{"id":101476,"date":"2016-08-12T17:14:13","date_gmt":"2016-08-12T21:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=101476"},"modified":"2017-04-19T07:39:25","modified_gmt":"2017-04-19T11:39:25","slug":"doing-hard-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/08\/12\/doing-hard-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Doing Hard Time"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_101482\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-101482\" class=\"wp-image-101482\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/preview_xl_tom_of_finland_15_0901081228_id_186391.jpg\" alt=\"preview_xl_tom_of_finland_15_0901081228_id_186391\" width=\"600\" height=\"588\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/preview_xl_tom_of_finland_15_0901081228_id_186391.jpg 960w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/preview_xl_tom_of_finland_15_0901081228_id_186391-300x294.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/preview_xl_tom_of_finland_15_0901081228_id_186391-768x752.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-101482\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tom of Finland, 1984, graphite on paper. All images courtesy of Taschen. \u00a9 2016\u00a0Tom of Finland Foundation.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe only knew a drawing was good if it got him hard,\u201d writes Dian Hanson of Touko Laaksonen, better known as Tom of Finland (1920\u20131991). I\u2019ve been spending my evenings drooling over \u201cTom\u2019s men,\u201d as they\u2019ve come to be called\u2014famously erotic, fabulously gay, and achingly virile. Tom\u2019s is a m\u00e9tier that worships the male form. Sculpted, brawny bods dress up in archetypically masculine uniforms\u2014men in uniform were a fetish of Tom\u2019s\u2014and frolic across the page to bone.<\/p>\n<p>Since the late fifties, when a (comparatively tame) drawing of his was featured on the cover of the muscle mag <em>Physique Pictorial<\/em>, Tom and his drawings have risen to an iconic status\u2014and there\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/tomoffinland.com\/merchants\" target=\"_blank\">a whole cottage industry of ToF merch, from fire blankets to anal beads<\/a>, to prove it. But I, bashfully, have only just found him. I owe much of that to Taschen, who has, to mark the quarter century since the artist\u2019s death, published a handful of books comprising much of his delicious oeuvre\u2014a retrospective culminating in the reissue of the Holy Writ of all ToF books, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.taschen.com\/pages\/en\/catalogue\/sex\/all\/44815\/facts.tom_of_finland_xxl.htm\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Tom of Finland XXL<\/em><\/a>. Among the collection is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.taschen.com\/pages\/en\/catalogue\/sex\/all\/48607\/facts.the_little_book_of_tom_cops_robbers.htm\" target=\"_blank\"><em>The Little Book of Tom of Finland: Cops and Robbers<\/em><\/a>, one of three in the Little Book series, and my favorite of the bunch.\u00a0<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Small enough to slip into your back pocket, <em>Cops and Robbers<\/em> is a picture book of erotica from the late sixties onward, nearly two hundred pages of\u2014you guessed it\u2014police-on-felon fucking. Using primarily graphite or ink and pen on paper (as is true for most of his illustrations), Tom accentuates the masculine physique in all its grandeur: bulging biceps, pecs like tits, chiseled abdomens, and cocks the size of forearms. \u201cMy whole life long,\u201d Tom once told <em>Rebel<\/em> magazine, \u201cI have done nothing but interpret my dreams of ultimate masculinity, and draw them.\u201d But Tom\u2019s men are <em>more<\/em> than men\u2014they\u2019re Grecian-looking gods who indulge, unapologetically and with unwavering stamina, in every kind of sex: anal, oral, orgy; rimjobs, handjobs, blowjobs\u2014you name it.<\/p>\n<p>Tom\u2019s cops are no different. Though their getup renders them the face of orderly conduct, enforcers of law and civil obedience, they, too, embrace their most throbbing desires whenever met with them: in the woods, on the streets, on guard in prison, with fellow officers or with the criminals they pick up. Tom\u2019s cops-gone-wild drawings are perhaps some of the most violent, with force fetishized more outright than before, the chasm between submissive perpetrator and horny dom\u2014an aphrodisiacal power play integral to Tom\u2019s fantasy\u2014wider than in his other drawings, mostly because of the type of uniform donned. And yet, Tomland is a place were men fuck freely, consensually, where cops are hardly ever armed with more than their own erections, where Tom\u2019s miscreants are as hungry to be \u201cpunished\u201d as their officers are to punish them, where no ones escapes seduction, not even the men in charge. Which is all to say: Tom\u2019s is a world of fantasy and fetish, where roles are only played and everyone, very happily, gets laid.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_101481\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/134a_tom_of_finland_cops_robbers_pi_48607_1605021614_id_1051852.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-101481\" class=\"wp-image-101481\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/134a_tom_of_finland_cops_robbers_pi_48607_1605021614_id_1051852.jpg\" alt=\"134a_tom_of_finland_cops_robbers_pi_48607_1605021614_id_1051852\" width=\"600\" height=\"785\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/134a_tom_of_finland_cops_robbers_pi_48607_1605021614_id_1051852.jpg 960w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/134a_tom_of_finland_cops_robbers_pi_48607_1605021614_id_1051852-229x300.jpg 229w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/134a_tom_of_finland_cops_robbers_pi_48607_1605021614_id_1051852-768x1005.