(Male genitals and sexual acts discussed in street language, so not for kids or the sexually modest)
In my 9/15/21 posting “Items of gay decor”, the section on The ritual of the action figures displays the Action Three — Leather Carlos, Tom of Finland’s Rebel, and Army Tyson (all of them hyperbolically homomasculine articulated toy figures variously labeled as dolls or action figures) — in the company of their woolly mammoths, under the blazing sun in one corner of my bedroom
And now, having contemplated (in my 10/28/21 posting “His fathers’ powers”) the complex lives of the superheroes (especially Aquaman, his husband Plastic Man, and the superhero son of their mating — superheroes have come a long way since the days of my childhood with Superman), I invited three D.C. Comics superheroes to join the Action Three, to serve as their power guides: Batman for Tyson, Superman for the Rebel, and the Flash for Carlos. It was time for some Superhero action.
The images:
(#1) It’s a fine line, but my understanding is that [a hot pink Lollicock dildo] can appear on WordPress because it’s a (realistically phalliform) dildo, not a human penis or a model of one; but the action figures cannot, because they’re models of human beings, with (extraordinarily) visible naughty bits; so I’ve fuzzed out Rebel’s and Carlos’s dicks (which must be humiliating for them, since their outsized cocks are the glory of their being
(#2) [from today] No longer three scattered individuals, but now a tight grouping of three couples, a small society even, with the loyal and comforting mammoths at their feet; the superheroes bring their highly focused energy — however much they’re packing in those codpieces, their first order of business is, after all, to save the world — to the Action Three’s constantly overflowing fuck-anything-that-moves desires (once again, their outsized dicks are fuzzed out for WordPress modesty)
There’s action, and then there’s action. There’s the action of the N + N compound action figure, and then there’s the sexual slang action of Get any action last night, Slutboy?
Some background. First, from Wikipedia:
An action figure is a poseable character toy figurine made most commonly of plastic, and often based upon characters from a film, comic book, military, video game or television program; fictional or historical. These figures are usually marketed toward boys and adult collectors. The term was coined by Hasbro in 1964 to market G.I. Joe to boys
Then a posting of mine from 7/14/10, “Dolls and action figures”, with considerable detail abut the uses of doll, action figure, figure, figurine, figma, toy, and more. The posting explores the complexity of these labels; note Billy dolls and (on many sites) the ToF Gay Rebel doll — distancing them from the straight world and, I think more importantly, emphasizing that their role in imaginative posing and play is not to represent an aggressive actor (G.I. Joe etc., and also the articulated figures of Buffy and Xena), but instead to perform a sexual display: the Billy dolls and Rebel are all about hyperbolic homomasculinity (associated with working class brown (Carlos), black (Tyson), and white (Rebel) men).
Back to the ritual of the action figures, from my 9/15 posting:
On the ritual, see my XBlog posting of 8/9/16 “The Action 3 at worship”, where I wrote:
A display at the Ramona Schwanzhaus, depicting the Action 3 — Leather Carlos, Tom of Finland’s Rebel, and Army Tyson — engaging in a ritual revering their Sex Stones (in the t-room there, using the Chinese ceremonial bowl). Each displays his (proportionally) elephantine dick while communing with his personal Sex Stone, which confers potency, endurance, and allure (white for Rebel, different patterns of brown for Carlos and Tyson). On this occasion, Carlos has been blessed with the gifts of power and dominance, Rebel the gifts of erectile enthusiasm, Tyson the gift of happy submission.
In [#1 above], they are joined by their companion animals, their adorable and cuddly woolly mammoths. Not only are the mammoths excellent friends, they are also, should it come to that, meat.
action lexicography. This turns out to be a much richer field than I had anticipated. I’ll start with the very brief story from NOAD, where there are two senses of interest to the action figures: a military sense in 4a that’s significant in the actions of the first action figures (the expression was then generalized); and a slang ‘notable activity’ sense in 1d that provides the general domain for a set of specializations in different directions, including the sexual one:
noun action: 1 … [d] informal exciting or notable activity: people in the media want to be where the action is | the nonstop action of mountain biking. … 4 [a] armed conflict: servicemen listed as missing in action during the war. [b]a military engagement: a rearguard action.
Lots more detail in OED3 (Nov. 2010) under the noun action, in section 20 on a set of four “colloquial (originally U.S.)” uses. Use b is the general domain sense:
gen. Exciting, important, or notable activity… [AZ: conceptually the basic sense in this section, the others being specializations in specific contexts]
– 1927 D. Hammett $106,000 Blood Money ii. viii. 104 ‘So meet me at Van Ness and Geary before eleven o’clock.’ ‘Action?’.. ‘Maybe… Bring your little pop-gun along.’
