#rudy jameson

[bugsinshoes]

MASSIVE whiteboard doodle dump YAY!!!!!!! this is an assortment of SRL + J, ayford, and. star wars stuff (plus my sona. say hi to my new sona)

anyways enjoy these :-] more proper art to come Soon.

also thanks to @hopeyisathing and @afuckingtree for drawing with me. i love you guys

[nellandvoid]

idaho gang ftw

this was meant to be a silly lil sketch but i couldn’t sleep so it. is no longer a sketch lol ANYWAYS

i love @bugsinshoes ocs so much and after i saw their oc laurie was in idaho during highschool i have been wanting to draw SOME kind of interaction between these goobers but i didn’t know how until my all nighter last night where i blacked out and woke up to this beauty

i imagine that sam and rudy are (so unsubtly that silvia can literally HEAR THEM but is choosing peace and ignoring them) telling laurie about silvia’s habit of getting in fights, but that she doesn’t tend to beat up losers like them

anyways love these guys they were a lot of fun to draw!!!!!!

[callsign-smalls]

Ancient Dreams In A Modern Land Things!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Main Characters (Part 1)

1. Sergeant Madelyn “Flash” Graves-Landry

played by: Dove Cameron

2. Sergeant Johnny “Soap” MacTavish

played by: Neil Ellice

3. Sergeant Mackenzie “Banshee” Graves-Landry

played by: Florence Pugh

4. Colonel Alejandro Vargas

played by: Alain Mesa

5. Sergeant Major Rodolfo “Rudy” Parra

played by: Bayardo De Murguia

6. Lieutenant Simon “Ghost” Riley

played by: Samuel Roukin

7. Shadow Company Commander Phillip Graves

played by: Warren Kole

<><><>

Supporting Characters (Part 1)

1. C.I.A Station Chief Kate Laswell

played by: Rya Kihlstedt

2. Captain John Price

played by: Barry Sloane

3. Sergeant Kyle “Gaz” Garrick

played by: Elliot Knight

4. General Shepherd

played by: Glenn Morshower

5. Valeria Garza / El Sin Nombre

played by: María Elisa Camargo

6. Major Hassan Zyani

played by: Ibrahim Renno

7. Supervisory Special Agent Dean Graves-Landry

played by: Jensen Ackles

8. Austin Keller

played by: Rudy Pankow

9. Daisy Fontenot

played by: Kat Graham

10. Jameson Fontenot

played by: Jessie Williams

11. Joshua Fontenot

played by: Michael B. Jordan

12. Gabriel Fontenot

played by: Irdris Elba

13. Phoebe Fontenot

played by: Robin Wright

14. Daniel Graves

played by: Jeffery Dean Morgan

15. Beau Graves

played by: Scott Eastwood

16. Christian Graves

played by: Harrison Ford

17. Adelaide Graves

played by: Olivia Newton-John

[helmetkeeper]

Hello! I was needing some names for Blu Scout kin, masc/androgynous leaning. Kinda like a midwest emo vibe about him.

hello!! i'm not super sure about this one but hopefully you find something you like here :].

all the names are under the cut!

scout (sorry i think i'm funny LOL)

aaron/aron

abbadon

abe

ace

adam/addam

addison

aden

amon

anderson

andras

andre

andrew

andy

angel(o)

archer

archie

art

artemis

arthur

arti

artie

ash

asher

ashford

ashley

ashter

aspen

aster

atticus

august

bailey

baker

baker

bane

barnaby

ben

bennett

benny

bird/byrd

birdie/birdy

blade

blair

blake

blanche

blanchette

bower

bowie

bowie

brahm(s)

branch

brass

briar

bridge

bridger

bruce

caim

cal

cal

callum

callum

cane/caine

cas

castiel

chance

charles

charlie

cheddar

chestnut

christian

christopher

colin

corbin

corvid

corvin

corvus

crosby/crossby

cross

crosser

daegan/dagan

dagon

dakota/dakoda

dakota/dakoda

dale

dallas

darby

darrow

day(e)

dean

decker

decks

deegan/degan

desmond

dev

devin

dex

dexter

dez/des

dirk

dweller

eden

emerson

emery

enzo

erin

ernest

evan(s)

ezra

fang

fiddle

finch

ford

ford

gabby

gabe

gabriel

grey/gray

greyson/grayson

griffin

grim

grim/grimm

harlow

harlow

harmon(e/y)

hazel

hemlock

hex

hexter

hibiscus

ike

isaac

jace(n)

jacob/jakob

jade(s)

jaden

jalen

james

jameson

jamie

jason

jax

jay

jett/jet

john

johnathan

johnny/johnnie

jones

judas

jumper

kessy

kestrel

kirk

klaus

koda/kota

kota/koda

lee/ley

leo

luc

luciel

lucifer

lucius

lucky

lucy

lukas/lucas

luke

luther

magnus

magpie

mako

maple

marcel

marple

mayday

merlot

micah

michael

mick

mike

morgan

morrison

mortician

nell

newt

newton

noah

noel

oak

oaker

oakley

oakley

omen

pen/penn

pipit

porter

quin/quinn

quincy

quincy

rae/ray

raemond

ray

raymond

raymond

rays/rayes

reid

resmond

reyes

riley

rob

robin

rocket

rook

rudy

rue

sable

salem

satchel

scoot

scooter

scott

scotty/scottie

seth

sketch

skip

snake

spade

stan

stanford

stanford

stanley

stitch

stretch

striker

temps

thorn(e)

toph

topher

travis

treble

trigg

trigger

tyler

vic/vik

victor

vince

vincent

virtue

wane

wayne

weaver

wiley

will

william

wren

xavier

zachery/zachary

zack

zackery/zackary

zane/zayn(e)/zain(e)

[trans-and-baby-names]

Masculine Names

Aaron  Abdul Abe  Abel Abraham  Abram Ace Achilles  Adair Adam Adonis Adrian Adriel  Ahmed Ajax Ajay Aiden Alan Albert Alejandro Alex Alexander Alfonso Alfred Alistair Alister Allen  Alonzo Amadeo Amadeus Amani Amari Ambrose Amir Anders  Anderson Andre Andreas Andrew Andy Angel Angelo Angus Ansel  Anson Anthony Antonio Apollo Aries Archer Archie Aristotle Arlo  Arnaldo Arnold Arsenio Arthur Arturo Arwin Asa Asher Aslan Atlas  Atticus Aubrey August Augustin Augustine Augustus Aurelio Aurelius Austin Axel  Aziz

Balthazar  Bane Barnabas  Barnaby Barney Baron  Barrett Basil Bastian  Bear Beau Beck Ben Benjamin  Benji Bentley Bernard Bertram Bertrand  Blake Blaze Blue Bobby Bodhi Booker Boris  Boston Bowie Boyd Brad Bradford Bradley Bram  Bramwell Bran Brandon Brandt Braxton Braylen Brayden Brendon  Brent Brett Brian Briar Brick Bridge Bridger Brock Brody Brogan  Bronx Brook Brooks Bruce Bruno Brutus Bryce Bryson Buck Bud Buddha  Buddy Buck Burt Burton Buster Buzz Byron 

Cade  Caden Cain  Cairo Caius Calder  Caleb Callum Calvin Cam  Cameron Camillo Campbell Carl  Carlisle Carlito Carlo Carlos Carlton  Carmine Carson Carter Casper Caspian Cassian  Cassias Cato Cecil Cedar Cedric Cesar Chad Chadwick  Chance Charles Charlton Chase Chauncey Chester Chidi Chip  Christoff Christoph Christopher Christian Chuck Cian Cillian  Clarence Clark Claud Clay Clayton Cliff Clifford Clint Clinton  Clyde Coby Cody Colby Cole Collin Colt Colton Conan Connor Conrad  Constantine Cooper Copper Corbin Cornelius Cory Cosmo Cosmos Costas Craig Crispin Cruz Curt Curtis Cyrus

Dale  Dallas  Dalton Damien  Damon Dan Dane Daniel  Dante Darius Darrel Darren  Dash Dashiell Davey David Dawson  Dax Daxton Deacon Dean DeAndre Declan  Demetrius Denali Dennis Denny Denzel Derek  Derrick Des Desmond Dewey Dex Dexter Diego Diesel  Dion Dirk Dixon Dmitri Dominic Donatello Donovan Dorian  Doug Douglas Draco Drew Duke Duncan Dustin Dusty Dwayne Dwight  Dylan Dyson 

Earl  Easton  Edgar Edmund  Eduardo Edward Edwin  Egon Eli Elijah Elias  Elliott Ellis Elroy Elton  Emanuel Emeric Emerson Emery  Emil Emiliano Emmett Emrys Enrique  Enzo Eric Ernest Ernesto Ernie Esteban  Ethan Eugene Eustace Euvan Evan Evander Everett  Ezekiel Ezra 

