unhealthy to me. I have made a whole career of making these kinds of paintings, and have shown in galleries around the world. As to the bondage leather theme, to be honest, its not my cup of tea. But I want my work to be inclusive of all kinds of gay desires, so I paint young and older men, bearded men, smooth men, overweight men, and men of different ethnicities. The leather theme is just one more subject to explore, and to make money with, since there are in fact lots and lots of gay men who love bondage and leather, and who will buy the paintings and cards and posters of the paintings when they are done (I might add that lots and lots of straight people are into bondage and ass-less chaps as well. This is not just a gay thing). I also really enjoy painting bondage themes. I may not personally want to be whipped while wearing a leather jock strap, but it sure is fun to paint. In any case, you are you to judge what people find erotic or desirable? And why is it so important to invent  some boring mainstream idea of what it means to be a gay man? I say, bring on the leather, the ass-less chaps, the rich and expressive range of sexuality within a gay sensibility, and to hell with what the mainstream thinks. We, as a gay people, have been subjected to mainstream views for long enough, and it has consistently been judgmental, violent, and just plain wrong. Celebrate love, in all its manifestations. My work, fundamentally, is about desire, and desire is unbounded.

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Tondro In reply to TheMaleNudeStock [2015-03-30 13:56:03 +0000 UTC]

I concede that you have no incentive to draw anything else if your art style is profitable, but you do have some responsibility as an artist to promote better ideas than what interests your audience. Are they the artist, or are you? If you can't be motivated to draw anything else, then you have an unhealthy fixation that is dictating your behavior more than your creativity is. Either way, at least take homosexuality in a direction that isn't entirely uninspired.

I would also like to challenge your assertion that gay leather bondage somehow resonates sexual diversity and opposes social standardization. Nothing could be further from the truth. The mainstream homosexual is a debased, leather wearing prostitute. That is the preferred stereotype, and, as you said, it is not inherent of homosexuality. It is commonly observed in gay culture, but there is nothing in homosexual biology that necessitates an interest in leather bondage and loud sexual overtones. It is hive-mind behavior that you are both a victim of, and a perpetrator of. It persists because of an absence of progressive thought. Culture shifts and pivots on the persuasion of one original idea, and that idea should be the pursuit of every artist.

Furthermore, love is a beautiful thing, but you are speaking of procreation when you talk about desire and love. Love is nurturing compassion and self-sacrifice, sex is a self-motivated impulse. Sexual desire is designed (so to speak) to compel people to make more people. You want someone sexually because your biology dictates that you must create another human being to further the existence of the human race. Obviously, homosexuals cannot achieve this, so, in essence, sexual relationships between people of the same gender are purposeless. Artists can create meaning out of these relationships, but to call it a celebration of love is irresponsible. You are celebrating mashing your genitals into another person's orifice for superficial pleasure.

Yes, there is an element of bonding, but this also has a procreative purpose. It exists for the sake of a child's survival. Real love between two people exists when there is admiration for what is confined within the essence of that person's being, regardless of that person's sexual appeal. Draw this love and you will have all my support. Draw sex in a way that does not masquerade as love, and expresses the superficiality of physical pleasure, and I will pay your rent. I am only offering my perspective, not demanding that you conform to my ideology. I do not intend to insult you, I am only attempting to provide a critique that I hope you will find useful.

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Ryua In reply to Tondro [2015-04-05 20:29:42 +0000 UTC]

How about someone who is infertile? Does that mean their relationships are purposeless, and not love? Perhaps my grandmother, who is WELL past childbearing age, doesn't really love the man she just married, because they didn't marry for procreation?

Desire has nothing to do with procreation. I have no interest in having children, and yet I desire plenty. It's true that overall, life is designed to want to procreate, but to say that's the ONLY reason for it? Sexual relationships serve plenty of other purposes than procreation. Most heterosexual relationships have sex far more often than strictly required to reproduce, after all. It's healthy, for body and mind. It promotes bonding between the people in the relationship.

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Tondro In reply to Ryua [2015-04-12 12:25:26 +0000 UTC]

Yes, if you understand how love and attraction work, an infertile couple is essentially purposeless. I define love as self-less, nurturing compassion, and that is not what attracted your grandfather to your grandmother. They were persuaded to conjoin by their biological instinct to procreate. Your grandmother saw a provider, and your grandfather saw a set of desirable DNA, so they complied with this instinct without a thought. It's not a conscious desire to make children, but the desire exists solely as a procreative mechanism. If our biology did not prioritize reproduction, your grandparents would never find their relationship useful. They may have bonded with people who they loved out of respect and admiration, which probably would have rendered them happier people.

Sex is not essential to any function of living. Any health benefits afforded by sex are displaced by the benefits of diet and exercise, which actually are essential to living. Any mental benefits are only temporary and superficial. I enjoy sex as much as anyone, but sex is an obsolete reproductive tool that results in the pairing of people in relationships that serves no function. As soon as we eliminate the desire for reproduction, we can promote genuine love, not the thing that you call love that is really just a population expanding routine.

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