Homoerotic Archaeology: Honcho (November 1989), Part Two

Friday, November 8, 2024

Honcho (November 1989), Part Two

In 1981, Dianne Feinstein, the mayor of San Francisco, established Fleet Week to celebrate the Unites States’ Navy. Since then, the event, always held in October, has become a week-long festivity where visitors can watch airshows conducted by Navy pilots, attend clubs along North Beach spouting nautical themes, and stroll the shops of vendors and eateries around Pier 39. While the event has always been a major tourist destination, with over 50,000 people attending in 1988, it has also been a place for gay men to rendezvous with sailors as, on average, over 5,000 of them visit the city for the celebration. In this November 1989 issue of Honcho (which has been broken into three parts), Willam Cozad’s short story “Sailor’s Discharge” showcases the eroticism of Fleet Week as the narrator hooks up with a sailor from the USS Fox. Included in this second third (see the first third here) is the short story “Painting the House” (where the narrator has a threesome with the painters his father hired to paint the house) and photospreads titled “Service Department,” “Street Smart,” and “Surf n’ Turf.”

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What is Homoerotic Archaeology?

In 2016, I discovered several discarded boxes at an estate sale. Under their flimsy flaps were hundreds of well-worn issues of homoerotic magazines from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. I purchased them out of mild intrigue and, as I perused their pages, I was startled to realize that something commonly disregarded as pornographic smut earnestly chronicled the evolution of gay culture: the social and sexual liberation of the 1970s, the crushing devastation from AIDS during the 1980s, and the gradual strengthening of the community in the 1990s. As a gay man, I was touched by the subtle narrative these publications told. As a historian, I was motivated to digitally preserve their content. And, as an educator, I was driven to create a platform to share that information freely with others interested in the progression of gay society. Homoerotic Archaeology is that venue. Here you will find the advertisements, articles, short stories, and (of course) pictures found in these magazines lovingly preserved and presented for future generations of gay men to enjoy and study.

Why Preserve Homoerotica?

As early as the 1970s, scholars such as June Rook have stressed the need to preserve homosexual history in an effort to combat repression and establish a cultural background for future generations. Much of the preservation process admirably focuses on the substantial works of homosexual artists and thinkers; however, it sadly ignores other elements quintessential to the community’s history, particularly homoerotica. Although frequently labeled obscene filth, homoerotica has, just like the significant creations of artists and thinkers, been a prevalent part of the group’s culture and has played an integral role in shaping identities and perceptions (consider how influential Tom of Finland’s hypermasculinity has been in molding the body ideals of modern gay men). Due to this factor, the conservation of homoerotica is just as essential as the preservation of major artistic and theoretical homosexual works.