Fabian  Fabio Falcon  Faustus Felix Ferdinand  Fergus Ferguson Fernando Fidel  Fido Finbar Findlay Finn Finnley  Fionn Fisher Fitz Fletcher Flint Florence  Florian Ford Forrest Fort Foster Fowler Fox  Francesco Francis Francisco Franco Frank Frankie  Franklin Fred Freddy Fredrick Frederico

Gabe  Gabriel  Gael Gage  Gale Galen Garfield Garrett Gaston Gatsby  Gavin Geoffrey Geordie George  Gerald Gerard Gideon Gil Gilbert  Gilberto Giovanni Glenn Gordon Gordy  Grady Graham Grant Gray Grayson Gregg  Gregory Grey Griffin Griffith Grover Gunner  Gunther Gus Gustavo Guy 

Hades  Hal Hamilton  Hank Hans Harley Harrison  Harry Hawk Hayden Hayes Heath Hector  Henrik Hendrix Henry Herb Herbert Herbie  Hercules Hermes Hershel Hiram Holden Howard  Howie Hudson Hugo Humphrey Hunter Hux Huxley 

Ian Igor Iker Irvin Isaac Isaiah Ivan 

Jace  Jack Jackson  Jacob Jaques Jaden  Jake Jalen Jamal James  Jameson Jared Jason Jax  Jay Jed Jedidiah Jefferson  Jeffrey Jeremiah Jeremy Jerome  Jerry Jesus Jethro Jett Jim Jimmy  Joe Joel Johan Johannes John Johnny Jonah  Jonas Jonathan Jones Jordan Jose Joseph Joshua  Josiah Juan Juanito Judah Judas Judd Jude Jules Julian  Julien Julio Julius Junior Jupiter Jurgen Justice Justin Justus 

Kaden  Kai Kaiser  Kale Kaleb Kane  Keane Keanu Keaton  Keegan Keenan Keith  Kellen Kenan Kendrick  Kenneth Kenzo Keoni Kevin Khalid  Kian Kieran Kiernan Kingsley Kingston Killian  Kip Kwan Kyle

Lachlan  Lake Lamar  Lance Lancelot  Landon Lane Larkin  Larry Lars Laurence Laurent  Lawrence Lawson Lazlo Legend Leif  Leith Leland Leo Leon Leonardo Leopold  Leroy Levi Liam Lincoln Linden Logan Loki  London Lonnie Lonny Lorcan Lorenzo Lou Louie  Louis Luc Luca Lucas Lucian Lucky Luke Lupe Luther

Maddox  Maksim Malachi  Malachy Malakai Malcolm  Malik Manfred Manny Marcel Marcello  Marcellus Marcio Marcius Marco Marcos  Marcus Marian Marino Mario Marius Mark  Marlin Marlon Marmaduke Marques Mars Marshall  Martin Marty Marvel Marvin Massimo Mason Matt Matteo  Matthew Maurice Maverick Max Maximilian Maximus Maxwell  Melvin Mercury Meredith Merritt Micah Michael Miguel Miles  Milo Mitchell Moe Monte Montgomery Murdoch Murphy Murray Murtagh  Murtaugh Myles

Nathan  Nathaniel  Ned Nelson  Nemo Neo Neon  Neptune Neville  Newt Newton Nick  Nicky Nicola Nicolai  Nicholas Niko Noah Noel Nolan  Norm Norman Novak 

Obadiah  Octavio Octavius  Odin Olaf Oleg Oliver  Olivier Omar Orion Orlando  Orville Osborn Oscar Oso Osvaldo  Oswald Ottis Otto Owen Oz Ozzy

Pablo  Palmer Panther  Parker Pascal Patrick Paul  Paxton Pedro Penn Percival Percy Perseus  Peter Peyton Phil Philip Phineas Phoenix Pier  Pierce Pierre Pilot Pluto Porter Poseidon Preston  Prince Prosper

Qadir  Quincy Quinn  Quinton 

Raiden  Ralph Ramone  Ramses Randall Randolph  Randy Raphael Ravi Ray Raymond Red  Reece Reggie Reginald Regis Reid Remington  Reuben Rex Reynald Reynaldo Reynard Rhett Rhys  Ricardo Richard Richie Richmond Rick Ricky Rico Ridge  Riley Rio Riordan River Robert Roberto Robbie Rocco Rocky  Rodney Rodrigo Roger Ricky Riley Rod Rodrick Roger Roland  Roman Romeo Ross Rowan Rudy Rufus Russell Ryder Ryker Rylan Ryland 

Salem  Salvador  Salvator Sam  Samir Sampson Samson  Samuel Sander Sandford Sanjay  Santiago Saul Sawyer Scott Sean Sebastian  Septimus Serge Sergio Seth Seus Seymour Shane  Shawn Shayne Sheldon Shepherd Sherlock Sherman Shin Sidney  Sigmund Silas Silver Silvester Simon Sinclair Sinjin Sirius  Slade Slate Sol Solomon Sonny Sparrow Spartacus Spencer Spike  Soren Stan Stanford Stanley Steele Stephen Steven Stevie Stone Sven Summit  Sullivan Sully Sylvester

Tad  Tag Talon  Tanner Tate  Ted Teddy Teo Teodor  Teodoro Terence Terrell  Terry Tex Thad Thaddeus Thane  Thatcher Theo Theoden Theodore Thomas  Thor Thorn Tiberius Tiger Tito Titus Timothy  Titus Tobias Toby Tommy Tony Topher Trace Travis  Trent Trenton Trev Trevor Trey Tristan Troy Truman Tucker  Tudor Tullio Tullius Tully Tycho Tyler Tyrell Tyrese Tyrone  Tyson

Uberto  Ulric Ulrich  Ulysses Uriah Urban Urijah  Uriel

Van  Vance  Vaugn Victor  Vince Vincenco Vincent  Vinny Virgil Vlad Vladimir 

Wade  Walden  Waldo Walker  Wallace Wally Walt  Walter Warner Warren  Watson Waylon Wayne Wendall  Wesley Westley Weston Wilbert  Wilbur Wilder Wiley Wilfred Will William  Winston Wolf Wolfe Wolfgang Woodrow Wyatt 

Xander  Xavier Xavion  Xenon

Yael  Yahir York Yosef  Yousef Yusef

Zac  Zach Zachariah  Zacharias Zachary Zack  Zander Zane Zayden Zeke  Zeus Ziggy Zion Zoltan

[mel-at-dusk]

SEX, LIES AND CHEAP COLOGNE: AN ORAL HISTORY OF ABERCROMBIE & FITCH’S SOFTCORE PORN MAG

The story of how an oversexed, strangely intellectual magazine by a polo shirt brand completed the improbable task of changing the course of sexuality in America’s malls, homes and moose-print boxers

Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries was a shrewd businessman, but he didn’t always make the best decisions. Between the blatantly racist T-shirts he signed off on, the child thongs he called “cute” and the series of public statements he made admitting that his brand intentionally excluded anyone who wasn’t “cool” and “good-looking” with “great attitudes and a lot of friends,” it’s no wonder that he spent the majority of his reign at Abercrombie in hot water. (For the uninitiated, Abercrombie made what fashion writer Natasha Stagg calls “sexy versions of the clothes kids already wore to school: T-shirts and jeans, stuff you could toss a football in or throw on the grass if everyone decided to go skinny-dipping.” More importantly, as she writes in her book Sleeveless, it was “for those who were casually peaking in high school.” It, meanwhile, peaked in the 1990s.)

An exception to Jeffries’ questionable CEO-ing would be A&F Quarterly, the glorious, controversial and questionably pornographic “magalog” he created at the height of the brand’s popularity in 1997 in order to connect “youth and sex” to its image. Woven in amongst surprisingly thoughtful interviews with A-list humans like Spike Lee, Bret Easton Ellis, Rudy Guiliani and Lil’ Kim was a cascade of naked photos from photographer Bruce Weber which showed nubile youngs in various states of undress. They were frolicking, they were caressing and they were deep in the throes of experimenting with types of sex that — at the time — had never been portrayed by mainstream brands.

With issue titles such as “XXX,” “The Pleasure Principle” and “Naughty and Nice,” the Quarterly dove headfirst into the risque. During its 25-issue run between 1997 and 2003, it printed interviews with porn star Jenna Jameson, offered sex advice on how to “go down” in public and suggested — on multiple occasions — that its readers dabble in group sex. One issue published an article on how to be a “Web exhibitionist,” another featured a Slovenian philosopher barking orders to “learn sex” at school and big-dick Ron Jeremy even stopped by to talk about performing oral sex on himself and using a cast made from his own penis.

