Men wrestling gay

Catalog 7

30 October 2025

Catalog 7: Let's Get ROUGH. It really comes down to context.  A guy wrestles a guy outside in a park in and it's a whole different meaning to a whole bunch of people.

I love the sport. A top hat sat on a duffel bag. It's violence. With wrestling there is just no way in denying its tendency to be seen in a homoerotic light, even as a so-called joke. 

Tell me a bit about the Uffizi Wrestlers?

There is a copy of the Uffizi Wrestlers located in the atrium of MICA, the school I attend.

It's not something I grew up with, but it's something I am growing with now. 

BIO: 

Ben McNutt is an artist pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD. Ben observes acts of homoeroticism intertwined in masculinity throughout history and utilizes artistic media as a vehicle for displaying these observations.

Stranger yet, the heads were added onto the statue hundreds of years later after they were rediscovered and excavated in the 1500's. It's some sort of validator people have with the work. I noticed it three years into attending and then for months I took a 4x5 camera with me and I really looked at the statue. We call it a male soap opera.

He’s a self-described “chronic addict,” so it took an intervention by his frat brothers to launch him toward the life he has today. His character transformed from Reverend Stu to Amon, Demon Marquis of Hell, he became heavyweight champion… and he came out.

Perry explained that he had technically come out at a young age, but it was always theoretical.

“I came out to my family when I was 15, and it was fine. I don't think that makes any sense. You walking away didn’t stop me, me being gay didn’t change anything.’ And I want people to know.”

Wrestling, an ‘American art form’

Before Perry arrived, I chatted with Al Snow, the new owner of OVW.

Snow, a notable former WWF/ECW wrestler, director and commentator, has the physique of a pro wrestler and a strong vision for the future of OVW. He expressed particular interest in the development of characters and stories and how the audience responds to those.

The details matter to Snow.

“If you think about it,” he said, while I stared at his arms, “aside from jazz, wrestling is the only truly American art form.”

His wrestlers seem to understand his vision.

However, photographer Ben McNutt expands on this ongoing conversation using appropriated historical images, photographs of ancient Uffizi wrestler sculpture, and studio portraits of young college wrestlers to emphasize the erotic gestural qualities of the sport in history and present day. The studs are taking the boots to each other and it's not gonna be a stroll in the park.

I’ve met the ‘Drag Race’ queens like Eureka and Cameron and the things they say about how they feel when they walk through the curtain and how I feel when I walk through the curtain — it’s a show.

“My background is theater. The original marble statue the dozens of copies are based off of is located in the Uffizi Gallery in Italy, yet the sculpture itself is a roman copy of a lost greek bronze.

I love learning techniques. The UFC has characters, rivalries.