Male Bonding Incident - As shocked as I am that my Republican friend John K. even reads Salon, I appreciate his sending me a link to their recent article about homoeroticism in American football. As it happens, I caught the Pepsi-FritoLay commercial just last week. (Sorry if I am behind the times, but I don't catch Sports Center as often as I used to in my "evil fratboy" days.) I agree with Kaufman that depicting the conflicting feelings of straight guys about male companionship isn't homophobic, it's funny. (You can find the older Heineken spot online here. Hopefully the Pepsi ad will be up soon too.)

As with many of life's more complex psychological phenomena, advertising does a great job of exploring these issues while flying below radar. Guys who couldn't possibly engage in a philosophical discussion about sexuality will see ads like Pepsi's and maybe even absorb a bit of the underlying message. Subtly gay-positive media can thus reassure that most fragile of beasts, the straight male ego. Hetero guys can learn that "there's nothing wrong with that," because the images are associated with comforting things like sports and beer. I maintain that if we can reach the hearts and minds of that demographic, then we've got it made.

Speaking of sports eroticism, I really had to restrain myself from springing for a copy of ESPN Magazine at 7-11 the other day. Again, I realize it's old news, but they had the dated issue with Arizona's Luke Walton on the cover. Yum! Ahem. Here's a shot just for you, Ben.