Man Candy Monday

I can’t help it. I have this strange fascination for urinals. (Is it me or do you share?)

So, there are these public (sort of) arenas where men touch their cocks – no, hold their cocks – in a very casual, mundane, everyday manner. And me, I can never be casual about cock because I don’t have one. I will be forever fascinated, forever wanting to touch, forever wanting dick. Ohmygollygosh. Yes, I will.

But wow, listen, there are these places where men go (where I am not allowed, dammit!) and they stand there (but not too close!) holding their cocks and pissing and generally ignoring each other and chasing cigarette ends (what replaced cigarette ends after the ban?) down the drain with their stream.

Then they just put away their cocks and leave! All over!

Sometimes, the most ordinary, everyday things are the most strange and amazing and wonderful.

Kristina x

Man Candy Monday

You know, it’s been a long time since I thought about what a very attractive man Ewan McGregor is (and I used to think about it quite often), but I was reminded by this clip in which he proclaims that his frequent nude scenes in films are ‘a feminist thing’

So that’s nice. Ewan gets it. Naked men = feminist thing; naked women = same old thing. This week, you’ll no doubt be as disappointed as me to learn, the erotica publishing industry failed to get this point so spectacularly I can only think that this was plan B, after going around to every straight female reader or writer of erotica personally and insulting them to their face proved too expensive. (If you follow these thing you might know which books I mean – if not, we’ll get there. Promise.)

Mat x

Man Candy Monday

After last week’s headless Man Candy, this week we’re all about the head. Well, Channing Tatum’s head, to be exact, and the lovely exposure of his armpit.

For more pit pics, check out The Beauty of his Armpits, an old post on my blog currently getting some fresh interest from guys discussing the merits of maschalomania and what works for them: hair or bare? subway or supermarket? deodorant or sweat?

And today’s ECW dilemma: Channing Tatum or Channing Tatum?

Hmm, maybe I’ll stare a little longer while I decide. And as I do so, I’ll send good thoughts to Scotland and wish Channing a speedy recovery from his recent scalded in a wetsuit accident. Really Channing, if you want warming up, you only need ask.

Kristina x

Man Candy Monday

Hey, you know what’s terrible? I don’t think we have ever done a headless Man Candy. Shocking! I mean, how else are all our straight male readers going to identify.

Here you go!

(What do you mean straight men don’t get off on identifying with random images of headless male torsos? I don’t understand.)

Man Candy Monday

How come I only ever have washing-up in my sink? Why not Daniel Craig? Jeez, life’s so unfair.

Kristina x

Erotica Cover Watch: The Mile High Club, ed. Rachel Kramer Bussel

The Mile High Club, ed. Rachel Kramer Bussel, pub. Cleis Press

Watched by: Mathilde Madden

Here at Cover Watch we have a simple wish: Men on the covers of erotic books. To keep our dreams simple (and, you know, so damn basic it kind of makes me want to cry) we don’t worry too much about which men.

Oh, sure, there are debates to be had about trashiness. There are sticky questions about using imagery that is clearly primarily for gay men. We don’t have as strict a policy on this as some of our fellow warriors for equality. Man Candies are swiped from gay sites and blogs all the time, but we do understand why it’s important to say, hey, it is not okay to tell straight women that there is no problem because they can get their jollies from gay porn. Of course we can. (Of course we do.) But that doesn’t mean we don’t want our desires acknowledged . It’s not okay to ask straight women to dress up as gay men in order to see man-flesh.

Some people like to talk about what straight women really prefer. Our main position on this is that straight women’s tastes vary as much as straight men’s – and just take a look at a little thing called the internet to see just how wide ranging those tastes can be. Upshot of this – if you’re a straight woman and you see a single image of a sexy guy, chances are, it won’t be the exact image that does it for you. And this can be hugely frustrating in a world where such images are so scarce. But for us that means we cheer for all images of men on erotica book covers – and elsewhere – even if they are not our thing. Our reasoning: there’s a woman somewhere who is being made super happy by Mr Minotaur, Mr Hairy, Mr Elfin, Mr Piercings, etc.

Not that this policy is perfect. Of course some images proliferate unduly, but, for now, we welcome any attempt to get more guy-flesh on the outside of erotic books are well as the insides.

And, we don’t mind if the women want to stay on the covers too. We want equality not the moon on a stick (again, I pause and weep for how tiny and reasonable our request really is). Men pictured with women – yay! Okay, not the covers that features a huge amount of heaving bosom and a man’s hand off in the top corner, but a het couple where both get equal billing, sure. Nice.

Which is why we like this cover and cheer for it. And, god, sometimes, we feel like we are always complaining about Rachel Kramer Bussel’s Cleis covers – she has had some stinkers! So it’s really nice to see this.

So yay and yay again for this cover. And I will, at no point in this essay, mention the phrase ‘He looks like he’s hiding the body!’

Mathilde Madden