SF Gate posts nice pictures of men showing affection to eachother

[Betsy Ross]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/g/a/2009/08/12/affectionate_men.DTL&o=0

Some wonderful old pictures.

[Voice for Peace]

1. rec'd back up to zero...

[FreeState]

2. K&R #3 and I love this one...

best one... isnt it nice to see pictures of our lives and loves not as a joke in mainstream media? Here's to seeing more:)

[Duncan Grant]

3. 6 rec's and counting...

I lagged a bit in getting this posted. :)

edit: this forum moves more quickly than I remembered

[The Doctor.]

5. 7....

;*)

[The Doctor.]

4. Great Troll-magnet.

It's cool that the mods know who rec/unrecs, eh?

[Canuckistanian]

6. There seem to be a lot of affectionate sailors

This seems to be from a collection. Is it in a gallery somewhere?

[FreeState]

8. Its a personal collection

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/collectivemind/index

Affectionate men photo gallery

I don't recall exactly when I developed a passion for the "affectionate men" genre of photographs. There seemed to be a certain societal discomfort with men showing affection for each other. I think that's the reason I was drawn to it.

I never speculate as to the sexual orientation of the people in the photos. That's in the eyes of the beholder. There are more and more books published with collections in the category. There's "Affectionate Men," "Picturing Men" and "Dear Friends." I think my favorites are military men showing affection, particularly during WWII. There are two books that I know of that deal with the subject, "At Ease" and "The Men of WWII."

The same social discomfort doesn't seem to extend to women showing affection toward each other. I do collect some photos in the genre, particularly those where the display is less than subtle. I like photos of women shown in roles that were typically thought of as male roles back in the day, such as military, hunters, aviators, or just dressed in male garb. There's a great book on that subject, "Women in Pants." I'll share some of these photos at a later time.

In the meantime, here are some photos from my affectionate men collection. I hope you enjoy them and welcome you to share yours.

[Canuckistanian]

9. Thanks

I missed that part.

[tabatha]

7. so many sailors

[jmondine]

10. Awwwwww.....

[Toasterlad]

11. What Kind of Twisted Ahole Would Unrec Something So Innocuous?

I hate the argument that homophobic people are secretly gay, but SOMEbody has issues.

[TheWraith]

13. Lurking freepers, somebody who thinks it's too trivial, or anti-positivity people.

DU has a surplus of all of the above.

[WillParkinson]

12. Rec #14!

Thank you. They were very sweet people in very candid moments.

[RetiredTrotskyite]

14. Nice Pics. K&R

Damn the trolls! Full liplock ahead!

[EFerrari]

15. What a great collection. Sorry too late to rec.

This is my fav. Each of these guys is making himself part of the chair to make the other more comfortable. Beautiful.

[closeupready]

16. Lovely pictures! :)

At the same time, it strikes me as kind of sad that, as someone else mentioned, affection between men is taboo in our society. In fact, it seems to be taboo in most Anglo-Saxon societies. In Latin countries or even moreso in muslim countries, there is no such taboo, or at least it is far weaker in those societies.

But backing up for a minute, it's odd that you almost need to dig and search through history files in order to find candid photos of unrelated men behaving warmly with each other. Maybe that says something about the deterioration of our society's mores, that men who punch and fight and dominate other men are held in higher esteem than those who cooperate.