“I work very hard to make sure that the men I draw having sex are proud men having happy sex!&
“I work very hard to make sure that the men I draw having sex are proud men having happy sex!”– Touko Laaksonen (May 8, 1920 - November 7, 1991), better known as Tom of Finland. Picture: Laaksonen, Los Angeles, c. 1980s. Photo c/o Hollywood Reporter & @tomoffinlandfoundation. In 1956, Finnish artist Touko Laaksonen submitted drawings to “Physique Pictorial,” an influential American muscle magazine, under the pseudonym Tom; the magazine’s editor credited the drawings to Tom of Finland, and an iconic career began. Over the next three and a half decades, Tom of Finland’s illustrations–which typically presented hypermasculine men in overtly homoerotic settings–stood in direct contrast to mainstream imagery of the gay man as the archetypal “sissy.” Touko Laaksonen died of an emphysema-induced stroke on November 7, 1991, twenty-five years ago today; he was seventy-one. #lgbthistory #lgbtherstory #lgbttheirstory #lgbtpride #QueerHistoryMatters #HavePrideInHistory #ToukoLaaksonen #TomOfFinland -- source link
#lgbthistory#haveprideinhistory#lgbtpride#queerhistorymatters#lgbttheirstory#lgbtherstory#toukolaaksonen#tomoffinland