Anybody order a cowboy (extra abs, hold the shirt)
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Looking at early paperbacks aimed at gay readers it is often surprising how unappealing are the men on the covers. Not merely unsexy but no effort to titillate with more than the title and maybe a little cover copy. While it might've been discretion, showing a bare chest wouldn't have brought in the vice squad. My own suspicion is the publishers and editors figured they had a desperate easily exploited audience.
At least the cowboy on the cover of Homo: The House of Male Order (sounds like a S&M academy) has his shirt off. And what would come to be called six-pack abs. Looks like he must've been using diuretics. Can't say much for that face but the bad boy sneer probably got put many guys' libido in gear.
Pity there's no explanatory copy. Was he a mail-order husband?