Some toys, like the Ass Hammer (see #28), deliver mind-blowing sensations that a penis simply cannot replicate. In the years since, I have learned that there are many gay sex toys out there beyond anal toys, although these are certainly the majority, and anal toys toys are more than substitutions for penises. I believed “sex toys” for gay men stopped at dildos and prostate stimulators, and I did not consider them legitimate sex play all on their own. This was my initial understanding of toys: They were ass-trainers, a second-hand way of experiencing the “real thing,” and no matter how nice they were, they were inferior to flesh and blood. We all quickly discovered sex via the glowing orange icons on our phones. I started college a few months after Grindr hit the app store.
![gay men cumming gifs gay men cumming gifs](https://64.media.tumblr.com/bf9476c451301f3fbf75136c58f3604e/tumblr_ovdla3BBuN1vy2qxeo2_r1_400.gif)
“I go at my own speed so that when the real thing comes, I’m ready.” “It helps you get used to the feeling,” one guy told me in his dorm room. I was a freshman in college, brand new to sex, and all my friends, left and right, were exploring their anal pleasures with dildos. Note: “McInturff, Steve Book, Delaware O.I’ll be honest guys, I did not enjoy sex toys when I first came on the scene. Photo strip, undated, 35 x 27 mm, provenance: US, (image courtesy of the Nini-Treadwell Collection © “Loving” by 5 Continents Editions) Photograph, 1951, 121 x 83 mm, note: “1951” “Davis & J.C.” (image courtesy of the Nini-Treadwell Collection © “Loving” by 5 Continents Editions) Photograph, Undated, 96 x 67 mm (image courtesy of the Nini-Treadwell Collection © “Loving” by 5 Continents Editions) Cabinet card, circa 1880, 167 x 109 mm, provenance: US, The book, Loving: A Photographic History of Men in Love 1850s-1950s (5 Continents Editions), is available online. When we see them as connected, we feel more whole, and that’s what love is about for many of us anyway.
![gay men cumming gifs gay men cumming gifs](https://media.giphy.com/media/YPUATLCh3GDYs/giphy.gif)
Seeing ourselves in the past is as much about being certain of our present and, dare I say, our future.
![gay men cumming gifs gay men cumming gifs](https://www.out.com/sites/default/files/2016/11/14/tumblr_ognq8pfis71qiohboo9_r1_400.gif)
What do images of men in love during a time when it was illegal tell us? What are we looking for in the faces of these people who dared to challenge the mores of their time to seek solace together? Flipping through the book, it wasn’t that I felt that I learned a great deal about being LGBTQ, but what gave me comfort was the feeling that we’re not going anywhere. While the majority of the images hail from the United States and are of predominantly white men, there are images from Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Japan, Latvia, and the United Kingdom among the cache. The collection belongs to Hugh Nini and Neal Treadwell, a married couple who has accumulated over 2,800 photographs of “men in love” during the course of two decades. In Loving: A Photographic History of Men in Love 1850s–1950s, hundreds of images tell the story of love and affection between men, with some clearly in love and others hinting at more than just friendship. Hunter” (image courtesy of the Nini-Treadwell Collection © “Loving” by 5 Continents Editions)Ī beautiful group of photographs that spans a century (1850–1950) is part of a new book that offers a visual glimpse of what life may have been like for those men, who went against the law to find love in one another’s arms. Postcard, circa 1910, 90 x 141 mm, note on front: “E.