On the surface of a red-figure Attica vase, some thousands years ago, an inscription reading “ο Παῖς Καλός” had been engraved. Translating as The Boy Is Beautiful this intricate detail transforms a common vessel into a declaration of homoerotic affection; echoing the sexual liberation of a bygone era.⁠ ⁠ The Boy Is Beautiful is a biannual magazine but also an invitation to unravel the thread of queer Greek chronicles, from myth and history, to contemporary life. It’s a quest to figure out what happened between the time of Zeus and Ganymede, Apollo and Hyacinth, Achilles and Patroclus, the Band of Thebes and the Lesbian Sappho, Harmodius and Aristogeiton and my fascist, sexist, homophobic school mates, Thursdays’ straightwashed history lessons and Symposium-less Plato.⁠ ⁠ The new issue of The Boy is Beautiful just arrived in our store and online shop - and we couldn't be more excited!⁠ Buy

Founded in 2001, BUTT was as sassy as its name suggests. The quarterly magazine informed gay lifestyle trends, interviewed dozens of queer artists and published editorials that were both non-sexual and deliriously horny. BUTT’s aesthetic was hairy, authentic, intimate and shameless. Through fan-submitted photos, stories and articles, BUTT offered real insights into the contemporary gay lifestyle and built a strong community. Until it was discontinued in 2011.⁠ ⁠ And now it’s back after more than ten years!⁠ ⁠ The reborn BUTT picks up where it left off with issue 30, which features conversations with AA Bronson and male trans porn star Billy Vega, DJ Babynymph, art by Ajamu X and Sunil Gupta, poetry, diaries and a cover story by Clifford Prince King. Buy

AIKO is a visual and very personal diary by Berlin based photographer Florian Hetz. He turns his very own, unique gaze on the male body - its fears and obsessions, its shame and its lust. He successfully captures the breathing-sculpture quality of the portrayed men without turning them into objects of voyeuristic or even pornographic desire. The touching, intimate photographs tell a story about togetherness and loneliness.⁠⁠ Buy

Until mid January the exhibition Masculinities - Liberation through Photography is shown at the Gropius Bau in Berlin. Having previously been presented at the Barbican in London, Berlin is the second city to have the pleasure of this celebrated exhibition, that explores how masculinity is experienced, performed, and codified in photography and film from the 1960s to the present. Given the plurality of subversive masculinities that have emerged since the 1960s and the resilience of certain forms of traditional ultra-male power this is an ambitious undertaking. The accompanying comprehensive publication is no less committed. From disrupting the archetype with found photographs of Taliban fighters holding softly hands surrounded by arrangements of flowers; to fatherhood with an incredible, unsettling piece by Anna Fox. Photographs of her mothers tidy cupboards filled with pink china and rose tinted glasses are juxtaposed with violent quotes from her father like “I’m going to tear your mother to shreds with an oyster knife”, Masculinities draws wide circles to prove its point, that what makes a man a man is more complex than even Aznavour could imagine in his groundbreaking song from 1972. This exhibition and book will make you think again about the meanings of maleness in a increasingly unsettling world where we experiencing the rise of more and more alt-right groups looking for a so called "strong man" as a leader. So let us take the word "liberation" in the title literally and free ourselves from the clichés and always the same images and realise that masculinity is a social construct!⁠ Buy