Morning Light XXVII

Image: Subject and photographer unknown.

Mon Bel Ami

Image: The Leveret

Winter Solstice

Many seasonal days of celebration are celebrated around the world during the month of December. Most are religious holy days, and are linked in some way to the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere. On that day, due to the earth’s tilt on its axis, the daytime hours are at a minimum in the northern hemisphere, and night time is at a maximum.(In the southern hemisphere, the summer solstice is celebrated in December, when the night time is at a minimum and the daytime is at a maximum.)

“Solstice” is derived from two Latin words: “sol” meaning sun, and “sistere,” to cause to stand still. The lowest elevation [of the sun’s path in the skies of the northern hemisphere] occurs about December 21 and is the winter solstice – the first day of winter, when the night time hours are maximum.

In pre-historic times, winter was a very difficult time for indigenous people in the northern latitudes. The growing season had ended and the tribe had to live off of stored food and whatever animals they could catch. The people would be troubled as the life-giving sun sank lower in the sky each noon. They feared that it would eventually disappear and leave them in permanent darkness and extreme cold. After the winter solstice, they would have reason to celebrate as they saw the sun rising and strengthening once more. Although many months of cold weather remained before spring, they took heart that the return of the warm season was inevitable. The concept of birth and or death/rebirth became associated with the winter solstice. Indigenous peoples had no elaborate instruments to detect the solstice. But they were able to notice a slight elevation of the sun’s path within a few days after the solstice – perhaps by December 25. Celebrations were often timed for about the 25th.

– Source

Image: “Hares Asleep in Winter” by Hannah Giffard.

Almost Invisible

Hares do not live in burrows. Instead, during the daytime they nestle in the vegetation or scratch out a shallow indentation in the open ground called a form in which they crouch down with their ears flattered against their back and become almost invisible. Rough ploughed or cultivated ground is a natural choice for hiding in. These forms may be used on a regular basis and can become worn smooth.

– Jill Mason
The Hare, p. 48.

The Homoerotic Adventures of Batman and Robin

Following is a third and final excerpt from Vittorio Lingiardi’s insightful book Men in Love: Male Homosexualities from Ganymede to Batman.

For the first excerpt from Lingiardi’s book, click here. For the second, click here.

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Zeus and Ganymede as a couple are an image of the coniunctio appositorum, opposite psychic polarities brought together into a state of balanced tension. In this couple, we became acquainted with the erotic, though not necessarily sexual, valence of the puer-et-senex constellation that so frequently runs through relationships between men. In Greek mythology, one can find many similar homosexual examples of such “initiatory” relationships, such as Heracles who is taken to heaven and promoted to the status of a god following his death or Hyacinth, the extremely handsome mortal youth whom Apollo, protector of boys, fell in love with and made divine, a story likewise used to explain the origins of love between men. Mythic parallels appear in other cultural contexts, among the ancient Germanic people, as well as the people of Melanesia, New Guinea, and medieval Japan. These common motifs of heavenly abduction, mystical flight, and eagles as spirit-animal regularly appear in dreams, stories, and the legends of shamanic initiation throughout the world.

Even in the modern imagination of comic books we find a male couple with the characteristics of this coniunctio, this union in flight: Batman/Bruce Wayne and Robin/Dick Grayson (Winick 1992). Creatures of the air flutter about in their very names, and the allusion to the penis (robin, pecker, dick) is, I venture to say, not mere happenstance. Indeed, in his attack against comic books entitled The Seduction of the Innocent, psychiatrist Frederic Wertham denounces the friendship between Batman and Robin as too reminiscent of “a Zeus-Ganymede type of love relationship . . . the wish-dream of two homosexuals,” and to this condemnatory end, he adduces the following “proofs” for this thesis: they are two unmarried men living together in a house filled with flowers; they are served by a butler, Alfred; they care a great deal for one another and are often drawn sitting close together, dressed informally, their hands or arms touching. “Only someone ignorant of the fundamentals of psychiatry and of the psychopathology of sex can fail to realize the subtle atmosphere of homoerotism which pervades the adventures of the mature Batman and his young friend Robin” (Wertham 1954, p. 190).

