Saturday, April 16, 2016

Breaking the Bad Body Image: Michael’s Story

From: PlayBear
 I remember the first time I realized what ‘true love’ really meant.  Not older than perhaps ten, but I walked quietly down the hall at my grandparents’ house not wanting to wake anyone.  I passed my grandfather’s room, and it was empty.  They no longer slept in the same room—not for many years.  I passed the bathroom and peeked into my grandmother’s room where I heard a quiet conversation.  My grandmother and grandfather were sitting in her bed together, drinking their morning coffee, and talking.  Just talking.  There wasn’t anything particularly extraordinary about the scene…except for one thing.  They were in love.  The same love they shared for over 60 years.  A love that was blind, had survived insurmountable obstacles and was here, in the aftermath, as strong as it had been since day one.


 When I met Michael and Shay for the first time, they ‘looked’ like any other couple.  It was easy to see that they had that same enduring love that I had witnessed as a child.  Granted, they did not have the simple luxury of dealing with “normal couple” struggles.  No.  They had overcome those struggles as well as struggles only the strongest couples survive.


Shay and Michael
 Michael was physically born a woman; however, Michael is a man.  We know the story—politically.  We know the laws.  We know the media’s opinion.  The majority of us know these things, not from personal interaction, but from conclusions we made without education.  Michael’s transition had been deemed so medically necessary that his insurance company (financially) assisted with the transition.  When he looked in the mirror and saw a woman’s body, he was physically and emotionally disgusted.  This was not the body he was supposed to inhabit.  He was broken—physically and emotionally.  How could anyone love someone who could not even consider loving themselves?  The pain I could see in Shay’s eyes as Michael so openly discussed his shame was almost more to bear than the anguish in Michael’s own eyes.


photo by Steven Tilotta of Tilotta Images
 Shay had seen Michael’s profile on a website.  She felt his pain as her own.  She reached out.  Newly public as a lesbian, Shay was struck by Michael’s courage during his transition.  He was not the first person in transition she had ever met, but something about his profile led her to contact him.  ‘There was just something about him I could not get out of my mind.’  She was sure she would not hear back from him.  She was wrong.  ‘There was just something about her I could not get out of my mind.’  Michael felt that same connection. After hearing Shay’s detailed account of their history, I was interested in hearing Michael’s version of the story.  As if they were reading from the same script, Michael recounted almost verbatim, the same story I had heard from Shay.  Another couple added to a short list of ‘true loves.’


photo by Steven Tilotta of Tilotta Images
 Michael has shared various aspects of his story numerous times via a multitude of media applications, and when Houston’s HERO bathroom debate continued to divide society, he took a stand.  Shay stood with him.  Michael posted a few photos of himself in a women’s restroom begging the question, ‘where do I belong?’  #wejustneedtopee became an instantly-viral phenomenon.  Granted, there were a few non-supporters and perhaps a death threat or two.  It is difficult to even imagine these problems still occur in such a progressive society, but there will always be those who judge without knowing individual. There are those who will look at Michael and Shay and judge them based on what they see on the outside and not even consider the true value of the individuals they see before them.


photo by Steven Tilotta of Tilotta Images
 We are truly a label-based society.  Labels make us feel like we are not alone.  It connects us; however, it isn’t the label that connects us.  It’s the love.  Love like what is shared with Michael and Shay.  Gay.  Straight.  Bear.  Pup.  Sister.  Queen.  Dom.  Sub.  Queer.  Trans.  Whatever your particular label, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t want to be loved like that.


photo by Steven Tilotta of Tilotta Images
 Michael is undoubtedly courageous; however, he does credit his success and happiness to his wife.  She, equally credits her happiness and success to him.  We are taught early that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and we nod and shrug in passive agreement, not truly believing we are worthy of that kind of love.  Shay looks at her husband as any person in love would.  She does not see the pain he feels inside.  She does not see a gender.  She sees the person who loves her.  She sees the person who loves her children as his own.  She sees the person who has climbed to the top of the tallest tower to rescue his love.  Michael sees Shay as the person who rescued him.


photo by Steven Tilotta of Tilotta Images

photo by Steven Tilotta of Tilotta Images

“Flocks” | Dancer’s Bodies in Beautiful Piles Photographed by Nir Arieli

From: Accidental Bear
Nir Arieli‘s “Flocks” captures the Nederlands Dans Theater, Batsheva Dance Company, Ailey II and other top contemporary companies in unexpected, evocative images. Throughout the series, dancers are at rest, bodies piled and entwined in formations unique to each ensemble.

