Considerations on a Gentleman's Posterior

Abstract

In discussing J.C. Leyendecker's 1911 painting Man on a Bag used to advertise S.T. Cooper and Sons’ Kenosha Klosed Krotch union suit, Richard Martin noted that the positioning of the male figure had to be careful to avoid raising concerns about anal anxiety, reflecting Freudian theories of sexual development. For this new revolutionary back opening for men's underwear it was essential to depict a rear view of the male figure wearing the garment. However, as Martin noted, there was a certain discomfort around the idea of considering the male rear end. The association of sodomy and homosexuality led to this insecurity about the display of the male posterior. Men's behinds have, however, periodically been put on display throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries through changing fashions and this article will address key moments when male fashion has concentrated and highlighted the male behind such as the adoption of shrink-to-fit blue jeans by teenagers in the 1950s and close-fitting Italian-style trousers worn beneath “bum freezer” jackets that revealed a shapely male behind. It will also consider the depiction of the male behind in underwear advertising and the use of padded underwear to enhance this “asset,” and conclude with a reflection on the mass adoption of the hip-hop-inspired low-slung jean.

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