Against these insinuations by Wertham, one can take another sort of psychological attitude by acknowledging that, as imaginary characters, the secret relationship between Bruce and Dick may be whatever the reader may wish to read into it: Robin can be Batman’s ward (the official version), his son (a benign interpretation), or his lover (a forbidden fantasy). As one of Wertham’s own patients says, “As the age of ten I found my liking, my sexual desires, in comic books. I think I put myself in the position of Robin. I did want to have relations with Batman . . . I remember the first time I came across the page mentioning the ‘secret batcave.’ The thought of Batman and Robin living together and possibly having sex relations came to my mind” (Wertham 1954, p. 192).



Andy Medhurst (1991) emphasizes how, despite a lack of explicit indications in the text, many people associate Batman and other comic-book superheroes with homosexuality by virtue of the absence of any important heterosexual relationships (Batwoman and Batgirl only make their appearance much later), and the tight-fitting bodysuits and pronounced masculinity of these characters are very obvious indications of the gay/camp sensibility behind these illustrations. A rap song a few years ago dedicated to Superman [who is called Nembo Kid (“Cloud Boy”) in Italian], had the following lyrics: “He’s a fairy, I suppose, flyin’ through the air in his pantyhose.”

. . . What is salient in all these myths about the origin of male homosexuality is the initiatory function such relationships serve. “Initiation myths” is the term used by scholars to refer to myths concerning “rituals which guarantee a successful passage from a ‘tender’ age group to a later and more manly age, with all its attendant powers and pleasures” (Dumezil 1984, p. vii). The aim of same-sex initiation” is to provide a space, gap, break, or transition between the feminine world of mother and the masculine world of father in the course of a young boy’s psychic development, an act of transition from youth to maturity that has had a central place in many cultures for a very long time. Ethnological studies conducted throughout this century have revealed the existence of initiatory institutions very different from the current models of initiation in Western civilization – namely, the existence of socially obligatory homosexual relationships between a teacher and his initiates.



And this, in turn, casts a central image of Western culture, masculinity, into a very different perspective, as it can no longer be held as necessarily coincident with exclusive heterosexuality. Indeed, there are cultures in which a man’s social superiority as a warrior, a chief, a shaman is in fact defined by way of homosexual behavior and involves helping a younger man achieve similar social status through such behavior. Homosexual relationships were the very heart of many pedagogical, training, and initiatory institutions.


Recommended Off-site Links:
When Batman was Gay - Tyrion Lannister (The Bilerico Project, July 24, 2008).
The Truth About Batman and His Tight Leather Suit - BigO (July 25, 2008).

Running Hare III

Image: Jackie Morris.

Tools of Attraction

The following is excerpted from a commentary in DNA magazine by Andrew Creagh.

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When our sisters in the heterosexual female community put together a list of sexy guys they often call it a “bachelor” list or a “who’s hot” list, taking the emphasis off the sexiness. They say they like a man in a pair of favourite jeans and a not-too-tight T-shirt. They love men who are compassionate (and that usually means killing the spider in the bathtub, not volunteering for aid work in Ethiopia), and they hate men wearing speedos!

Men who find other men sexy are, I think, a lot more straightforward. Just look at DNA’s daily blog to see whose pics get the most hits. They’re guys whose masculinity is up-front – hairy chests and bulging swimwear; men who confidently project their sexuality, whatever that may be.

. . . While we’re attracted to a variety of heights, shapes, skin colours and olfactory and auditory stimuli, scientists have been able to determine that all other characteristics aside, the classic V-shaped male torso with broad shoulders and slim hips is the dominant factor. They’ve even been able to put some technical specs to it: “Consistently, men with a waist-to-shoulder ratio of 0.75 or lower are viewed as considerably more attractive than men with more even waists and shoulders,” reckon researchers at the Cambridge University Zoology Department.

The same researchers also concluded that women are more attracted to men with chest hair than without, so while Vogue readers might like looking at tall, skinny, hairless androgynous boys, they don’t really want to mate with them. Science also tells us that symmetrical facial features are apparently more attractive to us because they signify healthy genes with which to breed.



Ideals of physical attraction do change. Looking at photography from 100 years ago, when muscle men were commonly used as models, we can assume that the ideal was all about muscle definition in the arms. The Adonis of that age cared little for the washboard abs or fleshy pecs that we adore today.