“The dance company is a social sphere in which the dancers live, love and work,” Arieli says. “This body of work is my search for what remains in the dancers’ bodies when the dance stops. When movement is drained from the body and the performative purpose is removed, only the possibility of movement that lies beneath the surface remains.”


Featured in the exhibition are Nederlands Dans Theater II, Batsheva Dance Company, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Shen Wei Dance Arts, Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal, Ballet Hispanico, Pontus Lidberg Dance, Ailey II (Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater) and the all-male Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. The Martha Graham Dance Company and MADBOOTS DANCE were also photographed for the series.


“Despite the companies’ great differences in culture, heritage and sensibility the resulting photographs all had a shared quality, revealing something fundamental about how dancers physically communicate,” Arieli says. “Relying mostly on nonverbal language, the dancers formed intricate living sculptures. As they worked together, the minute dialogues between them enabled a larger visual narrative. The intertwining of bodies carries an undercurrent of sex and death, reflecting and amplifying the complexity of human relationships.”


“Flocks” is on view at Daniel Cooney Fine Art from April 21 to June 4.




 


 




Nir Arieli

A Gallery of Dick Pics

From: Accidental Bear
That I’m sure got most of your attention. Whether dick lovers or you just want to compare your dick size, here we are. Straight men are always welcome here.

Vice has shared this story and interview

Ah, the unsolicited dick pic. Technology has made it all too tempting for men’s penises to pop up on a woman’s phone while she’s reading on the train or walking home from work. This is a fairly recent invention, because who would’ve taken their rolls of film to the local drug store to get their dick pics developed? But now that everyone has a camera phone, dick pics are ubiquitous, despite the fact that most women really, really don’t want them.




Whitney Bell is one of these women. Last weekend, she premiered her Los Angeles–based art show “I Didn’t Ask For This: A Lifetime of Dick Pics,” which showcased the magnitude of the unsolicited dick pics she’s received.

Read interview here vice.com

1 Man + 70 Years Of Bollywood Fashion

From: Accidental Bear


One man transforms into iconic film actors throughout Bollywood history. What a cutie.

Video from BuzzFeedVideo

An Etiquette Guide for Straight People in Gay Bars

From: Vice
One of the great things about the hottest club in any town these days is that gay people are welcome. But with acceptance comes responsibility, and over the years homosexual partiers, like a bunch of hard-drinking Emily Posts, have had to learn the ins-and-outs of how to behave in a mostly-straight environment without pissing anyone off. It's a straight man's world, we’re just livin’ in it.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for straight people when attending a gay watering hole with their same-sex-loving friends. We love having straight people hang out with us, we really do, but I'm going to break down the rules for the breeders who forget how to behave when there is a rainbow flag on the wall. For our purposes we'll be talking about gay male bars, since lesbian bars, like pandas in the wild and good female acoustic folk acts, are harder and harder to find these days.

Your Vagina Has No Power Here

This is the most important lesson for all ladies to know before they step foot in a queer establishment (unless, of course, it is the fabled lesbian bar). Women are used to being let into clubs first, not having to pay a cover, served at the bar quickly, and basically allowed to do whatever the hell they want to do in straight bars. That's because if there were no women, men wouldn't spend money to get them fucked up and try to sleep with them. Everyone is catering to open the velvet ropes between a woman's thighs. It is exactly the opposite in a gay bar. Women, while fun to have around, are practically invisible at a gay party. They have to wait for the one tiny restroom (which has probably been co-opted by boys and drag queens anyway), they don't get to annoy the DJ to request songs, and the (probably shirtless) bartender is going to take their order last. Congrats, ladies, this is how men feel in straight bars. Now, you need to get used to it, no throwing fits and bitching and moaning because no one is going to put you on a pedestal (or let you dance on a go-go platform). Just deal with it for one night. You're still pretty and special, even though no one is buying you a drink and inviting you to the VIP room. No one wants to fuck you here, so you're going to need to get the fuck over yourselves.

Lowering the Bar

Remember when I said we love it when straight people come to our bars? Well, that's not always true. There are some bars we don't want you to go to. They are usually bars where boys go late at night to make out with strangers and engage in a little slap and tickle in a dark corner. Do not go there. No matter what your friends say, there is no place for you at the Cock, or any establishment that is named after the male genitalia or something incredibly masculine like Rawhide, Truck, or Woody's. Boys who like boys are going there to get laid, and babysitting straight people is not conducive to scoring dick. When your friends show up there, it's time to go get a piece of pizza and hail a cab home. Also, leave anyplace called The Eagle alone, unless you really want to see a bunch of bears in harnesses and other leather gear giving you the stank eye while grinding each other's jock straps.

