Recently, I have been reading personal accounts of men who sought after HIV from one another, what is often called 'bugchasing' and 'giftgiving', with the virus being the gift or bug. In Michael Graydon's study of this desire (looking at multiple forums dedicated to bugchasing), most who seek HIV are hoping to "attain a new state of being that transforms identity, social roles and relationships" (281). For those looked at by Graydon, HIV, through its cultural associations wit

“Most of our faculties lie dormant because they can rely upon Habit, which knows what there is to be done and has no need of their services.” (Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time) For Marcel Proust, habit is the force that conditions bodies to certain modes of life and prevents people from accessing meaningful existence. Proust’s novel In Search of Lost Time is a literary attempt to save life from the decay of habit. Whether through enjoying a moment of madeleines and tea o

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) ROBERT: So, we’ve made it to the final Mad Max post. We need to state from the outset that this post will contain SPOILERS about the fourth film in the series, Mad Max: Fury Road. For anyone that hasn’t seen it, we recommend that you do. It is truly a remarkable spectacle, even for those who don’t typically go for this sort of film. Either of us would probably be willing to loan out our copies. It is also perfectly fine to watch Fury Road even if you

- A theoretical meditation in the form of Surya Namaskar A In a recent candlelight yoga flow class I teach every Thursday night at Lincoln’s Lotus House of Yoga, I found myself grimacing with self-recrimination as I guided my 12 students into eka pada rajakapotasana. Otherwise known as “pigeon,” the pose requires the student to bend one knee up to her wrist with the foot angled back to the hip, while the other leg extends straight out behind the practitioner on the mat. In th

The Road Warrior (1981): The sinthomosexual and his catamite. In the first post in this series, we covered some of the discussions surrounding the role and purpose of feminism in Mad Max: Fury Road. One thing is clear, there is as of yet no consensus or even settled terms of debate regarding this topic. For this post, we will review the first three films in the Mad Max quadrilogy. We will explore topics and themes that appear and overlap in these films. We hope, through our c

Overcoming the disappointment that Adam Kotsko’s Why We Love Sociopaths didn’t actually offer much help in terms of understanding why I chose the last several people I have dated, I was compelled to consistently think of the times I have had the most sociopathic fantasies and identifications. My first thoughts, of course, drifted to the marauding hordes of graduate students I manage to spend so much time associating with these days. Do I actually walk in the company of sociop

If you were a kid in the 1970s or 1980s, chances are you have at least a vague recollection of Daniel Striped Tiger, the sweet, high-voiced, feline inhabitant of the Neighborhood of Make-Believe on Mister Roger’s Neighborhood. And if, like me and my partner, you have a child under the age of 5, you might also be familiar with Daniel Striped Tiger’s offspring who now has his own spinoff, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, on PBS. The animated show stars four-year-old Daniel Tiger wh

“Are you in the wrong bathroom?” This is a question I often get when I “androgynously” venture into a public women’s restroom—whether it is spoken aloud (as it was to me just this morning at the campus gym) or implied by an accusatory stare. What are people thinking when they ask this question? Perhaps the speaker assumes I am an adult who can neither read the sign that says “women” nor interpret the person-with-a-dress icon. Perhaps. But, frankly, I am somewhat skeptical of

​​ I’ll admit to being late to the Mad Men party. While the series debuted in 2007, I am still slogging through season 6 on Netflix—emphasis on slogging. From Don Draper’s revolving-door series of sexual conquests to his clichéd childhood trauma (inflicted by the classic Bad Mother, soothed by the Hooker with a Heart of Gold in his inaugural sexual experience), the general thrust of the plotline has gotten old fast. (He’s tortured! He uses women! We get it already!) Mark Grei

Peter Berlin’s That Boy (1974) emerged within the golden age of gay male pornographic films and in the aftermath of the development of the gay liberation movement; however, the film strikingly imagines an ecstatic experience of sexual activity or becoming that disavows gay identity, and perhaps identity itself. In That Boy, Berlin (who wrote, directed, produced, starred in, and renamed himself for the film) presents himself as a chimerical character named Helmut who is create