The actual Abercrombie clothing being modeled in the magalog was an afterthought, appearing in Weber’s photos as more of an impediment to nudity than an actual, purchasable item. The whole thing was, as journalist Harris Sockel put it in an Human Parts essay, “20 percent merch, 20 percent talk and 100 percent soft-core aspirational porn.”

None of this would have been vexing had a more adult-oriented brand been the ones hawking it, but Abercrombie & Fitch was — and still is — marketed toward suspiciously toned teenage field hockey players named Brett. Though he might have looked like a man in his big salmon-pink polo, Brett was but a child. Abercrombie was fond of saying its clothing was for college-aged clientele, but we all knew where its real haute runway took place — inside the crowded halls of every middle school in Ohio.

The Quarterly, too, was intended for college kids, and to prove it, Abercrombie shrink-wrapped it in plastic and sold only to those over 18 for $6 a pop. You could buy it as a subscription, of course, but it was more commonly found in-store, nestled alongside A&F’s cargo shorts and “thongs for 10-year-olds,” a questionable placement that prompted concerned parents, conservatives and Christians to accuse Abercrombie of sullying their children’s minds with impure thoughts.

As such, the Quarterly became the subject of a mounting number of boycotts, protests and controversies that some believe were responsible for its eventual demise. By the time circulation peaked at 1.2 million in 2003, it had been denounced by organizations like the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the American Decency Association, Focus on the Family, the National Organization for Women and, of course, the Catholic League.

Yet the outrage against the Quarterly was matched — if not exceeded — by its cult following, who found its frank portrayal of sexuality to be transcendent. Journalists, artists and the teens whose hands it fell into adored the magazine, and its rarity — plus its utter absurdity — makes it a sought-after collector’s item to this day.

At the same time, few people know about the Quarterly and even fewer realize what it meant to the generations of young people discovering themselves and their sexualities through the unlikely lens of branded content. As journalist Emily Lever puts it, “There’s no weirder way to learn about sex than to pick up a magazine by Abercrombie & Fitch — a brand for hot, mean mostly white kids who shoved you into lockers — but, I guess I’ll take it?”

This is the story of how an oversexed and strangely intellectual magazine by a polo shirt brand completed the improbable task of changing the course of sexuality in America’s malls, homes and moose-print boxers.

AND IN THE BEGINNING, THERE WAS ASS

The first issue A&F Quarterly debuted in June 1997. With 70-ish pages of full-color hard bodies, it was relatively tame compared to later editions, but it quickly became popular when Abercrombie’s nubile clientele realized it was a paper-backed portal into an adult world of sex, nudity and the kind of unbridled sensory hedonism their parents warned them about. As rumors of its legend began to spread, people began to wonder: What the hell is A&F Quarterly, and why is it printing ass for teens?

Emily Lever, journalist and chronicler of the Quarterly’s absurdist philosophical leanings: A&F Quarterly was an in-house magazine put together by Abercrombie & Fitch that published a who’s who of literati to accompany their images of young adult and teen bodies in order to hawk expensive distressed jeans and polo shirts to kids who would shove you inside a locker.

Alissa Quart, author of Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers and director of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project: From what I recall, it had a Bruce Weber-y vibe — gorgeous young men and teens unapologetically objectified, a leering retro pin-up element, also sort of like the highly stylized, sexed-up, nostalgic 1980s and 1990s black-and-white Guess ads. Men — boys, really — were photographed without their shirts, elaborately muscled abs, sometimes naked.

Harris Sockel, in his Human Parts essay: [It was] Playboy crossed with Fratmen.com and a bit of Field & Stream. The Quarterly made my hormones do a kick line across my frontal lobe. I wanted to nibble the soy ink for snack until sunrise. To absorb it so deeply I sweat grey drops onto my pillow. To rip a page from that issue and fold it into a paper flower and stick it all the way up my ass until it came out my mouth.

Lever: Yeah, it was hot. But it was also extraordinarily literary. It featured big-time thinkers, writers and philosophers — stuff that was supposedly intended to expand your mind. It was way too high-brow for the average Abercrombie teen, and its existence made almost no sense given what the brand represented.

Savas Abadsidis, editor-in-chief, 1997-2003: There was nothing else like it. We were the first mainstream brand to combine playful, irreverent, intellectual content with sex and youth in this beautiful, high-art magazine format. Was it controversial? Sure. But it made the entire country take notice.

What they didn’t necessarily see, however, was what was going on behind the scenes. Not only were we the first brand to do this kind of advertising, we were also the first big brand to normalize gay culture for a mainstream audience, expose America’s youth to some of the era’s most progressive thinkers and use our platform to address sexuality in a useful, hands-on way. And you wouldn’t necessarily expect that from Abercrombie. That’s what made it so cool.

It all began in 1996. I was 22 and working at a temp job for a prominent New York architect who happened to be friends with Sam Shahid, a big-time creative director for Calvin Klein, Banana Republic and later, Abercrombie & Fitch. He was looking for an assistant. I had taken a deferment to go to law school and was looking for a job for that interim year, so I applied. I got in.

It was a horrible gig at first. Just awful, Devil Wears Prada-type stuff. I left crying many nights. But I had two things going for me. The first was that Abercrombie had a really small office in the West Village. Mike Jeffries, the president and CEO of Abercrombie, used to come in. He wore flip flops, had a desk made out of a surfboard and began each sentence with the word “Dude.”

Mike Jeffries, ex-CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, speaking to Salon in 2006: Dude, I’m not an old fart who wears his jeans up at his shoulders.

Abadsidis: I didn’t know it at the time, but Mike was gay (I wouldn’t find out until much later). I think that was part of the reason why he and Sam — who was also gay — took me under their wing. They actually didn’t realize that I was, too — it’s not like we all sat around a bonfire at Fire Island and talked about how us gay guys were infiltrating Abercrombie — but that dynamic dovetailed nicely with Bruce’s photography for both the brand and the Quarterly, and it certainly set the tone for what was to come. I was grateful to get what amounted to an unofficial apprenticeship from both Mike and Sam, and eventually, they had me doing much more involved tasks than I was hired to do.

One of them was sitting in on important meetings. At the time, Mike was inviting all these different editors from magazines like Interview, Men’s Journal and Rolling Stone to come in and brainstorm ideas for what the Quarterly could be, but their ideas were flat. They felt like ideas coming from 45-year-olds writing for college kids, and I could tell Mike was getting frustrated by how little they seemed to grasp what he wanted.

One day in a meeting, one of the magazine editors threw out an idea. Without even acknowledging him, Mike turned to me. “Savas,” he asked. “What do you think about that?”

My mind raced — I could tell he was testing me. If I flubbed the answer, I’d be done. I briefly considered censoring myself, but then I thought better. What did I have to lose? I was young. Surely, I’d find another summer job. “I don’t think it’s a great idea,” I told him.

Apparently, that was the right answer. Mike practically threw the guy out of the room.

After that, I started to think more about what I’d want to see out of a magazine. I was just out of college as a French comparative literature major at Vassar, and I was super into that sort of 1950s-style Esquire journalism with the dapper closing essay. I was deep into The New Yorker, Interview Magazine, 1990s-era Details, MAD Magazine and 1980s pop star mags like Tiger Beat, too — those were all an influence. I also loved philosophy, social theory and comics. And graphic novels. You know — college stuff. Then it hit me: If the magazine was for people like me, why not get actual college kids — not 50-year-olds — to create our content?

I suspected my ideas were what they were looking for and knew they’d look fresh compared to what other editors were throwing out, so I decided to take a risk. I got up at 2 a.m. and typed out a 20-page proposal for what I thought the Quarterly should be. The next morning, I faxed a copy to Mike. I left another on Sam’s desk.

About a (very anxious) week later, Sam called me into his office and told me to pick up his phone. Mike was on the other line. As I reached for the receiver, he leaned over to me and said, “Who the fuck do you think you are?”

I didn’t even have time to comprehend what that meant before Mike’s voice was in my ear. “Congratulations, kid,” he told me. “You get one shot.”

Shortly thereafter, I was promoted from Sam’s assistant to the completely green, 23-year-old editor-in-chief of the Quarterly. It was a Jerry Maguire moment. I was thrilled and terrified at the same time.

They gave me a month to put together a staff and get the first issue out. Bruce Weber was named as its exclusive photographer — he’d already been shooting ads and campaigns for Abercrombie — and Sam was the creative director. As for me, I knew I’d need an editorial staff, and stat.

HOLY SHIT, THERE ARE NO LIMITS

Abadsidis quickly throws together a team composed of two college buddies, Patrick Carone and Gary Kon, who he describes as “pretty funny and stuff.” Carone became the only straight guy on the editorial side. Kon is Jewish and gay. The three of them vow to stay as true to the idealized college experience as possible with their content — even if it means chasing white whales.

