VOGUE L'UOMO PHOTOSHOOT
TWINS ON COVER OF VOGUE L'UOMO ITALY
...Tom is pure sex - a straightforward temptation that makes no one uncomfortable, wanting him is perfectly normal, even self-evident. Bill, however, is far, far beyond sex. Everything he does, everything he stands for when he is made up and styled like that, is designed ultimately to freeze sex. He fixates the eye on him as an image, an apparition, and what you see is a riddle, a puzzle that is too complex to work out or isn't supposed to be worked out at all. Tom is always Tom, Bill is never Bill. Bill is always something else, a constructed image, a game, an idea. He is the proverbial blank page to be written or painted on by expert hands either his or others'....
TWINS ON COVER OF VOGUE L'UOMO ITALY
This shoot is just so mindblowingly awesome that I can't not comment on it. I have to. When I first saw the cover pic I was a bit shocked too, I have to admit, but after a couple days' of digesting and getting used to it I can't see anything in that pic that should be criticised. Yes, it caught me off guard for a moment, but isn't it what Bill goes for all the time? And Tom, sweet and safely sexy Tom on his side, he always delivers that bit of normalcy that balances out the whole picture. Tom never shocks you, he never makes you feel uncomfortable apart from that itch in your panties that only he could scratch.
Tom is pure sex - a straightforward temptation that makes no one uncomfortable, wanting him is perfectly normal, even self-evident. Bill, however, is far, far beyond sex. Everything he does, everything he stands for when he is made up and styled like that, is designed ultimately to freeze sex. He fixates the eye on him as an image, an apparition, and what you see is a riddle, a puzzle that is too complex to work out or isn't supposed to be worked out at all. Tom is always Tom, Bill is never Bill. Bill is always something else, a constructed image, a game, an idea. He is the proverbial blank page to be written or painted on by expert hands either his or others'.
Tom is male. Bill is neutral or a big question mark in his photos. Bill can be anything you want him to be and he will show you things you never knew you could want or like. But he is never human, unlike Tom. He is Humanoid. A mannequin. His breathtaking beauty is smooth and streamlined as the surface of a marble statue and just as cool. It's not supposed to be touched only to be admired. This beauty is barren, because it's complete in itself. Or to turn this idea arround, it becomes completed in the moment when it is revealed to the beholder's eyes, but nothing beyond the acknowledgement and appreciation is required from the audience. We are used, exploited for the single aim: to fulfil his narcissistic dreams of himself, to feed his exhibitionism. Bill rapes the eye and we worship him for the abuse.
I worship him for it too, have always done. In the past, he didn't need to go to such extremes as nowadays, simply because the beauty of the 17-18 year old Bill Kaulitz was a riddle in itself. Those elfin features made you question all you thought you had known about what male human beings are supposed to look like. Now the dew of youth is gone. The look of innocence in his eyes which bordered on chastity and baffled us with its purity has been replaced with a darker knowledge of the ways of the world. And so the mystery that we are being presented with has become darker too. But the main message has remained the same: Worship me, but from the distance. It worked when he was 17 and I thought even brushing my fingers against his cheek would sully and desecrate his fragile beauty. And it works just as well now that he is an adult. This exotic, flamboyant creature has a look in its eyes that promises to burst out in ten-inch-long poisonous spikes all over his body, if you dare come too close.
Now, after all that's been written, it should be obvious that I like the end result of the Vogue photo shoot very much. And I do indeed. However, that does not mean I'm oblivious to its flaws. More precisely, of the limits of what the one and only Bill Kaulitz is presenting us with here. I'm dazzled, I'm puzzled, I'm intriqued and intimidated all right, but all this does to me is scratching at the surface. Just a quick comparison to make it clear: a single one of Tom's lip-ring-teasing smiles and I'm gone...to change underwear, I mean. Or to be more to the point: which would you choose? An aesthetic orgasm or a real one? Reading the comments on forums, people are generally confused by their recently developed preference for Tom and Tom's 'looks', while in the past Bill used to be their favourite of the two. There are still those (like me) who are spellbounded and blown away with the way Bill presents itself, but they seem to know exactly what they are being sold and they are willing to buy exactly that. When I'm admiring Bill in the Vogue pics I'm not shopping for real sexual gratification. I'm looking for my fix of a mental orgasm and no one can deliver it better than the guy. Hands down. The problem has always been the false promises made on Bill's part (not necessarily by Bill himself, but fine, why try to gild the lily? when he submitted himself to the management's idea of a marketing strategy and kept parroting things that gave the rampant female fans the wrong ideas, he became an accessory, didn't he?) Now that those promises have been partly retracted, a general confusion prevails among the fans and shoots like the present one only confuse them further. They interpret it as 'not-liking-Bill's style-that-much-any-more' while it's simply the case of shopping for the wrong thing.
And that's why the twins need to be shot together unless it's for a fashion ad. This way Bill, the controversial humanoid, is presented as the decadent and exotic flavoured cherry on top of Tom's plain vanilla cake. Everyone gets what they want (except those who still want to have sex with the humanoid) and underwears will still get changed after the mind has exploded into a blinding, trade-mark-Bill-Kaulitz mental orgasm. Sex has been sold. All is good in the world.
Or not? Well, for me it's all fine. For now. It's just that I can't banish this thought from mind mind. It's more like an image: that of Bill with Tom's smile. I don't care if that smile is accompanied by make up and daring clothes. I just want that one single smile of a boy, whose name is Bill Kaulitz and who is willing to make good on his promise to f*** me if I ask nicely. Because Bill never means it when he promises sex. Tom always does. Bill never. When Bill promises sex, it is actually him who accepts it. Behind every single fierce and sexy look of his there you can hear a faint murmuring in the background - those are Bill's thoughts going: 'God, I sure look freakin' hot...I'd seriously consider fucking myself if I were you.' Tom has never promised anything he couldn't or wouldn't have been willing to fulfil. (Okay, let's pretend for a moment that Tom's image of a sexual pneumatic drill is not fake...) Have you ever wondered why Tom is or acts the way he does? Why the image he cultivates has to border on the ridiculous as he is bragging on about his conquests? Because Tom has to deliver for his twin too. Mental orgasms only last for so long and they definitely don't make you feel warm in the right places.
I want to see a photo shoot of Bill where he is actually a real person with real desires with a personality that shines through all that make up and fancy styling. And it would be so incredibly important for his career too. Because as the years pass, his beauty will pass with it too and no amount of make up will be enough to maintain the effect he is going for. The image that he is projecting of himself in these pictures is only comprehensible because beauty is a universal language even if it is dressed up in flamboyant clothes. But what of later when there won't be his beauty anymore to back him up?
So I want Bill Kaulitz to prove to me that he is a lot more than a mannequin-come-to-life. I want that goddamn smile, Bill, you hear me? Cause...you see...I'm not that much interested in your brother.
I'm supposed to be interested in you.
I wish you would make it a bit easier for me....