Comments on: On Hot Gay Statues (Special Investigative Report): Washington DC Embroiled in Hot Gay Statue Scandal!

By: Lenny

Lenny — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:12:04 +0000

Tks for the shout out… not all the statues are naked… go back and examine each one from underneath (wherever that is possible)…

By: Washington City Paper: The Sexist - The Morning After: First Bling Edition

Washington City Paper: The Sexist - The Morning After: First Bling Edition — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:44:17 +0000

[...] The Gay Recluse reports on the shielded statues in Union Station (photo above), indicates that behind the shield are uncircumcised Roman penises, calls it [...]

By: The Gay Recluse

The Gay Recluse — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:40:15 +0000

Thanks for the comments everyone! C, I’m totally not surprised by Steves’ comments, although of course it’s this very notion that provides some of the satirical bite to the notion of a hot gay statue. (Obv I’d prefer a culture where such a satirical commentary was pointless.)

By: centurian orgy « Prodigy

centurian orgy « Prodigy — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 08:12:30 +0000

[...] gay statues do. [...]

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 08:01:38 +0000

If I wasn’t paying close enough attention, I would have thought the gay centurians standing atop the entablature in the first photo were religious statues. Kind of an ironic blend of homoeroticism and iconography which invokes the homophobic.

By: c.

c. — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:49:37 +0000

I’m reminded of an entertaining half-hour I spent with PBS the other day, on a documentary about the making of Rick Steves’ ubiquitous and long-running “Europe” series. In his running commentary about content, scripts, videography and subject matter, he noted that he and his crew always needed to be mindful of the “American audience.” He said that even though nudity in art, and particularly in public statuary, has been lauded and appreciated for at least 2500 years within the cultures which have produced such art, much of what he sees in his travels would be considered “unsuitable” for publicly-funded American TV, and mustn’t be inadvertently caught on camera. He was diplomatic (and time-constrained) enough not to expand further on the subject, but his expression and tone spoke volumes more.

Obviously, poor Saint-Gaudens (and many of his peers, no doubt) had already run into the same, ironic brick wall over 100 years ago.

Frustrating, if not news, for the Hot Gay Statue project.