Abadsidis: I can’t remember the exact starting budget, but it was upwards of a few million, probably much larger than most magazines get for their first issue! But our budget was also Bruce’s budget. He was getting advertising money, so we were well taken care of in that regard.

We weren’t really expected to turn a profit, though. That was never the point. Come to think of it, I don’t even think we tracked how much the magazine impacted clothing sales, although from what I can remember, clothing sales bumped up double digits every quarter after we launched (for a while, at least). [This statement is unverified.] But that didn’t matter: Our mission was just to set the brand image and make people aware of us. That was our version of success. We were also our only advertiser for a while, so we could get away with a lot of stuff that other publications couldn’t.

Gary Kon, managing editor, 1997-2003: When Savas offered me the job, I jumped at the opportunity. I’d already interned for Sam, and I’d have to scan hundreds of Bruce Weber images that he shot for Abercrombie as part of the job. And I fell in love with his work. It was the visual connection that seduced me. Weber’s photos were like a new Greek mythology; the men and women depicted in the photos were both idealized and sexualized. As a gay kid, who was pretty comfortable by that time in my own skin, I had no problem recognizing the eroticism in his work.

Abadsidis: Me, Gary and Patrick was definitely something special. I don’t think I’ll ever have an opportunity to create anything like that again. I was a huge comic book fan. If I had to describe it, it’s the closest thing I’ll ever come to Stan Lee’s Marvel comics bullpen. Pretty much everyone I hired was super unique. We weren’t all gay (maybe half of us were) but few of us really adhered to the Abercrombie image.

I think Sean came on in 2001.

Sean T. Collins, managing editor, 2001-2003: I was a little skittish about it at first because Abercrombie & Fitch represented everything I was not. They marketed, almost exclusively, to the lacrosse players that called me names I cannot repeat. It was very preppy, and that was not me at all.

I was alternative, maaan. I was a big fan of Nine Inch Nails. I wore a lot of black. A&F was everything I wasn’t, and in a way, everything that had tormented me as a kid. The irony of me working for them was palpable, but what I learned very quickly was that at the Quarterly, you could do anything that you wanted.

One of my first articles was an interview with Clive Barker, the writer and director of Hellraiser (he also wrote Candyman). Now, if you’ve seen Hellraiser, you can imagine just how far of a departure a sadomasochistic horror film was from Abercrombie & Fitch, but getting him to sign on was easy. He’s gay, and at the time, he was super ripped. I think he appreciated the extravagant gayness of the Weber stuff in particular. He was also a photographer, and his husband was, too. I think he recognized what was going on with the photography.

We had an unlimited expense budget, so I took him out for drinks at the Four Seasons. I talked to him for hours, and then he invited me to go back to his house and hang out and see his art studio. He had three mansions in a row on Sunset in Los Angeles, up in the hills. One for his office, one for his actual domicile and one that was a painting studio. I got to see that. I was just a 23-year-old kid. This was my first job out of college, and I felt like Cameron Crowe from Almost Famous. After that, I was like, “Holy shit, there are no limits.”

Kon: I have to credit Savas with pushing us to work without limitations. We were very lucky. At some point during my tenure, I realized that as long as we worked within our (sizable) budget, we had almost full autonomy. We could plan trips to Hollywood to shoot our favorite actors. We could travel to Thailand to reenact our version of The Beach. We could tag along to London or Rome or wherever Bruce was shooting the catalog. We could stroll into the office at 11 a.m. and work until 11 p.m.

Collins: If I wanted to talk to Bettie Page, the pinup model from the 1950s, they’d be like, “Okay, sure.” If I wanted to feature Underworld, my favorite electronic music band, it was, “Sure, go ahead.” It was total editorial freedom, which was so strange knowing how specific of a person the “Abercrombie type was.” I’ve been writing for two decades now, and I’ve never experienced anything like it since.

Abadsidis: Everyone wanted to be in it, too. At first, it was just indie musicians. But then, in the second issue, we snagged Lil’ Kim. That’s when I knew we’d made it big. She was into it — she loved everything about the Quarterly. A lot of people did. The whole high-brow/low-brow thing was really appealing, and the idea of going to college, reading good books, getting drunk and having sex felt uniquely nostalgic and fresh in the context of America back then. Clinton was getting impeached for getting a blow job. It was just a weird, puritanical time, and the Quarterly gave people a national platform to let their freak flag fly.

We had Rudy Guiliani, early Britney Spears, Paula Abdul. There was the New York issue where we talked about the Harlem Renaissance. Spike Lee — one of my idols — asked me if he could be in it. He’d done advertising, you know? I remember him being like, “Yo, this is the deal. I’ve got to give you mad props. This is the dopest thing out right now, advertising-wise.”

We had big-time philosophers and literary figures, too. They were great. We wanted to mimic the experience of being in college and having your mind expanded, so we got writers like Bret Easton Ellis and Michael Cunningham on board. There was a whole Sex Ed issue plastered with musings from Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek, a friend of a professor’s from college. I believe Jonathan Franzen was in there, too.

Jonathan Franzen, award-winning novelist and essayist: I gave hundreds of interviews between 1997 and 2003, almost all of them at the request of various publishers. One of them must have thought it was a good idea to talk to A&F. The fact that I apparently did (I don’t remember it) signifies nothing except that I felt grateful to my publishers.

Collins: We got a lot of weirdos, too. John Edward, the guy who talked to dead people. Chuck Palahniuk, who wrote Fight Club. At the time, it didn’t have the meathead reputation that it does now. It was legitimately looked at as this piece of anti-corporate, anti-capitalist art, the irony of which was just delightful given that we were a capitalist brand trying to sell polo shirts and $90 ripped jeans.

Abadsidis: The only guy who refused an interview was Donald Trump! I have a feeling his 90-year-old secretary had something to do with it. Though we were technically a magalog and did belong to the brand, our stuff was just really visionary. David Keeps, who was the editor of Details at the time, always defended the Quarterly as a real magazine and publicly said that we were doing more innovative stories than most “real” magazines at a time.

ASPIRATIONAL HOMOEROTICS

It’s no secret that the photography and creative direction of Weber and Shahid contained homoerotic undertones. Irreverent, minimal and moody, it was suggestive without being literal, spinning entire storylines into a single frame. At the same time, it was too idealized to be “real.” The queerness that their photos showed was, as Collins puts it, “aspirational,” meaning that like the mostly white, ab-riddled models instructed to sell cargo shorts by taking them off, they didn’t necessarily represent the full reality of what queerness actually was.

Still, the photos that the Quarterly published during its seven-year run did more to normalize and represent queerness and non-monogamy than any other mainstream brand at the time — weird, considering that Abercrombie’s target market was hegemonic suburbanites whose parents bred genetically pure golden retrievers and had cabins in Vail. Without these photos, the Quarterly might have read more as a minor-league Esquire or Ivy League MAD Magazine, but with them, it became one of the least-discussed, most under-appreciated items queer history.

Collins: Our editorial content — which almost functioned as a parody of so-called “Abercrombie people” — was always accompanied by this extremely beautiful photography that was also extremely queer. But it was never explicitly so. It was all this nudge, nudge, wink, wink stuff. I don’t know how you could miss it, though. The homoeroticism was so overt.

Abadsidis: You’d have had to have been blind not to consider the imagery homoerotic (though, it was really in the eye of the beholder). We had the Carlson twins posing on the cover and riding a motorcycle. We had a drag queen named Candis Cayne. There was a lesbian couple kissing at a wedding.

Kon: David Sedaris, Gus Van Sant, Gregg Araki, Avenue Q, Stan Lee, Peaches, Fischerspooner… you could teach a queer theory class with everyone we featured.

Abadsidis: At the same time, we never labeled anything as “gay” or “lesbian” or “queer.” We never came out and said, “Welcome to our gay magazine!” and we never had a meeting where we were like, “Okay, guys, let’s figure out how to make this thing gay.” It was more nonchalant. The imagery implied it without saying it.

Hampton Carney, A&F Quarterly spokesperson, 1999-2003: The message we were sending was clear: “You do you, whatever that is. Have fun!”

Abadsidis: That was a very 1990s thing.

Collins: There was a specific brand of Abercrombie gayness that got shown, though. The word that they always used to describe Abercrombie as a brand was “aspirational.” They didn’t want to make it like an everyday, normal-people brand. They wanted it to be associated with money, glamour and that WASP-y aesthetic. So all the gay raunch of it was presented within the context of what appeared to be a very square, nuclear family: white, wealthy and secure.

