Strong and virile and uninhibited

Mention the name Touko Laaksonen and you’ll get a lot of blank looks. Mention Tom of Finland and the eyes of gay men (of a certain age) will light up. My second movie of the weekend was a the bio-pic Tom of Finland.

I went to Cinema Detroit to see it. Normally, when I go for a matinee I walk directly to the box office and have a wide choice of seats. Not this time. There was a line at the box office. And most seats in the 90 seat theater were taken. All but a handful were gay men. And I didn’t see any youngsters learning about gay history.

The movie starts with Touko as a Lieutenant in the Finnish Army in WWII. He learns which other men in his outfit are also gay – and that includes his commanding officer. After the war, Touko still has a hard time because gays are frequently assaulted and that includes by the police. Touko has artistic talent and gets a job in and advertising company.

But it is the art he draws for himself and a small circle of friends that helps him get through daily life. This art is of gay men, strong and virile and uninhibited – gay and proud. Many are in leather or in uniform or in the clothes of masculine occupations.

Touko finds a lover, who urges him to get his pictures published. They do find a publisher – in Los Angeles. Touko becomes Tom of Finland.

In America the art is appreciated. Doug is able to meet Jack because Jack has one of Tom’s pictures in his gym locker and Doug is able to show he has one too. Doug becomes Tom’s American agent.

The year of any particular event isn’t identified. I kept wondering how much time had passed. Though the year was obvious when we got to the start of the AIDS epidemic.

Tom is indeed celebrated because his art showed it was OK to be gay.

I first encountered the art of Tom of Finland probably back in the 1980s. I paged through one of his books in a bookstore. At the time I didn’t feel comfortable enough being gay to actually buy the book and take it home. It was too risky and risque. To see some of his art for yourself just go to Amazon and search for Tom of Finland books. The covers will show enough.

I’m delighted that this movie is Finland’s entry to the 2018 Oscars in the Best Foreign Language Film category. Gays in Finland are treated a whole lot better today than they were after WWII.