Richard Ammon
Recently I sent a gay friend some photos of ‘hot’ men, that is, beautiful looking adult males with minimal clothes that revealed their handsome faces and muscled bodies. Several such images are included here (taken randomly from the Internet).
After my friend finished swooning he recovered his breath and asked why did some guys have such wonderful appearances leaving most of us ‘in the dust’, so to speak.
Well, one answer to that erotically profound question is similar to why we have great artists among us who are capable of creating magnificence in a mostly mundane world: Michaelangelo, DaVinci, Rembrandt, Rafael, Turner, Picasso, etc. Or why there are great thinkers who come along and shape the hue of civilization: Karl Marx, Thomas Jefferson, Sigmund Freud, Richard Dawkins, Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, Reinhold Niebuhr, Jiddu Krishnamurti, etc.
So too with these inspirational images of beautiful men. They are like art, wordless and beyond thought, that touch a deeper level of our being. Indeed, they express the fundamental aspect of aesthetic value–beauty.
Whether intellectual, visual or erotic we desire to be touched at this level; it vibrates the ‘soul’ and lifts us out of our daily routine of common feeling and thinking that are framed by our immediate repetitive circumstances. Indeed some argue that such experience touches the vitality of the sacred.
‘Gorgeous genes’ are like artistic talent or intellectual creativity that raise the few above the many, the Bach cantatas beyond the pop jingles of Christmas carols, the Einstein theories above the TV soap operas, the BelAmi boys above the raunch of home videos.
The ‘valence’ of erotic representations, the appeal of superior male imagery, takes us momentarily beyond the barriers of common-ness into aesthetic fantasy, into a soothing hedonic moment of joy–not unlike viewing Michaelangelo’s luminous statue of David. (photo right)
Why some people possess such superiority and most do not is simply the way of evolution as certain organic mutations are more effective at survival or attracting attention or expressing genius. Like much of life, it is simply chance happening.
So next time you go to a museum or an art show or read great ideas and feel aroused, animated, or imbued with the spirit of certain works, it’s not so different from the private ineffable ‘rush’ we feel viewing beautiful male (or female, if you are so inclined) figures.
Enjoy the show and the feeling it evokes; it’s there for us to be a willing audience and feel the breeze of beauty and the inspiration of unique originality. And be grateful for the exceptionals among us.
By Richard Ammon
August 20, 2011
