In Twelfth Night, the attraction between Duke Orsino and Viola-as-Cesario can be interpreted as homoerotic pretty easily. The duke takes an instant liking to Cesario, noting the "young man's" beauty and even taking pains to describe it. He tells Cesario that "Diana's lip / is not more smooth and rubious; thy small pipe / is as the maiden's organ, shrill and sound" (1.5.30-32). He clearly admires Cesario's looks, and describes them as more beautiful than Diana. Orsino does emphasize Cesario's feminine traits, but this desire can still be categorized as homoerotic since he believes himself to be attracted to a man. In fact, even in the end of the play, when Viola's plot is revealed, Orsino refers to her as "boy" and leaves the stage with Viola still in drag. Her true "women's weeds" are never shown, leading us to believe that the desire here, at least from Orsino, is homoerotic and homosexual.
I find this attraction very interesting. In Shakespeare's day, homosocial bonding was the norm; men had relationships with other men that they simply did not have with women. Male friendship was certainly idolized, but I would argue that it was often homoerotic as well. This is certainly the case with Cesario and Orsino's relationship; there is an underlying homoerotic tension throughout every interaction.
What I thought was interesting was how this has changed. Today, the terms "homosocial" and "homoerotic" are fairly uncommon, even unknown to some. However, I would argue that the underlying culture has not changed. Homosocial bonding is still very prevalent, even flaunted and celebrated as the highest level of friendship.
I think the idea of underlying homoeroticism is very interesting when applied to ideas of masculinity today. What came to mind immediately were Men's Health covers. Here is a magazine marketed towards men and largely written by and for men, with health, dating, and sex tips. Here's an example of a recent cover featuring Shaun T, fitness guru known for his Insanity and T-25 videos.
This feels incredibly homoerotic to me. All of the covers are similar; men set up to be admired for their physique. However, I'm willing to bet that were we to throw out the word homoerotic, most of the "Men's Health" audience would recoil. Interestingly, Orsino is attracted to Cesario for his boyish, feminine traits, while chiseled, muscular men frequent the cover of Men's Health. Regardless, I view both situations as homoerotic, and I would be interested to see what you all think about this and how our views of homoeroticism have changed since Shakespeare's day.
