Wednesday 28 February 2007

Truckers: True Gay Erotica

Hard-driving truckers climb out of their big rigs and get down to business in this raw, lusty collection.

Truckers have long been ingrained in the American popular imagination, celebrated in movies like Smokey and the Bandit and many a country-western ballad. They’re also a favorite queer sexual icon, joining such types as sailors, cops, firemen, and other guys who "service society." For some gay men, life on the road conjures up images of hairy, sweaty, blue-collar joes traveling from town to town in their big 18-wheelers, pulling into all-night diners, gas stations, cheap motels, and highway rest stops for food, rest, companionship — and sex. These erotic encounters are the subject of this collection of trucker tales.

Editor Johnny Hansen has assembled 19 true stories of men who deliver much more than what’s back in the trailer. In one story, a four-way pileup in a highway men’s room gives new meaning to the word “convoy.” In another, a 19-year-old experiences first love — and lust — on a cross-country tour with a strapping Mack driver. In this one-of-a-kind collection, “good buddies” from across the U.S. reveal their hottest experiences on — and on the side of — the road.

That was the publisher's synopsis (just so you don't think I wrote it). You can pick this book up from a number of places online, but i recommend heading to Amazon to read an excerpt.

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What makes a MotorQueer Brand? part 3

Finally, the end of this tirade - the gist of which is that Being, Loving and Being Loved by MotorQueers makes a MotorQueer Brand. In the first post I discussed Being MotorQueer, in the second I discussed Loving MotorQueers (figuratively, that is) and in this post I will talk about Being Loved by MotorQueers.

This last criterion is pretty straightforward - a MotorQueer brand is a brand that is loved by MotorQueers. Interestingly, many brands that meet the second criterion meet the third. Studies have shown that all other things being equal, gays and lesbians prefer brands that advertise in gay and lesbian media and even better that provide support to queer community organizations.

Consider the tidbits in my previous post and the fact that 13% of respondents of the 2006 Gay/Lesbian Consumer Online Study own a Ford vehicle, while 11% own a Toyota (PDF here).

The final question remains, what does it all mean? To be considered MotorQueer, does a brand have to meet all three criteria? Frankly, there are no facts here, only ideas. I propose that a brand that meets two of the criteria should be considered a MotorQueer brand. What do you think? I think that i am MotorQueer and if i love something it's because it appeals to me on some level and thus it Loves and is Loved by MotorQueer...

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Friday 23 February 2007

Audio Snacks 3 to 5

Crazy food is ideal for the road. It's also what Cibo Matto means. This super-cool band was originally formed in 1994 NY by Japanese-born Yuka Honda and Miho Hatori. They carried the food to a number of song titles, including "Know Your Chicken," "Apple," and "Birthday Cake." They also do an AMAZING cover of "Candy Man" which i recommend if you can find it. Unfortunately, they had few videos, one of which is "Sugar Water":
Teriyaki Boyz are a j-hop band from Yokohama, Japan. Their "Tokyo Drift (Fast and the Furious)" provided strong beats in the movie of the same name. This movie thrust the sport of drifting into mainstream Western consciousness. Need I mention that I also loved the movie (and read the required sub-text into it where possible)...? I LOVE this song!
Gwen Stefani provides the last song for today, as well as the most tenuous thread of relevance with her so-called Harajuku girls the lyrics: "Like a cat in heat stuck in a moving car, A scary conversations, Shut my eyes, can't find the brake..." Damn, Gwen! You do have wicked style.

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Thursday 22 February 2007

What makes a MotorQueer Brand? part 2

Being, Loving and Being Loved by MotorQueers. That's the theory I proposed a few days ago in the first post of this series. It is a simple way to assess the success of a brand towards MotorQueers.

Last time I discussed the first criterion - Being MotorQueer. Today i'll address the second - Loving MotorQueers. I cast a wide net with the term "loving" and in this context it is an active verb. A company has to actually DO things to be considered as loving us.

Let's start with the most obvious, targeting the queer consumer.
Some companies offer products and services that are specifically tailored to the queer market;
Gaywheels for example. Motor companies generally haven't tried this approach yet, but they have tried advertising specifically to the queer community. Take the series of commercials that Subaru custom-designed for Viacom's 24-hour gay channel, LOGO.

I would suggest that companies can (even inadvertently) appeal to the MotorQueer without obviously targeting them as a market. Using gay subtext in a film is one way (i.e. The Fast and The Furious). Appealing to a certain MotorQueer esthetic or sense of cool is another (see the photography of David Perry for example). This may be a bit vague, but think about the appeal of good "retro" or "camp" to the queer consumer.

