Photographer Rion Sabean is a senior at the University of South Florida in Tampa, where he’s wrapping up his degree in art and photography. This cheeky series, “Men Ups!”, puts men engaged in traditionally masculine pursuits (wood-chopping, ditch-digging, carpentry) in traditionally feminine/submissive poses.
Says Sabean, “I try to bring light to the scrutiny and judgments of society through the use of exaggerated storytelling.”
Keep your eyes peeled for more great work from this young talent.
Images via rionsabean.com
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spider_orchid
Dude with the baseballs. YES.
Thomas Maguire
To quote Kramer in ‘The Contest’: “I’m out.”
MikeE
they’re kind of funny, although he IS missing some pretty standard “female” poses… he should watch one of the Transformers movies. He’d get ALL the “Standard pose” information he needs from there.
and the softball one… hehe, yeah, a bit of a guilty pleasure for me too.
mike128
Interesting idea – and the photos are well executed. I actually am only now realizing that so many of these “feminine poses” are cute/surprised faces with a body posture that would give access to the vagina. Maybe I’ve been a bit thick – or I’m just a gay man – but that never really occurred to me before.
LandStander
I enjoy the work. The army boy in number 7 is awfully cute too 🙂
Cheri
Too cool!!!!!!!!
RomanHans
What’s the point? That when men who look straight act effeminate it’s funny?
Stark
@RomanHans: Possibly to just plain contest heteronormative assumptions like the term “look straight”.
the nosh guy
LOVE IT!!!!!
Just Relax
It’s just fun and funny. Relax people. Not everything needs to go under the queer theory / feminazi studies microscope. Sometimes silly is just silly. God! How dour some of your lives must be!
DavyJones
@RomanHans: The point is likely to emphasize that poses which are taken to be ordinary and acceptable when a scantly clad woman does them; look (as they should) silly and overly ridiculous when you take out the ‘sex sells’ factor.
Of course the effect is stunted a bit with this crowd; since many of the pictures are actually cute/funny at the same time…
Riker
I’m strongly considering buying prints of the baseball and camo pinups. If you’ve got any wadded up tissues laying around because of them, i’d suggest you do the same.
Supporting queer art is one of the most worthwhile things we can do, and his prints are quite reasonably priced, too.
declanto
New Menups calender in the works, he says. I want!
jason
Ravish my apple breast with your big mouth, Rion.
tenshinigami
This so delightfully clever, silly, and downright amusing. It really points out just how ridiculous pin-ups are, at least some of the time, and it’s charming to boot.
RomanHans
So it’s funny when guys who look straight do effeminate things. Is it funny when guys who look effeminate do manly things? If Kurt on “Glee” picked up a hammer, should we all laugh?
Riker
@RomanHans: You’re missing the point. Pinups have always been ridiculous, even with women. We’ve just been conditioned not to notice it. The insertion of the masculine ideal into pinups are what makes us actually see the absurdity.
Its art, honey. Not everyone will understand it.
RomanHans
Riker, don’t patronize me. If you know anything at all, you know “art” is just as sexist as society. How many female nudes have you seen by current artists? Now, how many males?
I like art. I know a lot of art. I don’t, however, pretend that artists are doing something spectacular when, in reality, they’re making silly little jokes that totally fit into our sexist society.