Tinker, soldier, sailor, thief: The visual representations and appropriations of the male sexual outlaw as a gay fantasy figure in the Arts and in fashion imagery

Abstract

Abstract This article examines the subject and visual representation of the gay fantasy figure, with specific reference to the male sexual outlaw character and its embodiment in the archetypes of the sailor and male hustler, and their fantasmatic performance in fashion editorials and advertising campaigns. It will focus on themes of homoeroticism, narratives of sexual danger, duality and adornment (with specific reference to tattooed bodies), and will provide an overview of the fascination with the rough trade type that gay artists and audiences share, and the dichotomy of ‘good and evil’ and ‘tragic and comic’ in these artists’ subversive rendition of homo-hetero desire. The starting points for this article are two seminal works on the Male Sexual Outlaw as a central focal point for their audiences’ desire: Jean Genet’s novel Querelle de Brest (1947, illustrated by Jean Cocteau) and Philip-Lorca diCorcia’s series of photographs titled Hustlers (1990–1992). By focusing on the figures of the professional mariner and the male prostitute, and incorporating underlying references to the male-dominated shady underworlds they supposedly inhabit and a life lived on the margins of society, the work investigates the representation and desire for a sexually dominant man from within the canon of western white gay male art.