(Another excursion into displays of the male body.)
Recent hot news in the fashion world: tennis great Rafael Nadal has moved from mere sexy (mostly shirtless) fashion modeling (for Armani) to hard-core underwear modeling (for Tommy Hilfiger). Here he is, just barely in his Tommys and projecting steamy desirability:
(#1)
This is a performance, entirely self-aware, of body display, designed to provoke desire in straight women and gay men and to inspire envious imitation in men, straight or gay (as I sometimes say, the aim is for the first to fantasize doing him, the second being him). Rafa presents himself just the way men who make their livings as underwear models do; see my other postings on underwear models, for example my Daily Jocks postings.
Rafa is good at this, and he’s experienced: see photos #1, #3, and (from his Armani days) #4 in my “Tennis hunks” posting.
Meanwhile, a fair number of celebrated male athletes have done modeling, and of course they’ve posed for photographs for publications like Men’s Health and magazines in their sports (where they serve as models of athleticism and fitness), in addition to being caught unposed in other photos. But very few of these men achieve anything like Rafa’s presentation of self, and most wouldn’t think of trying. At the moment, Rafa is the Mark Wahlberg of jock fashion.
Now for some examples.
I’ll start with a great shirtless underwear jock, footballer David Beckham, on display on this blog here.
Then hunky rugby player Ben Cohen, on display on this blog here. Cohen manages to combine steamy and amiable. Most jocks who project amiable in photos just come across as nice guys with great bodies, but without the edge of a Beckham or Nadal. Cohen can strike both notes.
A recent entrant in the shirtless underwear jocks is the footballer Cristiano Ronaldo. From Wikipedia:
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro … (born 5 February 1985), known as Cristiano Ronaldo …, is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays for Spanish club Real Madrid and the Portugal national team. He is a forward and serves as captain for Portugal. … Often ranked as the best player in the world and rated by some in the sport as the greatest of all time
… In 2006, Ronaldo opened a fashion boutique under the name “CR7” (his initials and shirt number) on the island of Madeira, Portugal. Ronaldo expanded his business with a second clothes boutique in Lisbon in 2008. The stores include diamond-studded belts, jeans with leather pockets and patented buckled loafers. The store also sells slinky outfits for women.
In 2013, in partnership with Danish company JBS Textile Group and the New York fashion designer Richard Chai, Ronaldo co-designed a range of underwear. He later grew his CR7 fashion brand by launching a line of premium shirts and shoes. In June 2015, Ronaldo announced that he would be releasing his fragrance later in the summer.
Cristiano doing sexy + amiable:
(#2)
And now in a fancy shot for his CR7 line:
(#3)
Plus an unposed sweaty shot of him on the field:
(#4)
Now to a jock pretty much at the other end of the scale: nice body, fit but not extraordinarily developed, projecting nice-guy, even “cute”, but without a sexual edge: the excellent Andy Roddick:
(#5)
From Wikipedia:
Andrew Stephen “Andy” Roddick (born August 30, 1982) is an American former World No. 1 professional tennis player.
(The Wikipedia article covers his career in great detail.) Roddick is known both for losing his temper and for his playful behavior on the court.
On to swimmers, who are of course famous for the bodies, but who tend to display them rather artlessly. Two examples: Michael Phelps (with a classic swimmer’s physique) and Ryan Lochte (broad-shouldered and hunky):
(#6)
Michael Fred Phelps II (born June 30, 1985) is an American competition swimmer and the most decorated Olympian of all time, with a total of 22 medals. (link)
(#7)
Ryan Steven Lochte (… born August 3, 1984) is an American competitive swimmer and an 11-time Olympic medalist (five gold, three silver, three bronze). (link)