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/134a_tom_of_finland_cops_robbers_pi_48607_1605021614_id_1051852-783x1024.jpg 783w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-101481\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">1987.<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_101480\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/184a_tom_of_finland_cops_robbers_pi_48607_1605021612_id_1051843.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-101480\" class=\"wp-image-101480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/184a_tom_of_finland_cops_robbers_pi_48607_1605021612_id_1051843.jpg\" alt=\"184a_tom_of_finland_cops_robbers_pi_48607_1605021612_id_1051843\" width=\"600\" height=\"838\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/184a_tom_of_finland_cops_robbers_pi_48607_1605021612_id_1051843.jpg 960w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/184a_tom_of_finland_cops_robbers_pi_48607_1605021612_id_1051843-215x300.jpg 215w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/184a_tom_of_finland_cops_robbers_pi_48607_1605021612_id_1051843-768x1073.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/184a_tom_of_finland_cops_robbers_pi_48607_1605021612_id_1051843-733x1024.jpg 733w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-101480\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">1989.<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_101483\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/187a_tom_of_finland_cops_robbers_pi_48607_1605021610_id_1051825.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-101483\" class=\"wp-image-101483\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/187a_tom_of_finland_cops_robbers_pi_48607_1605021610_id_1051825.jpg\" alt=\"187a_tom_of_finland_cops_robbers_pi_48607_1605021610_id_1051825\" width=\"600\" height=\"635\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/187a_tom_of_finland_cops_robbers_pi_48607_1605021610_id_1051825.jpg 960w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/187a_tom_of_finland_cops_robbers_pi_48607_1605021610_id_1051825-283x300.jpg 283w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/187a_tom_of_finland_cops_robbers_pi_48607_1605021610_id_1051825-768x813.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-101483\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">1987.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/preview_xl_tom_of_finland_15_0901081228_id_186391.jpg\"><br \/>\n<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/093a_tom_of_finland_cops_robbers_pi_48607_1605021618_id_1051870.jpg\"><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-101479\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/tom_of_finland_cops_robbers_pi_int_3d_48607_1605021623_id_1051915.jpg\" alt=\"tom_of_finland_cops_robbers_pi_int_3d_48607_1605021623_id_1051915\" width=\"600\" height=\"823\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/tom_of_finland_cops_robbers_pi_int_3d_48607_1605021623_id_1051915.jpg 960w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/tom_of_finland_cops_robbers_pi_int_3d_48607_1605021623_id_1051915-219x300.jpg 219w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/tom_of_finland_cops_robbers_pi_int_3d_48607_1605021623_id_1051915-768x1054.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/tom_of_finland_cops_robbers_pi_int_3d_48607_1605021623_id_1051915-746x1024.jpg 746w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Caitlin Youngquist is an associate editor at\u00a0<\/em>The Paris Review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; \u201cHe only knew a drawing was good if it got him hard,\u201d writes Dian Hanson of Touko Laaksonen, better known as Tom of Finland (1920\u20131991). I\u2019ve been spending my evenings drooling over \u201cTom\u2019s men,\u201d as they\u2019ve come to be called\u2014famously erotic, fabulously gay, and achingly virile. Tom\u2019s is a m\u00e9tier that worships the male [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":710,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2384],"tags":[35,22023,10918,15075,17453,12976,7924,23917,662,731,17147,781,20282,15537,23918,2190,179,10808,23915,23919,23916],"class_list":["post-101476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-look","tag-art","tag-bdsm","tag-bodies","tag-cops","tag-dian-hanson","tag-drawings","tag-erotica","tag-gay-culture","tag-men","tag-muscles","tag-orgies","tag-police","tag-queer-culture","tag-reissues","tag-robbers","tag-sadomasochism","tag-sex","tag-taschen","tag-tom-of-finland","tag-tom-of-finland-xxl","tag-touko-laaksonen"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Twenty-Five Years After His Death, Tom of Finland Is Still Doing Hard Time<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Caitlin Youngquist on the iconic gay artist, whose drawings are being reissued this summer.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/08\/12\/doing-hard-time\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Doing Hard Time by Caitlin Youngquist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"August 12, 2016 \u2013 &nbsp; \u201cHe only knew a drawing was good if it got him hard,\u201d writes Dian Hanson of Touko Laaksonen, better known as Tom of Finland (1920\u20131991). 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