At the same time, that was really when same-sex marriage was kicking off as a political issue. I think you can see a commonality in how Abercrombie was essentially making an argument that you could be a normie and also be gay. That was a newish thing at the time (though I’m barely an expert as I’m not gay myself). Still, I can’t help but see a resonance between coming up with this clandestine content that normalized being gay at the same time this big political fight that was brewing.

Maybe being more forward about it would have come across as “too political.”

Abadsidis: Part of me wishes we’d gone a little further with being more outwardly queer, but I don’t think the time was right. Maybe with a braver CEO — no one at the time was brave enough to take on queerness or gay rights as a mainstream brand, including us — and that’s why few people remember the Quarterly as the sort of transcendent queer thing that it was.

Kon: It’s never been credited as such, but the Quarterly is really an item of gay history. I don’t think we were pushing a “gay” or “metrosexual” lifestyle on people as much as we were showing that it already existed, even out in Middle America. Perhaps that’s what made people uncomfortable. We took that thread of counterculture and taboo that ran through the imagery and continued it into the editorial content. We dealt with topics like drinking, drugs, religion, politics and sex. Again, these are issues young people dealt with daily, but were rarely editorialized.

At Vassar, there was a yearly party called The Homo Hop. It was one of the biggest parties of the year and leaned on Vassar’s history as a women’s college. I bring this up because, on the night of my freshman Homo Hop, I was instructed that each student had to do something sexually that they had never done, and one drug that they had never done. It wasn’t that you had to be gay, but you had to experience something that was new and different. I think that translated well into the Quarterly. Yes, there were a bunch of gay guys writing and shooting and drawing images. But we were simply trying to expose Cargo Short Brett to ideas, images, artists, books, writers and directors that he may have never heard of before. Our shared experiences would become his.

Collins: It was culture jamming, really.

Abadsidis: It was also very “college” to be fluid or experimental without labeling it. I think it’s safe to say that college is one of the gayest places there is in life, maybe not sexually, but definitely in terms of having your mind expanded about different types of people.

Carney: I was in a frat. I’d see fraternity brothers streaking across campus together. It was never a big deal. There are a lot more people in the middle of either extreme of sexuality than people talk about. We’re not one and 10 — we’re one through 10, if you will. That kind of stuff has always happened on college campuses, and that’s the kind of mentality we had around sex. We just happened to editorialize it really beautifully.

Collins: There’s a Barbara Kruger print that reminds me of the mood we were trying to capture: It reads: “You construct intricate rituals which allow you to touch the skin of other men.” That’s basically what Abercrombie & Fitch was. It was an intricate ritual that allowed sunkissed lacrosse players to metaphorically touch the skin of other men.

Carney: You know what’s funny, though? It was never the gay stuff people had a problem with. It was everything else.

LET THE CONTROVERSIES BEGIN

For almost every moment of its seven-year life, The Quarterly was a controversial publication. Parents, politicians and conservative-types didn’t appreciate its no-holds-barred approach to rampant fucking, and they could not, for the life of them, understand how such an adult magazine was making its way into the hands of their precious teens (who were probably jacking off to dad’s Playboys long before the Quarterly came along, but I digress). There was approximately one year — 1997 — where the amount of people it pissed off stayed below a critical mass, but after a certain somebody published a story that vaguely suggested underage kids drink, it was off to the races.

Abadsidis: We got in our fair share of trouble with Christian groups and concerned parents right off the bat. Let’s take one of the earlier issues — I believe it was Summer of 1998. It was my story. Basically, I suggested that people could do better than beer and that they should “indulge in some creative drinking.” There was one drink I made up called the “Brain Hemorrhage” and a few others you could play a drinking game with. We also included a spinner insert people could cut out.

None of it had anything to do with driving, of course, but the issue was called “On the Road.” It was a sort of beat-focused, Jack Kerouac thing, so some people interpreted that as us promoting drunk driving (though we did nothing of the sort). Also, the kid on the cover was underage. He was 16, if I remember correctly. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) didn’t like that.

Karolyn Nunnallee, vice president of public policy for MADD: We had been really focused on underage drinking and had been instrumental in getting the country’s legal drinking age raised to 21. Then Abercrombie & Fitch comes out with this weird magazine that basically said, “Don’t go back to college drinking the usual beer. We’re going to show you a new way to drink.”

Not only did they have this drinking game, but they had recipes for these mixed drinks for young people to partake in. I was like, “Abercrombie & Fitch? Aren’t they in the clothing business?” What in the world were they doing? I mean, they were a high-end brand, not Walmart. Why would they take their focus off of clothing and put it toward alcohol? Were their clothes not good enough that year or something?

Needless to say, we weren’t happy with them. Curse words were handed out. We sent a letter to them and started a whole media campaign about it. We went on as many news media outlets as we possibly could with the story of how incensed we were.

Abadsidis: I was sure I was going to get fired over that. We had to remove the page with the spinner out of every single issue across the country. We apologized, of course, but it ended up backfiring against the protesters — that incident gave us so much publicity. It put us on the map. It also made us a target for conservative types. They hated us. After MADD, boycotts of Abercrombie started flaring up all over the place. That’s around the time we hired Hampton to do PR.

Carney: It was my job, at the time, to defend the brand. I’d go on talk shows like Entertainment Tonight or Today Show and explain away our latest controversy (there were a lot). It wasn’t hard, actually; each time, I’d give them what was more or less my go-to response: “It’s a beautiful publication intended for college-aged kids.” And that was the truth! It was way ahead of its time and was absolutely meant for people 18 and up.

Though not everyone saw it that way. The sex and nudity really got to people. A lot of them definitely thought we were making porn. That was the constant complaint: We were deliberately putting porn in the hands of young kids.

Lever: The Quarterly featured about the same level of nudity as a European yogurt commercial. Which is to say, a lot. It was a “clothing catalog” with almost no clothing. Of course [American] people thought it was pornographic!

Carney: Okay, sure — there were photos of like, six girls in bed with one guy and more than a few spreads that enthusiastically suggested naked non-monogamy — but it wasn’t porn. It was tasteful. And let me tell you — nothing we had in there was surprising to kids.

Abadsidis: The models ranged from 16 to 20. It was erotic. It was art. I don’t think there’s anything pornographic about the Quarterly unless you think that nudity, in and of itself, is pornographic.

Illinois Lieutenant Governor Corinne Wood did, apparently. In 1999, she called for a boycott of Abercrombie & Fitch because its “Naughty or Nice” holiday issue “contained nudity” and “even an interview with a porn star.” That porn star was none other than Jenna Jameson, who at the time was well on her way to becoming a household name. A so-called “child prodigy” occupied the neighboring page, sparking accusations that the Quarterly somehow intended to connect children to porn.

A cartoon of Mr. and Mrs. Claus experimenting with S&M across from the statement “Sometimes it’s good to be bad” didn’t help, nor did the “sexpert” who offered advice on “sex for three” and told readers that going down on each other in a movie theater was acceptable “just so long as you do not disturb those around you.”

The Illinois Coalition of Sexual Assault joined Wood’s boycott. Later that year, Michigan attorney general (and eventual governor) Jennifer Granholm sent a letter to Abercrombie complaining that the “Naughty or Nice” issue contained sexual material that couldn’t be distributed to minors under state law.

Carney: There were four states that tried to ban us after that. I remember Granholm. She was my arch-nemesis at the time — we really got into it. I respected where she was coming from, of course, but our whole thing was that we weren’t showing anything that wasn’t actually happening on college campuses. And I’d already made it pretty clear to the press that the magazine wasn’t for minors.

Also, it’s not like we were the only magazine talking about or showing sex. You could find all the exact same stuff in Cosmo or Playboy — it’s just that we were a clothing brand, and one whose major customer base just so happened to be teens and young adults. No one expected that from us. Brands weren’t “supposed” to be talking about sex period, let alone to teens and young adults. But we took it upon ourselves to pioneer a more open, honest view of it. That’s the wrinkle that made it so interesting.

We did come to an agreement with Granholm. We decided to wrap the magazine in plastic and make it available for purchase only to those over 18, that way, it’d be even more clear that we weren’t “selling porn to the underage.”

Kon: I believe it was one of the few times the company acquiesced.

Collins: Other than that, don’t remember getting any instruction from Savas, Mike or Sam to tone it down. It was kind of mutually assumed that we weren’t going to apologize for the sexual nature of our content. We knew we had to keep things sexy, as it were — that was our whole thing.

We weren’t deliberately trying to piss off people, but we were trying to push the envelope, and there was definitely an element of deliberate trolling of conservatives and Christian groups. It was a good thing if we pissed them off. It created the controversy that made the brand seem edgy and dangerous, which is what you want if you’re trying to appeal to young people.

Carney: We were also just showing real things that happened at college. And as anyone who’s been to college knows, it’s not just about reading and writing papers. It’s also about sex. Not only that, of course, but we’re sexual beings. We respond to images that are sexual. We were trying to take the stigma away from that and acknowledge that it’s not a bad thing to do.