– 1962 ‘K. Orvis’ Damned & Destroyed xiv. 90 ‘What happens then?.. Pal, I got to get action some place.’.. ‘Action is the magic word. At six bucks a cap, ten caps a day, a guy has to hustle some.’
– 1978 S. Brill Teamsters vi. 213 The real action for Dorfman at the pension fund didn’t come until March 1967.
– 1985 Times 2 Jan. 17/4 J Hepworth saw plenty of action on Monday, the share price zipping along from 174p to 191p at one stage.
– 1993 P. Ackroyd House of Dr. Dee (1994) v. 170 ‘Where are you going now?’ ‘Nowhere. Just looking for some action.’
Use a is specialized for
Gambling activity
– 1887 F. Francis Saddle & Mocassin 145 That’s my kind [of game]… You get ‘action’ there every turn. No waiting for the durned cards to come up.
– 1929 M. Connelly Green Pastures i. vii. 58 Come on, gamblers, see kin you gimme a little action. Who wants any part of dat dollar?
– a1953 E. O’Neill Hughie (1959) 36 Hell, I once win twenty grand on a single race. That’s action! A good crap game is action, too.
– 1995 T. Ferguson Fire Line iii. 95 On a second foray through the gaming rooms Ferenc Van Loon scanned the action at the other blackjack counter.
– 2003 London Rev. Bks. 21 Aug. 3/2 A professional gambler until his death at 27. Poker. High-low was his action.
And use c, the one of special interest in this posting, is for
Sexual activity. [AZ: used esp. with an indefinite determiner as object of get: get some/any action]
– c1930 Confessions of Virtuous Wife iv. 42 Ye Gods! what action! [sic] Ah, oh! darling boy, give it me all, now, now, now!
– 1958 A. Laurents West Side Story i. vi. 71 How’s the action on your mother’s mattress, Action?
– 1967 H. S. Thompson Hell’s Angels 192 Rape’s no fun, anyway .. and we get all the action we can handle just standing around.
– 1971 N.Y. Times Mag. 28 Nov. 92 Only action he get is with his hand.
– 2002 I. Knight Don’t you want Me? v. 58 Try as I might, I really can’t fancy the idea of hot lezzo action much at all.
– 2006 Chicago Tribune (Midwest ed.) 12 Mar. xiii. 2/4 Coffee drinkers reported more robust romance, with two-thirds of respondents saying they had sex once a week or more. Only 58 percent of non-coffee drinkers reported as much action.
Use d amounts to a small construction of the form N + action:
In weakened use, with modifying noun: attributes associated with the thing denoted by the preceding word; experience (esp. of a notable or exciting quality) of the thing denoted by the preceding word.
– 1980 L. Birnbach et al. Official Preppy Handbk. 220/1 Heavy —— action n. Whatever one does a lot. ‘Heavy tanning action.’
– 1992 TransWorld Skateboarding Mar. 23/2 Best song now goes to the tune ‘Infectious Grooves’, a slammin’ number with some groove action that has to be heard.
– 2000 Houston Press (Nexis) 6 Jan. He wears the rap-mogul uniform… Although he is quick to say he’s not rolling in the dough (‘yet’), he does have some bling-bling action going on.
– 2002 D. J. MacHale Merchant of Death 53 There was going to be some major league rash action going on here and they probably didn’t have talcum powder.
– 2003 National Post (Canada)8 Apr. al3/3 [He] was..bent on demonstrating his general, all-round hipness by saying things like, ‘Oh, look who we have here — we got a little Justin Trudeau action!’
– 2004 K. Wells Trav. with Barley xvii. 260 This day was starting out as a good lager day… Yet I’d found surprisingly little beer action.
– 2005 D. Palmerlee et al. Argentina (Lonely Planet) (ed. 5) 156 There’s some serious 70s action going on in the lobby here, but it fades rapidly as you approach the rooms.
GDoS has considerably earlier cites for the sexual sense
1 in hetero- or homosexual senses, sexual activity, spec. sexual intercourse [1st cite from Dryden 1693 … two 19th century cites, and then a variety of cites, among them: 1961 ‘Lou Rand’ Gay Detective … Two servicemen were wrapped together in a desperate passionate embrace … Olsen nudged Francis. ‘Hey, get a load of that action.’ … 1967 M. Braly On the Yard [the prison yard] … ‘You’re looking for action, and Red’s laying to give you all you can handle.’ … ‘You think I bend over … for anything with a prick?’] 2 in a physical sense, movement indicative of sexuality, i.e. the erotic ‘action’ of the hips or pelvis …