Swedish soccer player Fredrik Ljungberg, who plays for the English team Arsenal, is starring in the Calvin Klein underwear campaign - photographed with an oiled body, his underpants partially pulled down. Dolce & Gabbana's most recent underwear ad campaign featured five members of Italy's national soccer team, wearing nothing but underwear in a locker room. The Dieux du Stade (Gods of the Stadium) calendar features nude shots of players from the French rugby team - crouching on all fours, showering, being caressed. And David Beckham? Does he even need mentioning?
British journalist Mark Simpson, 41, calls this "sporno" - a combination of sport and porno. In an article in last July's issue of "Out" magazine, he described how sport has become the new homosexual pornography. "Much has been written about how porno is poised to go mainstream. Guess what? It already has ... because sportsmen, like porn stars, are by definition show-offs, but more particularly because it means more money, more power, more endorsements, more kudos," Simpson wrote.
In England, says Simpson, the homoerotic aspects of sport are no longer just hinted at. They've become an open and self-conscious flirtation. "Sportsmen on this side of the Atlantic are increasingly openly acknowledging and flirting with their gay fans, a la David Beckham and Fredrik Ljungberg (the man who actually looks the way Beckham thinks he looks). Both of these thoroughbreds have posed for spreads in gay magazines and both have welcomed the attention of gay fans because they 'have great taste.' They and a whole new generation of young males are actively pursuing sex-object status ... In other words, they're not just sports stars, but sporno stars."
Simpson, who earned worldwide fame about a decade ago for coining the term "metrosexual," is a witty, sharp-eyed journalist and a skilled media animal. So it's not surprising that last month The New York Times turned up the volume on the discussion surrounding "sporno," pronouncing it one of the "Ideas of the Year."
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