The other aspect of Loving MotorQueers is actually supporting them. Whether it is through the implementation of gay-friendly employment policies (DaimlerChrysler, Ford, GM & Volkswagen rate highly on the HRC's Corporate Equality Index), recruiting gay MBAs like Toyota at last year's Reaching Out conference or providing support to queer community causes (e.g. Ford donating a quarter million dollars to the construction of a new Affirmations Lesbian and Gay Community Center in Ferndale, Michigan.)

Whatever shape it takes, Loving MotorQueers is the way a company takes action to reach out to MotorQueers. However, this alone isn't quite enough to consider a brand to be a MotorQueer Brand. I would suggest that for that, a brand must meet at least one of the other two criteria, Being or Being Loved...

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Wednesday 21 February 2007

Ghost Rider: Decidedly NOT MotorQueer!

We went to see Ghost Rider this weekend and were thoroughly disappointed. It was just bad. The special effects were weak and the story was boring. Plus, i couldn't even try to pretend it was MotorQueer worthy. It may have been all about the motorcycle, but the gayest moment during the movie was when my boyfriend leaned over to point out that Eva Mendes' face was lopsided. Please, don't waste your money going to see this.

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Monday 19 February 2007

What makes a MotorQueer Brand?

Being, Loving and Being Loved By Motorqueers - That's What!

Every time I post something here, I have to ask myself if it fits into the MotorQueer mold. And generally, I think I have good reason. Before going on though, I thought I should explore criteria for making that determination.

The first of the criteria is "Being" MotorQueer. What is Queer? Frankly, I don't want to lose my way in that debate (see Wikipedia & Wikiquote), so I will quote Karl Knapper, San Francisco Queer Nation activist:

To me, queerness is about acknowledging and celebrating difference, embracing what sets you apart. A straight person can't be gay, but a straight person can be queer.
A MotorQueer is someone who identifies themselves as Queer (including those of us in the LGBT community) and who has an interest that relates to cars, trucks, motorcycles or any other motor vehicles.

That makes it easy for you and I - we just decide if we're MotorQueer. Either we are or we aren't. I am.

But what about companies, products or services. We still get to decide, but we decide as a group, and we talk about the brand. By "brand" I mean the symbol to which we attribute an identity. That identity is a result of all the contact and communication we've had with it, our relationship if you will.

Back to the criteria: Being, Loving and Being Loved. I would suggest that a MotorQueer brand needs to meet at least two of the criteria. I don't want to put limits on how it does that, but rather suggest the criteria as a basis for discussion.

#1 Being MotorQueer

To meet this criterion a brand must be motor-related. It must also BE Queer. It could be owned or managed by queers or be inherently queer itself.

Sounds simple enough. I will leave you to ponder this and return to the other two criteria in later posts. Let me know what you think.

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Thursday 15 February 2007

Motorsport: Superbike Driver

This is Michael Hill of Taboo Motorsport. Michael rides a Honda RS 125cc bike in the British Superbike Championship, is about to turn 28, lives in North London, is blond, blue-eyed, single and has been voted the UK's "Best Gay Male Sports Personality" several years in a row. That's right, a professional MotorQueer athlete!

It has been written that Michael was one of the bright young stars of the motorbike racing circuit. He had two North-East titles under his belt by the age of 20 and finished 13th in his first appearance in the National Championship. In an article
published a few years ago, Micheal tells how he left racing in the midst of his coming out in 2001.

He returned to racing two years later, forming his own team under the Taboo Motorsport banner. In recent years he has reestablished himself at British Championship level and has managed to become a regular in the commentary circuit. He has even found his way onto British television as a commentator, had a spot on the popular Bravo docu-soap "Natural Born Racers" and was involved with the film "And Still I Rise". Check Michael's Taboo Motorsport webpage for more info!

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Monday 5 February 2007

Highway Playlist: (2) Le Tigre



Jem & the Holograms were the title characters of their ultra-glam cartoon that ran from 1985-1988. Le Tigre is an American feminist post-punk electro-pop/dance band originally formed in 1998. Their punchy hit song "Deceptacon" is (I suggest) named after the Decepticons, adversaries of the Autobots, robots that transform into other objects including cars, trucks and motorcycles, from the Transformers cartoon series that originally aired in North America in 1984. I am excited to say that later this year Michael Bay's Transformers movie will be launched. Bay is well-known for his extreme high-speed car chase scenes. Fashion, Music, Camp, Cars, Action = MotorQueer Enjoyment!

p.s. Thanks to the guys over at Queerty for finding this one!

