#hardheroes

This post, inspired by the sidelineland.com blog, takes a tongue and cheek look into "what made me gay (not really)" and in hindsight, it's hard to imagine anything more obvious than superheroes turning me gay.  In fact, there are whole college courses and studies devoted to queerness and superheroes that typically cover the obvious: 

Hot, muscular men in skin tight outfits;

A "secret" identity and unleashing one's true self; 

Flamboyant outfits;

Being perpetually young and beautiful

Now while those are all key reasons to be drawn to superheroes, but to me, above all, it was the over-the-top and exaggerated fights and struggles that turned me gay (not really).  

The first superhero movie I recall watching was the Punisher. As a young boy, I happened to catch the scene of the punisher stretched out for interrogation by the bad guys and this was enough to ignite a spark inside of me.  From then on there was no turning back; superheroes would forever be an outlet for my awakening.  

The Punisher 1989 with Dolph Lundgren

Sure, a lot of my friends were into superheroes but like their love of pro wrestling, my straight friends and I came away with different experiences. 

To be clear, the recent iterations of superheroes do not interest me.  In fact, superheroes today are really just action films and what I long for are the old fashioned, man-to-man fights.  Sure the stakes were smaller, the fate of a damsel in distress or something, but it all seemed much more meaningful.

In a lot of ways I think superheroes were an outgrowth of my love of tarzan movies - himself an early superhero archetype and much of what I liked about Tarzan overlapped with this obsession.

Tarzan and the Lost City - Mike Henry

While I was too young to enjoy the Wild Wild West when it came out, I grandfather him in as a superhero/action hero.  The man had it going on. 

Wild Wild West - Robert Conrad

Later when I discovered Bgeast and Can-am (hardheroes) in the early 2000's and found their collections of superhero fights, it all suddenly came together.  All at once, it was the final piece that seemed to link my obsessions.  Superheroes led to exaggerated fighting, which led to wrestling, and most importantly gay wrestling. 

The Black Spider v Dragonfly (bgeast.com) 

The Black Spider v Archangel Ace (bgeast.com) 

Nowadays I'm lucky to have the opportunity to find all the gay superhero wrestling I can find across multiple studios.

Superlad (eyeofthecyclone)

Kid of Steel v Muscle boy (undergroundwrestler)

Jungle Man v Nick Justice (herohunks)

White Wolf v Dozer (herohunks)

So forget your superheroes with ungodly power and disregard fights with expensive special effects; what really made me gay were those humble (and intimate?) scenes between men in masks. While I've always thought that wrestling was really just a story told through a fight, my obsession for superhero fights provides even further proof.  You see this story, whether it's heroes versus villains or heels versus jobbers, has shaped me into who I am today and without a doubt turned me gay (not really).  

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