Whenever the summer Olympics, in fact, any type of major sporting event occurs, someone always asks if I am watching.
I always say no (I'm probably one of the few people in the world who is not at all interested in competitive sports (even the Gay Games); in fact, I used to be known as the "I hate sports guy"), but the reasons one friend gave me for watching it were typically gay.
He especially enjoys synchronized diving, especially the hot guys lined up in skimpy swimming trunks. And if one looks closely, one does notice their … bulges.
Of course, the Olympics is a major turn-on for gay men, but you should also remember that the Greeks who originated the games approved of homosexuality (and they played the games naked).
And don't forget all those statues of muscular gods like Apollo and Hercules.
Much later, after millennia of social repression, gays in the 1950s started to gingerly make their presence known through homoerotic muscle magazines like Grecian Guild Pictorial.
"I seek a sound mind in a sound body," was the Grecian Guild Pictorial's credo or mission statement. The word "Grecian," however, could easily be read as an underground code for "gay." Grecian became a coded word for gay during the time period of this magazine (1950's-1960's): those guys who like the male body, the "body beautiful," resembling the "Grecian ideal in its muscularity, symmetry, and grace." The association with the more openly homoerotic and bisexual culture of ancient Greece (and not just the physical aspects, but the emphasis on art and health as well as physical strength) was intentional.
In fact, several issues of Grecian Guild in late 1960 and early 1961 devoted contained articles specifically on the history and culture of the Olympics.
Perhaps it's time for me to explore my Grecian identity. I'll start with those athletic bulges.
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