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Sunday 4 February 2007

Film Study: KL Menjerit

It turns out that I'm not the first person to publish a discourse on MotorQueer culture. David Lim published a paper titled "Cruising Mat Motor: Malay biker masculinity and queer desire in/through KL Menjerit" last March in Inter-Asia Cultural Studies. This paper was first presented (I believe) at the 1st International Conference of Asian Queer Studies in Bangkok in July 2005 (the next one takes place later this month in Sydney, Australia). Below is a summary of the content of Lim's paper, as taken from the journal and conference abstracts:

KL Menjerit is a 2002 film by director Badarudin Azmi; the title literally translated means "Kuala Lumpur Screams". This is a biker film produced to appeal to a largely male Malay audience and mainly to Malay youths interested in “rough activities” such as illegal street racing. Everything about the film – from the biker subculture it portrays to the Mat Motor lead character – exudes the unmistakably aura of working-class kejantanan (masculinity). Everything that is, except for a supporting character who develops a subtextually homoerotic relationship with the male biker protagonist, whose masculinity he eroticises and obsesses over, literally to his death. Lim’s argument is that the film's representation of the Mat Motor protagonist as unbendingly straight and heterosexually jantan – while imaginably gratifying to the core audience of Mat Motors – actually belies the opposite reality of Kuala Lumbur’s (KL’s) “forgotten” underside, where gender and sexuality are much more fluid and malleable than is sanctioned by society and the state.

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Television MotorQueers: Edd & Mike

Mike Brewer (on the right) and his "mechanic" Edd China star in the Discovery Real Time (a European network) series Wheeler Dealers. In the show, Mike uses his years of experience buying and selling to find an uncared-for classic to Edd for a full makeover. That's when the real excitement starts. Edd is a mechanic-superhero! He manages to take the car from old rusting heap to its former shiny, humming glory in just one week. Plus he has a sort of awkward but cute, nice-guy appeal to him. You can clearly understand what Mike sees in Edd.

Their budget for purchase and repair has grown from £1000 in the first series to £3000 in the current series. At the end of each episode Mike attempts to sell the refurbished cars for a net profit. In the last two series, they've worked on timeless design icons like the Mini Cooper, Saab 900 Turbo and the Porsche 911 2.7S Targa.

So I don't know anything about Edd or Mike's personal life, and it doesn't really matter. It's still a show I'd recommend to the rest of you motorqueers. Whether fictional or real, there are many other TV shows, characters and personalities that I believe appeal to the MotorQueer audience. You'll definitely hear more from me on the subject. I'd also like to hear from you. What are your favourite MotorQueer shows, movies, actors, athletes. This discussion could be a lot more interesting with more voices... Hope to hear from you soon! john

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Friday 2 February 2007

Highway Playlist: (1) Christina Aguilera

Great song, an idol, a motorcycle, some leathers, dirty boys and girls. What more do you need?

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Fuel for the Canadian Highway

In mid-January we took a trip down the highway into Northern Ontario. On the way out we stopped for fuel - Tim Horton's coffee and an unbelievably delicious Breakfast Sandwich with Sausage. Tim's is definitely the food of choice if you're on the road in Canada! As you can see, Canadian Armed Forces crews from two armoured vehicles agree. That is, a bunch of guys crammed into a small space hurtling down the highway agree...

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The very first time...

I can think of few occasions in my…life when body and mind have been so saturated by sensation, tugged in so many directions by conflicting emotions. Excitement reaches a fever pitch of butterflies and knotted muscles in my belly, anticipation has left my mouth dry and nerves are revealed by clammy hands, wobbly steps and erratic breathing.

This is the first thing I read after opening the January 2007 issue of Britain’s Bike magazine. I myself can think of very few occasions when I’ve been so excited and so nervous…

The reason I’m overdosing on adrenaline, fear and tension cracks into life and for a moment the world goes into slow motion – my heartbeat booming like a bass drum inside my head is the only sound as I slowly hook a limb over the exotic seat unit and lean forward toward the bars. This is it… I’m now the first person outside Ducati to ride the new 1098 superbike.

So maybe it's not the same excitement I hinted at, but it's definitely a hot bike! Some might say "the most beautiful bike at the show." Touted as the new benchmark in superbikes, the 1098 combines characteristic Ducati design, performance and performance. Love it.

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