

I am a Fascist Pig, #3



In our post-Stonewall world, the homoerotic imagery of Tom of Finland (born Touko Laaksonen) is familiar to any culturally literate person. In Finland they put his art on a postage stamp. Next month sees the release of a new book by Wallpaper* editor Michael Reynolds about Tom of Finland’s Los Angeles house, which since the artist’s death in 1991 has become a kind of informal (yet comprehensive) museum to Tom of Finland’s work as well as a mecca/commune for like-minded homoerotic artists (pre-order it here).

One of the most interesting heirs to Tom of Finland’s lineage is G. B. Jones, an artist from Toronto who has been active in the queer scene since the 1980s. In 1985 she and Bruce LaBruce put out an influential queer zine called J.D.s (short for “juvenile delinquents”). In February 1989 Jones and LaBruce wrote a manifesto titled “Don’t Be Gay” that appeared in the pages of Maximum Rock and Roll. According to ZineWiki, the article did have the effect of sparking a a queer punk culture.





J.D.s, issue #3



In the 1980s Jones started a series of drawings that depicted Tom of Finland-style cops, criminals, and so forth having macho gay fun, only with a twist: all of the characters in the images are female. Jones called the series “Tom Girls,” a pun referencing Tom of Finland as well as an appellation for girls-acting-as-boys with which a good many lesbians are probably all too familiar.

On the closest thing Jones has to a homepage, the artist is descrbed as “an openly queer, self-made in the punk rock tradition, artist, film maker, rock musician, writer and publisher of zines”; her “Tom Girls” series is characterized as a “detailed reworking of Tom of Finland’s stereotypical gay male erotica.”

There’s a book dating about G.B. Jones from 1996 edited by Steve LaFreniere, but it’s dauntingly difficult to find.





Fuck the Police





Riot Girls





Skateboard Girls





Bar Room Brawl, #1





Bar Room Brawl, #2





Bar Room Brawl, #3





I am a Fascist Pig, #1





I am a Fascist Pig, #2



Previously on Dangerous Minds:

Move over, Tom of Finland, George Quaintance is the gayest artist of them all

Tom of Finland safety blankets, in case a really gay fire breaks out