But no matter how clear we made it, our stance on sex polarized people more and more. I could tell, because almost as soon as I started speaking on behalf of the magazine, strange things started to happen to me. I got stalkers. People left me messages saying I was going to hell and I’d have no afterlife. I got hate mail to my house. One person left a package containing their dirty, stained underwear at the front door of my apartment with a note saying they’d be “coming by later” to “talk to me about it.” I had to call the police on that one.

I was the face of the publication, so I got the vast majority of the harassment. But I didn’t mind. It was my job to take the fall, and I heard and respected every single person’s complaint and talked to them about it. Plus, for every message I got banishing me to hell, I got another from a journalist or a fan begging me to save a copy for them. People collected them. They really loved it, precisely because it was so sexual.

Abadsidis: Mike didn’t flinch about any of this stuff. He wanted to defend it because he could see it was working. We weren’t about to tone anything down (at the time).

Flash-forward to June 2001. The Twin Towers are still standing tall, tips are being frosted and Apple has just unleashed iTunes onto an unsuspecting populace. A&F Quarterly, now in its fourth year, is in hot water once again. Having survived a number of boycotts, lawsuits and controversies since its inception, it’s now in the midst of weathering another minor national conniption over its use of nudity.

Jeannine Stein, describing the Summer 2001 issue in an excerpt from a Los Angeles Times article called “Nudity? A&F Quarterly Has It Covered”: [It’s] explicit in ways that most catalogs and fashion magazines are not, and its use of male nudity is uncommon among general-interest publications. It features 280 pages of young, attractive men and women alone and together, in serious, romantic, sexual and party modes, wearing lots of A&F clothes, some A&F clothes and sometimes no clothes at all. Among the coffee-table book-ish photos by Bruce Weber is a man, covered only by a towel, surrounded by five women; a woman at the beach reclining body-to-body with three men; a back view of a naked man getting into a helicopter (we haven’t quite figured that one out yet); and a few topless females.

There are many naked butts and breasts.

Abadsidis: We also had photos of nude women in a fountain — which were inspired by Katharine Hepburn skinny-dipping at Bryn Mawr College — and a whole set dedicated to the Berkeley student that spent a day naked in class. It was par for the course for us, but even though we’d done the whole shrink-wrap and over-18 thing, people still felt it was too sexual for branded content.

In response, an unexpected alliance formed between cultural conservatives and anti-porn feminists to boycott Abercrombie & Fitch over the Summer 2001 issue of A&F Quarterly. According to Wikipedia, the offending issue included “photographs of naked or near-naked young people frolicking on the beach,” “top-naked young women and rear-naked young men on top of each other” and an “interview with porn star Ron Jeremy, who discussed performing oral sex on himself and using a dildo cast from his own penis.” Once again, Wood was at the helm.

David Crary, journalist, excerpt from a 2001 Associated Press article: Illinois Lt. Gov. Corinne Wood — a Republican who has been sparring with A&F since 1999 — announced the boycott campaign last week in Chicago. She has recruited a diverse mix of supporters more familiar with facing off against each other than with working together.

Wood, writing on her website in 2001: A&F is glamorizing indiscriminate sexual behavior that unsophisticated teenagers are not possibly equipped to weigh against the dangers of date rape, unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted disease.

Michelle Dewlen, president of the Chicago chapter of the National Organization for Women, speaking at one of Woods’ press conferences in 2001: It’s not a catalog. It’s a soft porn magazine.

Rev. Bob Vanden Bosch, head of Concerned Christian Americans, as quoted by the AP: It’s very important for people to get involved. The exploitation of sex and young people in A&F’s catalog isn’t only atrocious but also a psychological molestation of their teenage customers.

Quart: It was predatory in a few ways, really. One was that it confused the corporate identity of Abercrombie and the advertising with the editorial. It preyed on young consumers not understanding the difference between editorial content and sales content. Back then it led, I saw, to a way that girls were objectifying themselves and commodifying themselves. It ultimately led to boys also objectifying themselves and commodifying themselves — not to the same extent, but far more than they were when I started reporting Branded a little more than two decades ago.

I have the stats on the male body image dysmorphia at the time in Branded (which has only worsened). Then, male body shaming and “manorexia” was on the rise, for the first time on a mass scale. It couldn’t help for the most popular brand at the time to have a dedicated giant glossy magazine filled with pictures of male teenagers with zero body fat half undressed.

Abadsidis: I mean, sure, as much as any advertising does. It wasn’t like we were leading that charge. Any effect on self-image was certainly unintentional, but I do think it did make people want to be athletic. You definitely saw a lot of guys trying to look like that during that period, especially as time went on. If you look at the first few issues, the guys aren’t that built. Ashton Kutcher was actually in the second one — that was his first big break — and they get increasingly more cut from there. That whole era is when men’s body issues started to come out.

Lever: I’d also submit that all this was controversial because it was pre-internet. The internet mainstreamed sexual content in a way that makes A&F or other “scandalous” ad campaigns (like the 2003 Gucci ad with the model’s pubes shaved into the shape of a G) seem quaint, even obsolete. Like, do you remember that Eckhaus Latta ad a few years ago that scandalized people for five minutes because it showed people having real (albeit pixelated) sex? Neither does anyone else.

SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK TEACHES SEX ED

Always filled with philosophy, social theory and intellectually minded topics that likely soared over the heads of most Abercrombie consumers, the Quarterly outdid itself in the Fall of 2003 with its penultimate issue. A gorgeous romp of summer-spirited abandon accompanied by some delightfully incoherent, Dada-like musings from Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek, it connected a “back-to-school” theme with a pretty clear directive to fuck. Yet, the information it presented was actually rather safe and tame, a reality which confused and irritated Quarterly staff. Their content was legit, so why was everyone up in arms?

Abadsidis: The “Sex Ed” issue was the second to last one that we did. It got some of the most criticism, and was supposedly the reason everything was finished. I literally had stuff in there cited straight from the University of Michigan’s freshman student handbook on sexual conduct, and it still pissed people off! Then, of course, there was Žižek.

Lever: Žižek identifies as a radical leftist. He’s very famous for his work on cultural theory and critical theory. He analyzes all kinds of topics in his signature, impenetrable — but also approachable — style. And when I think of him, I think of his very distinctive manner of speaking, that some people have described as being on cocaine constantly. But he’s definitely kind of a cult figure, a favorite of people who consider themselves highbrow, but also fun.

He’s really touted as the greatest anti-capitalist of our time, and yet, here he was, “sexually educating” the mean girls and boys of your high school, in a brand catalog whose entire goal was to ensnare young people for the purpose of selling them distressed jeans.

According to the magazine’s foreword, the editor wrote to Žižek and said this: “Dear Slavoj, enclosed please find the images for our back to school issue. We’ve never had a philosopher write the text for our images before, so write what you like. We’re looking for that Karl Marx meets Groucho Marx thing you do so well. Thanks, Savas.”

Abadsidis: I love Slavoj. He was friends with one of my professors from school. He only had 24 hours to write this, so we actually sent someone to London where he was to drop off the images we wanted him to write text for. They hung out for a day and then flew back with what he’d written.

Lever: It was basically a series of insane, absurdist ramblings pasted over really hot naked people.

Žižek, excerpt from A&F Quarterly’s 2003 Sex Ed issue: Back to school thus means forget the stupid spontaneous pleasures of summer sports, of reading books, watching movies and listening to music. Pull yourself together and learn sex.

Lever: I mean, that’s like the first episode of every teen TV show, where these three nerdy boys start high school and they’re like, “Okay, we’re going to be cool this year guys. We’re going to lose our virginities.” It’s very formulaic. But there’s more.

Žižek: The only successful sexual relationship occurs when the fantasies of the two partners overlap. If the man fantasizes that making love is like riding a bike and the woman wants to be penetrated by a stud, then what truly goes on while they make love is that a horse is riding a bike… with a fantasy like that, who needs a personality?

Lever: The “go learn sex at school” part really struck a nerve with conservatives. But I don’t think it was that transgressive. Fourteen-year-olds are receiving messages to have sex all the time — what did it matter if some Eastern European anti-capitalist was hitting them over the head with it through the pages of a polo shirt advert?

Abadsidis: Fox News got involved, if I remember correctly. That was one of the few times I actually got pissed off about how an issue was being covered. I mean, the information in there was handed out to students by an actual university. Half the issue was quotes from this really influential philosopher. But for some reason, people really took offense to the language of it. That whole year [2003] was just a bad one for us.

