The subversive happiness of Tom of Finland’s men
japantimes.co.jpshunga (traditional Japanese erotica) at the Eisei Bunko Museum in 2015, there is more that is comedic than controversial in this exhibition.On the other hand, there is the converse problem of what happens to Tom of Finland’s iconography if it becomes too popular.
Writer and activist Arthur Evans, who coined the term “Castro clone” in 1978 to deride the proliferation of the hyper-masculine fetish look in the San Francisco gay community, did not see the mass adoption of this image as a liberation, but rather capitalism preying on gay men’s anxiety of being considered a “fairy.” In the 21st century, is Japan’s first exhibition of Tom of Finland to be a culturally significant moment that unlocks greater introspection on gender roles, or merely.