No One Likes a Cockblocker

Keeping your "gay BFF" (please, never utter that phrase) from getting laid is the cardinal sin, even if you are at an otherwise mixed and tame lounge, dance club, or dive bar. If anything you are there to be his wing man. The problem is, no one there wants to have sex with you. That's why it's better to go to a gay bar with a gaggle (the scientific term for a group of gays), so if one of the boys is about to get lucky, you can shift your attention. Don't be the drag keeping a love connection from happening because you need someone to dance with you to the Robyn song on the jukebox. If you see young love blossoming, get out of the damn way, or excuse yourself to make your own booty call. Then everyone's getting theirs.

No Girls Allowed

Ladies, we don't mind going to your bachelorette parties, because we love and support you as friends even if we find it a little insulting (and genitally incorrect) that you keep calling us "one of the girls." However, if we don't know you, we have no interest in being at your party. That means keep them out of gay bars. We know you want to look at strippers, but you have to find somewhere for women to do it. Go to Chippendales or Thunder from Down Under or some strip night called Danglers that's meant just for you ladies. Do not show up at a gay go-go bar and screech and squeal and push all the other patrons out of the way so you can drunkenly slip a $20 in a tiny sliver of spandex stuck up a plump, oiled backside. To you it might be one night of misbehaving, but this is our life. Please respect that, and take your high-decibel revelry somewhere that will cater to your "big day."

Hands Off

OK, ladies, we will make a deal with you. We won't touch your boobs if you don't touch our cocks. Is that fair? We know you find it thrilling that your lady parts mean nothing to us and that you can touch our magic sticks without making them stand on end, but that does not mean there should be any inappropriate groping. We don't want anyone in public handling our junk unless they were invited, so please watch your hands. In return, we will try to resist touching your knockers. It's hard for gay men to leave titties alone, because they are foreign and quite enjoyable (they don't call them fun bags for nothing) but we'll keep our grubby mitts off of them unless told otherwise. That doesn't mean you should force our hands onto them though. Yours might not be the kind of pair that we're into.

This One Is For the Gentlemen

OK, straight guys, just because you're in a gay bar does not mean you like to take a cock in the ass. That means you can stop clutching your girlfriend like she's some sort of heterosexual life preserver to keep you from drowning in a sea of receptive anal intercourse. You don't need to hold her hand and make out with her and go out of your way to announce your orientation. We already know you're straight. Those shoes you wore on your way in told us, you don't need to keep repeating yourself. It's a bit insulting. And keep the PDA light. If we wanted to watch straight people make out, we'd go just about anywhere else in the whole damn universe.

When in Rome, Go Greek

Just because the gays at the bar know a guy is straight doesn't mean he won't get hit on. In fact, it probably increases his likelihood of dudes wanting to chat him up. Know how straight guys like girl-on-girl action? Gays feel the same way about straight guys, so they're going to want to try to "turn" you. (Unless you're ugly. Then you're totally safe.) Just let the poor deluded soul hitting on you down nicely without being insulting. Either that or flirt your way into a few free drinks. Just because you're not interested doesn't mean you can't take him for everything he's worth. At least one girl has done that to you before, right? If your new paramour continues to pressure you or gets too handsy, don’t punch him in the grill. The room will turn on you and call you a gay basher faster than you can say Laramie, Wyoming. Instead just throw a drink on him like it's an episode of Dynasty. Not only will that solve your problem, you'll probably make a bunch of new friends.

No Fucking Cosmos

Seriously, it's not 1997 and you are not Carrie Bradshaw. Put down the fucking appletini and order a beer or a vodka tonic like everyone else.

Celebrating Today: April 16th

Happy Birthday Today To:
From: Favorite Hunks & Other Things
Rugby's Daniel Browne turns 37 today.



 


 Actor Danny Quinn wold have been 52 today.



 


 


 


 


 I think Lukas Haas is one of those cool celebrities not caught up in the fame, but the art. Lukas turns 40 today.



 


 


 


Adam Lambert On Freddie Mercury Biopic: “I’d Want To Be The One In Bed With Freddie”

Lambert says he'd like to play one of the Queen front man's sexual conquests.
From: NewNowNext
 Adam Lambert has been touring with Queen, but when it comes to the long-awaited biopic about the band’s front man, Freddie Mercury, he made it clear he only wants a supporting role.

