Common Sense	Common Sense Archive

My friend, the novelist Lewis Gannett (The Living One, Magazine Beach), is currently writing a book in collaboration with C. A. Tripp on the sexuality of Abraham Lincoln. Tripp, you'll recall, is the author of the 1975 book The Homosexual Matrix, his musings on a vast array of things in the gay constellations. Tripp is now in his eighties; he's been working on this Lincoln project for some time. When the book is published, count on controversy. Tripp deduces that Abe was a fellow who became sexually active very early, 10 or 11 years old. Always a good sign-- I've always thought that early bloomers adjust more easily in life and tend to be more liberal in their sexual tolerances. And, as to Lincoln's homosexuality-- well, you'll just have to wait for the book. (One thing I can predict: Lynn Cheney and her flock of flunkies will hit the screens and Op-Ed pages, tsk-tsking and saying it just ain't so, assuring us that Ole Abe was completely sexually conventional-- it's part and parcel of the pathology of being right-wing Republicans.)

View our poll archive

At any rate, Tripp worked closely with Alfred Kinsey for a number of years in the late 40s and early 50s. Tripp has had many careers; at that time he was a photographer in New York. One day, in conversation with Kinsey, the subject of sperm came up, more specifically, the hydraulics of sperm release. Kinsey wondered if a big blast ejaculation advantaged sperm to reach an egg, or whether, absent a big shoot, the little tails on the little sperms did all the work, swimming to get to the big fat cow of an egg. The presumption here is that all the hydraulics involved in getting the sperm and ejaculate out of the body evolved exclusively to foster reproduction. There are many things that can be said about human reproduction; its design for ease and simplicity is not one of them.

The question posed was this: are shooters more evolutionarily advantaged than dribblers? Tripp suggested he could do a photo study of young men jacking off and they could study the pictures-- and, what? Kinsey thought it was a great idea. Tripp faced one problem-- where would he get his pod of pud-pullers? He was introduced to a young man who, it turned out, ran a large male prostitution service which catered to the carriage trade, nice boys, you know the type. The ring-meister said he'd put out the call. Word went out through the sexually active young male community that this hot-shot photographer wanted to take "scientific" study snaps of these guys naked, jerking off. There was a line out the door and around the block.

The shower curtain went on the floor-- it was going to be a messy shoot. Patiently, Tripp loaded up his camera as each lad came forward, stripped down and went about his business. The handsome lad who got the guys there watched from a corner. Nice work if you can get it. Click. Click.

Where are these photos today? Maybe tucked away in the Kinsey archives, maybe gone for good. Maybe each lad got a presentation copy-- sort of like having your very own Mapplethorpe. Sad to say, none made it into the new volume from Arena Editions, Peek: Photographs From The Kinsey Institute. There is a double-spread of a handsome guy jerking off (pages 96 & 97), but it's a 1997 series of photographs by Paul Burk who calls the images "Man Jerking Off." The Peek book is OK for what it sets out to do, and any homage to the work of Kinsey is a reminder of what a dedicated revolutionary he was. Like our own inspirer, Boyd McDonald, Kinsey just revealed the truth about sex and it drove people berserk, as the truth often does (think of poor Lynn Cheney again-- actually, don't bother). We have been so lucky to be the beneficiaries of the work of Kinsey and others-- and our own work too! Looking at the Peek pictures, you can judge the distance we have come. (Or have we? I visited the Colt Studio web site and was warned that if I lived in Ohio, I could only enter the site if I lived in Cleveland or Cincinnati; the rest of the Buckeye State remains Colt-free. Why? Afraid of big muscles? What could be more wholesome and All-American for Buckeye Boys?)

Lincoln was apparently well-endowed, and was more butt than crotch-oriented. He had an eye for the handsome young men. One favorite, 20-year-old Ward Lamon, as Charley Shively writes in his Drum Beats: Walt Whitman's Civil War Boy Lovers, formed the "Bucktail Brigade" for Lincoln, beautiful Pennsylvania soldiers to guard Lincoln in his 1862 summer quarters. In our new taxonomy, it'd be interesting to find out if Abe was a Shooter or a Dribbler. And fax the news to Lynn Cheney!

And as to the results of the rough sampling done by Tripp and his camera? He took the photos to Kinsey. Who knows what you can conclude on a self-selected sample of rent-boys who eagerly jerk off in front of a camera? One thing was firmly established: dribblers are the majority-- no wonder, in the porn industry, the big wet load gushing all over the partner is called "the money shot." It's in the minority-- tell Lynn Cheney!

Author Profile:  Mitzel
	Mitzel was a founding member of the Fag Rag collective, and has been a Guide columnist since 1986. He manages Calamus Books near Boston's South Station.
	Email:	mitzel@calamusbooks.com
	Website:	calamusbooks.com