April 2024 Guy Gallery: Awakenings, Series Two - Inspirations (Patreon)

Many of us can trace back to the time we first realized we were interested in men as more than just friends—and often that sexual awakening was inspired by a hot guy in a TV show or movie we watched, saw in a magazine, or stumbled across online.

21CA's freshmen photographers have been assigned a project based on this. They need volunteers to reveal who their first crush was, then pose for a recreation of an image of the volunteer's crush that they found especially inspiring.

This go 'round we have Riley, Wes, Asher, Griffin, Mafia, and NC17—and the gallery features both their final photo as well as a look at what went on behind the scenes at the shoot.

Below, I'll link the inspirations for each photo and talk about how each of the six volunteers decided on their subject. But first...

Juniors, Seniors, & Graduates - Two of these guys will be so inspired by their photoshoots that they end up hooking up. (Who woulda thought?) Their bonus gallery will be posted in just a few days!

Seniors & Graduates - It's time to vote! Which guy are you most interested in seeing in a full hookup gallery? Click here to make your choice!

Now, let's talk inspirations!

Riley - Chris Hemsworth, on the beach

It's probably no surprise that Riley was big into the comic book movies growing up—or that when he first saw the MCU's version of Thor, he was inspired to write a whole lot of fan fic about being swept up off his feet by the muscly blond god. The actor who plays Thor, Chris Hemsworth, has a tendency to go out surfing, so there's no shortage of pics of him with his wetsuit half off. Inspired by photos like this one and this one, Riley decided put on a wetsuit himself—though showing a bit more cheek than his inspo...

Wes - Flynn Rider, fan art

Of course animation student Wes's first crush was an animated character! His inspiration is Flynn Rider from Tangled, whose roguish charm Wes found especially alluring. But more importantly, it was via Flynn that Wes learned about the internet's Rule 34—if it exists, there's porn of it. And there definitely exists porn of Flynn. Wes recreated a piece of fan art made by cdpetee on DeviantArt—one of the many drawings that inspired Wes to create porn-y fan art of his own!

Asher - Troye Sivan, unused photoshoot

Troye Sivan was the first male singer Asher realized was singing about other boys—romantically. Asher became entranced by his music, inspiring him to get into music himself. As the years have gone on, Troye has embraced his sexuality more publicly, and Asher has done the same—though a bit more conservatively than his celeb crush. Asher may be a romance-focused guy, but he still appreciates the nude male form—like these pics showing Troye naked in bed.

Griffin - Darren Criss, photoshoot

Griffin is biracial, half Japanese on his father's side. He was struck with excitement when he saw another biracial boy on screen being treated as not just hot and desirable, but also appreciated for all his many talents. That actor was Darren Criss, who is Filipino by way of his mother. What Griffin originally construed as being fascinated by an actor with a similar background to him soon led to a realization that the feelings he had weren't so innocent—especially when he started seeing pics like this one, which inspired his shoot.

Mafia - John Cena, first photoshoot

Like many young guys, Mafia was big into professional wrestling growing up—specifically American wrestling. His fav wrestler was always John Cena, whose career he still follows today. Mr. Cena was, in fact, Mafia's main inspiration for hitting the gym in an attempt to get just as beefy and swole. His photoshoot was inspired by one of the very first promo photos John Cena ever took—a basic pose in front of a basic background, but wearing the kind of shorts that got Mafia interested in watching wrestling to begin with...

NC17 - Nick Jonas, photoshoot

NC17 has a little secret—though he presents himself as an alt boy these days, one of his earliest music inspirations was the youngest member of the Jonas Brothers, who just so happens to share NC17's real name. But music aside, it was via Nick that NC17 realized he had a massive appreciation for thick guys, especially when Nick Jonas shed his family-friendly image and started taking photos like these!

Want more of the guys? The first Awakenings series featured the inspiration for the above Nick Jonas photo shoot by way of Will recreating a pretty memorable Marky Mark Calvin Klein ad. Evan, Dominic, Leo, Owen, and Tomas also took part in the first photo shoot, which you can check out here!

If you're a newer patron or just want to revisit some of the past galleries, click here to check out all of the previous galleries. If you're a Junior, Senior, or Graduate who wants to jump right to the sex-filled Bonus Galleries, click here!

I hope you enjoy! 🙂