“I’d want to be in bed with Freddie,” he recently told Digital Spy. “I don’t usually say things on the record, but that’s the part I want: I want to be one of his lovers.”


 Sounds like brilliant casting to us.
Lambert admits he’s chatted with Queen guitarist Bryan May about the project and about how Freddie’s sexuality would be addressed.


 “Back in the ’70s and the ’80s, it was something you just didn’t really talk about,” says the “Ghost Town” singer. “Obviously we’re in a much different time now, and it’s very topical so it’ll be really interesting to see how they’ll approach that part of his life. They haven’t quite figured it out yet as the movie is still in development.”


Lambert might want to put the kibosh on questions about the long-gestating film: Just look at the broohaha between May and Sacha Baron Cohen, who quit the film in 2014.

Ben Whishaw is currently slated to play Mercury but no filming schedule has been announced.

Speaking of gay singers, Lambert swatted away rumors that he and Sam Smith were an item after they were spotted at a gay bar in New York together last month.

“I saw the headlines and wrote to him, ’Oh my god, they think we’re dating!'” says Lambert, who adds that while Smith is “such a sweet guy,” they’re actually “not that close.”

48 FIT, MUSCULAR MEN TO MAKE YOUR TAINT TINGLE

From: Manhunt Daily


Murcia, Region of Murcia, Spain
making the story of my life!!
gracias por leer mi perfil. no busco nada y lo busco todo, aunque las cosas surgen. buen rollo ante todo. soy un tio con las ideas claras,guapete,deportista,buen fisico, me gusta cuidarme,persistente ...soy un tío con principios e inquietudes en la vida. si quieres saber mas, envía un privado;si das la cara nos entenderemos mejor. Si crees que tienes un perfil inadecuado y que no se corresponde con esto...no escribas, ahorrarás tu tiempo y me harás ahorrar el mío. No me va el conocer a alguien por su polla,todos tenemos una. salu2

Murcia, Region of Murcia, Spain
making the story of my life !!
Thanks for reading my profile. not looking for anything and look around, but things arise. good vibes at all. I am a guy with clear ideas, guapete, athlete, fitness, I like to take care, persistent ... I'm a guy with principles and concerns in life. if you want to know more, send private; if you give us understand better face. If you think you have the wrong profile and does not correspond to this ... you do not write, you will save your time and save me do mine. I did not go meet someone for his cock, we all have one. salu2

Aaron Schock Keeps Getting Probed And Not In A Good Way

From: Queerty
Things are looking worse and worse for totally-not-gay-100-percent-heterosexual Aaron Schock. The probe into the former GOP golden boy’s questionable spending habits appears to be getting deeper and dirtier by the day.

In the latest development, four congressional financial staffers were just subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury in central Illinois. It is believed they are being called to testify in the ongoing investigation against Schock, who has been accused of misusing taxpayer money and campaign donations to fund his lavish lifestyle.

Traci Beaubian, who serves as chief financial officer of the House of Representatives, along with Andrew Todd Caulk, a supervisor in financial counseling, Norman Gugliotta, a financial counselor, and John Nadeau, the director of financial counseling, were all called to testify before the grand jury on Monday afternoon.

Since resigning from office in March 2015, Shock himself has been served with at least two grand jury subpoenas demanding he hand over campaign and congressional records. FBI agents also have confiscated boxes of records and other items from his central Illinois campaign office.

Last month, Shock’s legal team said he is committed to fighting the allegations against him to the bitter end.

“Mr. Schock has already paid a heavy price by leaving office for the good of the constituents he served,” his spokesperson said. “We are putting our trust in the sound exercise of judgment by prosecuting authorities–but if necessary, we will mount a rigorous case to vindicate Mr. Schock’s position in a court of law.”

So far, Schock has already paid millions in legal expenses, and is expected to owe millions more when everything is said and done. He is also swimming in a sea of debt, owing $750,000 to his previous attorneys and an additional $750,000 in campaign debt.

A Look Back At Vintage Swimwear

From: Queerty
 Among the swimwear you'll see this summer, retro cuts should be proven very popular, leading us to question exactly what is retro. Our research brought us into contact with some beautifully shot vintage photographs; now, we know some of these outfits are drastic, but if you take a closer looks at current collections from aussieBum and Sauvagewear, you’ll see similar cuts and bodysuits. As we prepare for the last full month of the official summer season, take a look back with us at the retro style that has inspired us all season long.