sometimes the Universe just hands it to you

Dear Reader may not know this, but the PhDiva is a big believer in serendipity (the effect, not the wretched film nor the pharmaceutical). Some of my best shit I have stumbled upon simply because the Universe conspired it into my path. Case in point: on the heels of U Cangrejo's Dept of Muggle Studies accepting my proposed Masculinities course and slating me for one section of it in Spring along with three sections of the usual muck (a tale in itself), today a male student in one of my writing sections, ostensibly hetero, buzz-cuttish, sportif in a daft guy kind of way, wore a particular t-shirt to class. The t-shirt is black. Emblazoned across the front in white ink is a 3/4 figure of a Tom of Finland leather-capped muscle daddy with crossed arms flexed. For those not in the know, Tom of Finland created iconic muscle-bound hypermasculine gay illustrations for 70s-era gay/bi porn. Now, beneath this 3/4 figure on the boy's shirt appeared, in block Penderosa-style lettering, the word RAMROD. I believe that was the title of an 80s-era gay porno; Google further indicates it as a leather club in Ft. Lauderdale. The combinative orthographic effect was striking in its contextual incongruity.

Of all bloody moments not to have a camera on one! While teaching the dramatic elements of A Raisin in the Sun, I debated with Self whether eventually to illuminate this lad on his shirt image's provenance, or to let the Universe have its little joke and let others in the know ponder the humour. Discretion took the better part of valour, and I let the kid walk unenlightened. I was left to wonder: where'd he buy the thing? Who'd sell it outside it's original referential context? Is it a gym/bodybuilder thing? The kid's not sufficiently muscly to indicate him as a die-hard bodybuilder, and as I said he's ostensibly straight, especially on this campus. Oh, well--I'll have to pick another anecdote with which to open the class. But the gender politics just scamper about here.