In the couture-conscious decades of the 1940s and ’50s, the naked male body was rarely seen at all. Measures of attractiveness were almost entirely gauged in the face: the strength of the jaw line, the straightness of the nose, the sharpness of the part in his hair and the crease in his hat. The sexual revolution in the ’60s and the era of disco in the ’70s saw men taking off their shirts in public. Thin was in – for the moment. The following decades put masculine ideals on billboards and in advertising campaigns and bigger became better.

If there’s a defining trend by today’s standards it’s hard to identify. Contemporary ideas of masculinity, maleness and attractiveness are a jumble of shaved legs, steroid abuse, Photoshop disasters and misguided art direction!

. . . If you ask me, the sexiest man alive is one whose eyes light up when I walk in the room, who can make me laugh, and who doesn’t care how stupid I look when I dance.

- Andrew Creagh

Running Hare II

“Running Hare” by Harriet Mead.

The Society of Wildlife Artists notes:

Animal and birds inspire Harriet’s work, an interest developed from an early age due to the influence of her late father, Chris Mead, a well known author and broadcaster. His passion for birds gave Harriet an appreciation of the natural beauty of animals and birds.

Most of Harriet’s sculptures use welded steel, a material of versatile strength that enables her to capture movement in the subject, and balance pieces in a way nearly impossible using a more traditional material. Harriet captures the essence of the animal without sentimentality, and uses the steel in a sympathetic way to outline strength and muscle. She seeks to capture something of the quiet presence of the animal and not necessarily the drama.

Tan Lines XVI

Running Hare

Image: “Running Hare” by Kary Fisher (limited edition screen print, 38 x 28 cm).

Antinoüs

Here’s a second excerpt from Vittorio Lingiardi’s excellent book Men in Love: Male Homosexualities from Ganymede to Batman.

For the first excerpt from Lingiardi’s book, click here.

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The Zeus-Ganymede relationship served as a model for many famous love stories in the ancient world, such as the love between the emperor Hadrian and his Greek eromenos Antinoos [or Antinous]. These two met in Bithynia, the younger man’s native country, around 123 B.C. . . . Hadrian abducted the boy and was devoted to him for the rest of his life. Inseparable companions, they always traveled together, and together took part in the Eleusinian mysteries.

Identifying himself with the king of Olympus, the emperor decided to restore all temples and statues dedicated to Zeus, including the Olympieion of Athens, with its huge statue of the god in gold and ivory sculpted by Phidias. In their turn, as a sign of gratitude, the Athenians dedicated a statue in the Parthenon to Hadrian. Throughout Greece, the Roman emperor came to be worshipped as a god in his own right, and thus, the new Greco-Roman religion acquired its own trinity, made up of Zeus, Jupiter, and Hadrian.

Consequently, the process of Antinoo’s divinization began while the young man was still alive and reached its apotheosis after the younger man’s mysterious death by drowning in the Nile.

Antinoos, the last divinity of the ancient Mediterranean world, was revered in ways similar to the cults of Osiris, Dionysus, Hermes, and Eros. Innumerable statues, coins, temples, and even a city, Antinoopolis, would bear for all time the name of melancholy Emperor Hadrian’s lost love. Before a bust of Antinoos on exhibit in the British Museum, the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson “bent forward a little and said in a deep slow voice: ‘Ah – this is the inscrutable Bithynian.’ There was a pause and then he added, gazing into the eyes of the bust: ‘If we knew what he knew, we should understand the ancient world’” (C. Tennyson 1949, p. 395).

SpiralSea17's portrait of Antinous (2006).

Like Ganymede, Antinoos for centuries stood as a symbol of same-sex love, and also as a platonic ideal of spiritual love. Like Ganymede, Antinoos was transformed into a star: wanting his lover to be remembered for all eternity, Hadrian named a constellation after him. In the Almagest, Ptolemy’s first great compendium of Greek astronomy, the stars of Antinoos are mentioned as part of the Aqila (Eagle) group; in various ancient maps of the heavens.

Andrew Prior’s portrait of Antinous (2008).

Recommended Reading:
Beloved and God: The Story of Hadrian and Antinous by Royston Lambert.

Leaping Hare

Image: “Leaping Hare” (detail), Pontifical, Italy, c.1435-1440 (MS.28 f.135v).