To celebrate its three year anniversary, Elska Magazine, the popular indie queer publication, has embarked on a photo series of herculean proportions.
In each new issue, the magazine is traveling to a different city around the globe–from NYC to Helsinki, Reykjavik to Los Angeles, London to Tel Aviv–to feature sexy queer guys of all races, ages, body types, and backgrounds.
Related: What Real Men Look Like In Underwear Ads
“I want each issue of Elska to transport the reader and let them feel like they’re getting to know people who they may not have had the opportunity or desire to meet otherwise,” says editor Liam Campbell.
He adds: “Narrow-mindedness, shallowness, and racism are still endemic, but I believe that exposure is the best way to realize that everyone is equal and deserving of love, and that there’s really no validity in claiming to have a ’type’ or preference.”
Scroll down for a sampling of the series…
Lacuevaman
a slow news day, no doubt.
dwes09
^^^^^
Make this JoRock guy go away. Why do we tolerate spammers here?
Better to kick the spammers (a cynical scummy bunch) off of here than to censor spirited discussions of the actual topic at hand!
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Am pretty sure he is referring to PC Police attacking Grindr and other sites because guys are VERY SPECIFIC in the types of guys they are sexually attracted to. Its not “narrow narrow mind ness, shallow, and racism”
The sites are FOR HOOKUPS. If someone is not interested in you put on your big boy pants and move on to the next profile…
Kangol
No, he’s calling out people suffer from “narrow-mindedness, shallowness, and racism.” It goes far beyond Grindr. But if the description doesn’t characterize you, there’s no need to get defensive about it, right?
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Kangol: those are the words utilized by the crybabies who claim “exclusion” and “shaming” when they are not someone’s type on an app profile. Hence the new “Kindr” being rolled out by Grindr because some profiles state they are not sexuality attracted to a certain type or ethnicity. Who the fcuk cares? Why waste time tapping someone when there is no possibility of a connection?
Kangol
@PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS, I hear you on Grindr and “Kindr,” but the fact remains that there is a lot of narrow-mindedness, shallowness, and racism out there, including in LGBTQ communities. Of these three, shallowness is arguably the the least important, in part because maturity and more life experience may help to address it. Racism is the worst. Like I said, it goes beyond just Grindr profiles; racist attitudes and behavior affect not just who you will or will not date or hook up with but how you treat others who aren’t like you, how you think, behave, etc. So introducing people to all kinds of people and perspectives is important.
lauraspencer
“in their underpants”
There are 14 photos here and only 6 feature underwear and 1 a bathing suit.
Kangol
Elska’s a terrific print and e-magazine that has a single-city/country focus for each issue. So far they’ve gone to about 15 or so cities around the globe (every continent, I think) and photographed and interviewed all kinds of men, as the photos above show. Some are fully nude, some partially, some are clothed. With the interviews you also get a sense of each guy, as well as each city and its queer culture. It’s a refreshing and cosmopolitan take on queer/gay cultures around the globe, and sometimes the issues, like the one from Lviv, Ukraine, cause a bit of an anti-gay backlash, but, to its credit, Elska deals with the issue head on.
dwes09
Regardless, to refer to all the men as sexy, as this article does, is silly. Some of those men were very sexy TO ME, some were the antithesis of sexiness in my eye. Some would become sexy if i met them, some would lose their attractiveness in conversation.
Sexiness is entirely in the eye and mind of the beholder and is a lot more complex than folks care to think it is. And it cannot be held to the same level of political correctness as other aspects of life, as it only relates to one aspect.
Kangol
@dwes09, I usually agree with you, but I’d say in this instance, the article says something slightly different: “sexy queer guys of all races, ages, body types, and backgrounds.” It doesn’t say “all the men are sexy,” but that these issues feature a diversity of sexy men. There’s a difference there in meaning. I don’t find all the men sexy either, just as I don’t find all men in the world sexy. On the other hand, Elska shows a diversity of men, and there are sexy ones, I think, from a range of backgrounds. I think that’s what the Queerty writer was referring to. As for “political correctness,” I think people on the right have worn that term into the ground. It basically means: don’t criticize my desire to say hateful things. Yet when they’re criticized, they freak out. So if they can give it, they should be able to take it and now melt like snowflakes.
Jack Meoff
And the sexy men are where exactly?
Sheik
Every person is sexy, in their own way(s), whether it be having the self confidence to find yourself sexy, or the fact that there is at least one person out there, who will find you sexy, to them. And it doesn’t have to be an outward appearance thing, either. I find intelligence, confidence, honesty, trustworthiness, wisdom(not the same as intelligence), standing up for what you believe in/fighting for your causes, kindness, caring for others, love of animals/nature, compassion, empathy, and a whole lot of other things, that have nothing to do with outward appearance, to be sexy. If you focus too much on outward appearance, you’re going to end up with Narcissus, and you can ask Ancient Greece how that one went. Hint: It wasn’t pretty, in the end.
nitejonboy
Well I wasn’t impressed. If I want to see lukewarm men in their underpants I’ll go to a gym.
RobtheElder
“I’m not a pretty boy (in truth, not a “boy” by any stretch). Of the snaps “Elska Magazine” presents in this article, several can’t be determined to be wearing underpants, and one (at least) is totally naked. Beyond the photos, the viewer must determine whether the pictured man might be interesting, sophisticated, complicated, available, and a lot of other adjectives. Additionally, the article doesn’t say whether the man’s country of residence is identified. It just seems to me that a voyeur, who wants to pursue an interesting looking man would be better served by “Grindr” or “Craig’s List”, unless eye candy is all you need tonight… RobtheElder
houllandng
good!