THE LAST HORNY CHRISTMAS

For its final trick, the Quarterly released a holiday issue featuring 280 pages of “moose, ice hockey, chivalry, group sex and more.” It had oral sex, group sex, sex in a river, Christmas sex and pretty much every other type of sex you could think of, all which followed an earnest letter from Abadsidis which read: “We don’t want much this year, but in keeping with the spirit, we’d like to ask forgiveness from some of the people we’ve offended over the years. If you’d be so kind, please offer our apologies to the following: the Catholic League, former Lt. Governor Corrine Wood of Illinois, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Stanford University Asian American Association, N.O.W.”

But the issue didn’t really hit. By fall 2003, Abercrombie was involved in a number of lawsuits and protests related to exclusion and discrimination, which left people cold despite the inviting warmth of a crackling, fireside circle jerk (a Weber offering which, I’m told, can be found on page 88 of the final issue).

Cole Kazdin, journalist, writing in a 2003 Slate article called “Have Yourself a Horny Little Christmas”: The challenge for me, when masturbating with my friends to the nubile nudies in the Abercrombie & Fitch catalog, is trying not to think about serious things like racial diversity; it tends to kill the mood. But because most of the models in the catalog are white and because a lawsuit has been filed against the clothing retailer for allegedly discriminating against a Black woman who applied for a job at the store, it’s hard for the issue not to rear its nonsexy head. [In 2004, Abercrombie also agreed to pay $40 million to settle a lawsuit that accused the company of promoting whites over Latino, Black, Asian-American and female applicants.]

Collins: As a brand, Abercrombie did a lot of things that were quite gross. I’m sure you remember when they came out with these T-shirts with these racist stereotype characters on them. You would just see it in the catalog and just be like, “Jesus Christ.” It was awful and stupid and self-defeating, just tone deaf. And we just couldn’t figure out how no one at the company saw the problem with it.

Stagg, excerpt from Sleeveless: Kids in my high school wore shirts that read, “Wok-n-Bowl” and “Wong Brothers Laundry Service: Two Wongs Can Make It White,” accompanied by cross-eyed propaganda-style cartoons. If you weren’t part of the in-crowd (and white), A&F was oppressive. Non-jocks made their own anti-A&F T-shirts, using the brand as a catchall for exclusionary, competitive behavior and old-fashioned bullying.

Carney: That stuff was indefensible, really. Those were the darkest days of my job — listening to calls and reading letters about how offensive those shirts were. Even though the Quarterly was quite separate from the brand and we had no influence over what they did or what clothes they designed, we did still have to print their stuff at the back of the magazine. It was pretty uncomfortable.

Stagg: By 2006, Mike Jeffries’ most controversial public statement on sex appeal was really just saying what we were all thinking: “Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.” Those remarks were followed by lawsuit after lawsuit, mostly involving staffing discrimination. An announcement about the store refusing to carry anything over a size 10 reportedly marked a noticeable decrease in sales.

Abadsidis: There were a lot of underlying problems at the company. The amount of negative press Abercrombie was getting was getting silly. No matter what we did, we’d end up in the news, especially if it was related to the Quarterly. After so many bad news incidents, it just felt done, like its moment had passed. It was bound to crash at some point.

Gina Piccalo, excerpt from the Los Angeles Times: Clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch has pulled its controversial in-store catalogs after outraged parents, conservative Christian groups and child advocates threatened a boycott over material they said was pornographic. However, a company spokesman said the move had nothing to do with the public outcry. The catalogs were pulled to make room near cash registers for a new Abercrombie & Fitch fragrance.

Abadsidis: People like to think that the boycotts and Christian protests had something to do with it, but that wasn’t the case at all. By 2003, Abercrombie’s stock was low — something to do with ordering too much denim. The store was having negative sales for the first time. There was the line in the New York Times, who covered our demise, that Mike was “bored” with it.

Collins: We had no warning. We were all there one day, and the next, we were gone.

Lever: The Quarterly was a relic of a different time. I feel like it could never have been made after 2008 for so many reasons — economic, and cultural and political. It would just never fly. It was made before feminism pervaded everything, at a time where you could be completely flagrant about gross patriarchal shit and still get away with it.

It was kind of like this last gasp of a certain conception of what’s desirable — a very hegemonic coolness exemplified by white Ivy League frat kids who got fucked up the night before their philosophy class. That doesn’t have much currency anymore. Abercrombie kept that image on life support until its last gasp.

Now, 20 years later, what’s cool is not that. What’s cool is to have depression and ADD. The ideal is out. The real is in. And the Quarterly, having always existed in the liminal space between, is neither here nor there.

EPILOGUE

In 2008, Abercrombie resurrected the Quarterly in the U.K. for a limited-run special edition to celebrate the success of its European stores. The original team was reunited — Abadsidis, Shahid and Weber — with the hopes that Britain’s more “open-minded approach to culture and creativity” would provide a welcoming substrate on which to re-grow their original ideas of sexual liberation. The issue, “Return to Paradise,” was “more mature” than its American cousin. It was well-received — aside from the usual protests about sex and nudity — but it wasn’t continued.

Two years later, in 2010, the Quarterly was revived again, this time as a promotional element for Abercrombie’s Back-to-School 2010 marketing campaign, which bore the unfortunate title of “Screen Test.” The lead story Abercrombie put out on its website sounded like a cross between American Idol and a gay porn shot: “The staff of A&F Studios opens up to editorial to explain the steps the division takes to find new, young, hot boys. The cattle-call approach to herd young talent ends with the best of the beefcake earning a screen test that ‘could be the flint to spark the trip to the star.’”

Bruce Weber would be shooting, of course. This would become especially ominous after he was accused of a series of casting-couch style sexual assaults by 15 male models beginning in 2017. According to the accusations, he subjected them to sexually manipulative “breathing exercises” and inappropriate touching, insinuating that he could help their careers if they complied.

Arick Fudali, a lawyer at the Bloom Firm, which represents five of Weber’s alleged victims, declined to confirm or deny whether any of the alleged assaults happened on a Quarterly shoot. If they did, they’re not prosecutable as sexual assaults in New York. Because the states’s statute of limitations on reporting rape is only three years, anything that happened during the Quarterly’s run wouldn’t count toward a sexual assault charge (unless a minor was involved, which Fudali also declined to confirm).

No one I spoke with for this story remembers seeing, hearing or experiencing anything like what the allegations against Weber describe, but some expressed concern over how they might affect the legacy the Quarterly leaves behind. “The accusations are pretty grim,” Collins told me. “You feel for the people who are put in that position. People had power over them. It just makes you think, ‘Was any of this worth it?’ Not really, if people were getting hurt.”

As such, it’s difficult to conclude with definitive sign-off about the Quarterly’s legacy. Either it was a bastion of progressive and transversive sexuality that simultaneously trolled and nourished the very audience it sought to mine, or it was the product of darkness and pain. Either way, Sockel sums it up just right: “The Quarterly was discontinued in 2003, after the American Decency Association boycotted photos of doe-eyed bare-assed jocks in prairies and glens,” he wrote in his recollection. “It was nice while it lasted.”

[yaziciyasemin]

𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟓

You are invited to celebrate with all the familiar faces you have missed for the past 15 years. Come join us as we renew friendships, reminisce about the days gone by, and share in life experiences both past and present. Let's bring the gang from the Thomas Jefferson High School's class of 2005 back together!

For further information on the events planned for our reunion and to know how to RVSP click the link down below.

Hope to see you there!

With best regards, Alicia McCarthy, your 2005 student council president.

PLOT SUMMARY: Fifteen years after graduation, the class of 2005 receives an invitation for their High School reunion week. Their student council at the time, Alicia, has made sure to bug everyone into coming back for the event. This is a discord based group verse that follows the class through their HS reunion but will also count with events happening back in 2005 for further development.

𝐆𝐔𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐒

Your usual, no godmodding and no ooc drama. Open to mutuals and people I’ve been in verses with. Muns must be over the age of eighteen and all older FCS should be 28+, respecting the five years rule. Age range for muses is 32-34. You are allowed up to two muses, but please make sure to keep them diverse. 

𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

( fc/younger fc, gender, pronouns. ) isn't that NAME LASTNAME? god, they hasn't changed a bit. back in the good old days they were voted as YEARBOOK SUPERLATIVE because they were known for being TRAIT. they must be at least AGE IN LETTERS now, but they still look hot. i can't wait to hear everything they've been doing for the past fifteen years! ( mun name/alias, age, @url.) 

𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟓 ( 11/12 muns)

( dakota johnson/danielle rose russel, cis female, she/her. ) isn't that PARIS SARGENT? god, they hasn't changed a bit. back in the good old days they were voted as MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED because they were known for being CAPTIVATING. they must be at least THIRTY-TWO now, but they still look hot. i can't wait to hear everything they've been doing for the past fifteen years! ( barbie, 23, @sncflwers.)

