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SPEAKING OF SKINNY GUYS

Most of us ogle sex objects who, whether buff or bearish, have at least a bit of meat on their bones. But then there are those whose cocks get hard at the sight of guys who are not just lean, but skin-and-bones thin.

So why does boniness give some of us a boner? Part of it may have to do with chronology - there's something about a thin physique that says "young" or "boyish." As one porn maven points out, "You're more likely to see bods that are frankly skinny when you go to a twink website than to one that focuses on more mature men."

Then, too, a thin guy looks more vulnerable than a pecs-and-abs gym rat, and any number of men - especially top guys - find that way hot. As one man into slim Jims says, "When I see a really skinny fellow, there's something about him that just seems needy. I want to take him home and feed him...and then fuck the hell out of him."

And bony boys also possess an androgynous appeal. While female fashion models are often vanishingly thin, "masculine" usually translates into a fair amount of bulk and beef; guys turned on by "boyish" and "not-so-butch," though, are more likely to gravitate to the underweight.

Though many men are into thin, some take their tastes to extremes, stroking off to photos of emaciated fellows. There are even online groups for fanciers of zero-fat bodies, replete with pics of men who are damn near skeletal. That's where the skinniness fetish can get a little edgy, eroticising men who look like they have anorexia or AIDS. "There's something unbelievably exciting about the combination of a really big hard-on and hipbones that stick way the hell out, though a thin guy looking enormously endowed may just be a matter of context," says the slim-Jim chaser. "But I really crave superthin men with countable ribs, however they're hung. They look so lithe and elegant. That doesn't mean I think that guys should be starving themselves to death. But let's face it, science tells us that being underweight is less dangerous than having a bearish belly - or taking steroids to bulk up, for that matter."

And then there's the actual sex involved. "I'm pretty husky myself," says a biggish man. "But my lover's not, and I totally enjoy being able to wrap my arms around his skinny torso, to put my hands around his really small waist. It feels great to me. And it's so cool to be able to lift him up while I'm fucking him."

And on the other side of the low-weight equation, even the thinnest among us deserve to be desired. "I was born thin, I've always been scrawny," says one 9 stoner, "and I enjoy being a sex object."

You need not be as negative as one bear who denounces "underfed boys into heroin chic" to agree that a love for visible ribs and bony shoulders is very much a minority taste among queer men. But there's plenty of room for all sorts of sexual appetites, including a hunger for those who look hungry. And as with any fetish, worrying about the "why" may seem a bit foolish to those who share the bent. So if some men find matchstick legs a cause for masturbation (and if the objects of their affection are naturally thin, not due to speed use or an eating disorder), well, hey, they simply believe that, as the saying goes, "You can never be too rich or too thin."

Or at least too skeletal and too sexy.

Simon Sheppard

San Francisco artist and activist Simon Sheppard is best known for his contributions to the erotic literary scene. He wrote hundreds of stories that appeared in S/M magazines; erotic anthologies; and over twenty editions of Best Gay Erotica and Best American Erotica. His Sextalk column has appeared on OutUK for more than 20 years. You can find out more about Simon Sheppard in this OutUK feature and tribute, or take a look at some of his many books that are still available:

Looking for something very sexy and just as smart? Man on Man collects the best and hottest gay sex writing by Simon, who is also co-editor of Rough Stuff: Tales of Gay Men, Sex, and Power as well as a collection of gay erotica called Hotter Than Hell.
In KINKORAMA : Dispatches from the Front Lines of Perversion he takes readers behind the unmarked doors and black vinyl curtains that lead to the sometimes shocking, often hilarious, relentlessly arousing scenarios of extreme sex. There are also stories of bears in Tales from the Bear Cult: Beat Bear Stories from the Best Magazines.