( margot robbie / scarlett leithold, cis female, she/her. ) isn't that HAYLEY STEVENS? god, they hasn't changed a bit. back in the good old days they were voted as MOST LIKELY TO DESTROY A TALENTED MAN’S POTENTIAL because they were known for being PERSUASIVE. they must be at least THIRTY TWO now, but they still look hot. i can't wait to hear everything they've been doing for the past fifteen years! ( bela, 20, @drunkenloved. ) 

( trevante rhodes/algee smith, cis male, he/him. ) isn't that CAIN HOWELL? god, they hasn't changed a bit. back in the good old days they were voted as MOST LIKELY TO GET AWAY WITH ANYTHING because they were known for being CALCULATIVE. they must be at least THIRTY TWO now, but they still look hot. i can't wait to hear everything they've been doing for the past fifteen years! ( bela, 20, @drunkenloved. )

( elizabeth olsen/josephine langford, cis female, she/her. ) isn't that MAYA PRESTON? god, they hasn't changed a bit. back in the good old days they were voted as MOST LIKELY TO CHEER YOU UP because they were known for being BENEVOLENT. they must be at least THIRTY-TWO now, but they still look hot. i can't wait to hear everything they've been doing for the past fifteen years! ( jules, 23, @seremity.)

( chloe bennet/nathasha liu bordizzo, cis female, she/her. ) isn't that GWEN KNIGHT ? god, they hasn't changed a bit. back in the good old days they were voted as MOST LIKELY TO BE A REALITY TV STAR because they were known for being AMBITIOUS . they must be at least THIRTY-TWO now, but they still look hot. i can't wait to hear everything they've been doing for the past fifteen years! ( jules, 23, @seremity.)

( casey deidrick/nick robinson, cis male, he/him. ) isn't that COOPER HAWTHORNE ? god, they hasn't changed a bit. back in the good old days they were voted as MOST LIKELY TO BE CEO because they were known for being AMBITIOUS. they must be at least THIRTY-ONE now, but they still look hot. i can't wait to hear everything they've been doing for the past fifteen years! ( ron, 24, @mythvlogie.)

 ( manny montana/diego tinoco, cis male, he/him. ) isn't that RYAN NAVARRO ? god, they hasn't changed a bit. back in the good old days they were voted as MOST LIKELY TO WIN THE SUPERBOWL because they were known for being RESILIENT. they must be at least THIRTY-THREE now, but they still look hot. i can't wait to hear everything they've been doing for the past fifteen years! ( ron, 24, @mythvlogie.) 

( phoebe tonkin/diana silvers, cis female, she/her. ) isn't that ATHENA MONARCH? god, they hasn't changed a bit. back in the good old days they were voted as MOST LIKELY TO BE FAMOUS because they were known for being DRAMATIC. they must be at least THIRTY TWO now, but they still look hot. i can't wait to hear everything they've been doing for the past fifteen years! ( del, 22, @hctknife.) 

( nathalie kelley/isabela merced, cisfemale, she/her. ) isn’t that ALESSANDRA “ALES” QUISPE ? god, they hasn’t changed a bit. back in the good old days they were voted as MOST LIKELY TO END UP ON A MAGAZINE COVER because they were known for being COSMOPOLITAN. they must be at least THIRTY TWO now, but they still look hot. i can’t wait to hear everything they’ve been doing for the past fifteen years! ( han, 20, @stainedful​.)

( elizabeth lail / nicola peltz, cisfemale, she/her. ) isn't that SOPHIA BAUM? god, they hasn't changed a bit. back in the good old days they were voted as MOST LIKELY TO FALL IN LOVE... AGAIN because they were known for being QUIXOTIC. they must be at least THIRTY-TWO now, but they still look hot. i can't wait to hear everything they've been doing for the past fifteen years! ( holly, 18+, @frgilebones.)

( matthew noska / rudy pankow, cismale, he/him. ) isn't that HOLDEN LOWELL? god, they hasn't changed a bit. back in the good old days they were voted as MOST LIKELY TO TRAVEL AROUND THE WORLD because they were known for being AUDACIOUS. they must be at least THIRTY-FOUR now, but they still look hot. i can't wait to hear everything they've been doing for the past fifteen years! ( holly, 18+, @frgilebones.)

( chris evans/evan roderick, cismale, he / him. ) isn’t that DARREN WRIGHT? god, they hasn’t changed a bit. back in the good old days they were voted as MOST LIKELY TO WIN AN OLYMPIC MEDAL because they were known for being ARDENT. they must be at least THIRTY-FOUR now, but they still look hot. i can’t wait to hear everything they’ve been doing for the past fifteen years! ( leesh, 21, @wearyhands.) 

( megan fox/kennedy walsh, cisfemale, she / her. ) isn’t that REINA MANCINI? god, they hasn’t changed a bit. back in the good old days they were voted as MOST LIKELY TO LEAVE AND NEVER COME BACK because they were known for being DAUNTLESS. they must be at least THIRTY-TWO now, but they still look hot. i can’t wait to hear everything they’ve been doing for the past fifteen years! ( leesh, 21, @wearyhands.)

( bill skarsgard/hero fiennes-tiffin, cis male, he/him. ) isn't that MILO QUINN? god, they hasn't changed a bit. back in the good old days they were voted as MOST LIKELY TO SET A WORLD RECORD because they were known for being WILFUL. they must be at least THIRTY THREE now, but they still look hot. i can't wait to hear everything they've been doing for the past fifteen years! ( lottie, twenty four, @sugarkick.)

( zoe kravitz/zendaya coleman, cis female, she/her. ) isn’t that MAZVITA ZABALA? god, they hasn’t changed a bit. back in the good old days they were voted as MOST LIKELY TO GO ON A TOUR because they were known for being RESTLESS. they must be at least THIRTY THREE now, but they still look hot. i can’t wait to hear everything they’ve been doing for the past fifteen years! ( lottie, 24, @sugarkick.)

( imogen poots/madison iseman, cis female, she/her. ) isn't that SUTTON RHODES? god, they hasn't changed a bit. back in the good old days they were voted as CLASS CLOWN/BIGGEST PRANKSTER because they were known for being MISCHIEVOUS. they must be at least THIRTY TWO now, but they still look hot. i can't wait to hear everything they've been doing for the past fifteen years! ( kels, 25, @foolsongs.)

( theo james/jacob elordi, cis male, he/him.) isn't that GRANT PALMER? god, they hasn't changed a bit. back in the good old days they were voted as MOST LIKELY TO QUIETLY TAKE OVER THE WORLD because they were known for being RESOURCEFUL. they must be at least THIRTY FOUR now, but they still look hot. i can't wait to hear everything they've been doing for the past fifteen years! ( kels, 25, @foolsongs.) 

( chace crawford/thomas doherty, cismale, he/him. ) isn't that JAMESON BAXTER? god, they hasn't changed a bit. back in the good old days they were voted as MOST LIKELY TO DIE ALONE because they were known for being NONCOMMITTAL. they must be at least THIRTY-FOUR now, but they still look hot. i can't wait to hear everything they've been doing for the past fifteen years! ( bryanna/bry, 25, @jcycus.)

( laura harrier / alisha boe, cis female, she/her. ) isn't that CLAIRE HUNTER? god, they hasn't changed a bit. back in the good old days they were voted as MOST LIKELY TO BECOME FAMOUS because they were known for being AMBITIOUS. they must be at least THIRTY-TWO now, but they still look hot. i can't wait to hear everything they've been doing for the past fifteen years! ( sky, 24, @wuunderstruck.) 

( kirby howell-baptiste/diamond white, cis female, she/her. ) isn’t that ISABEL BAXTER? god, they haven’t changed a bit. back in the good old days they were voted as MOST LIKELY TO SKIP GRADUATION because they were known for being INDOLENT. they must be at least THIRTY-THREE now, but they still look hot. i can’t wait to hear everything they’ve been doing for the past fifteen years! ( jay, 22, @heartshapcd.)

( adelaide kane/ella hunt, cisfemale, she/her. ) isn't that KEIRA MURPHY? god, they hasn't changed a bit. back in the good old days they were voted as MOST LIKELY TO WIN THE LOTTERY AND LOSE THE TICKET because they were known for being FORGETFUL. they must be at least THIRTY-TWO now, but they still look hot. i can't wait to hear everything they've been doing for the past fifteen years! ( bry, 25, @jcycus)

[midsvmmars]

 CHARACTER NAME MASTERLISTS

under the cut are name ideas for your characters (with meaning) if you're struggling to find one that fits! there is a mixture of generic and odd names, but overall underused in the rpc! they will be seperated into female, male, and unisex!! i hope this helps, and if you need anymore name ideas don’t be afraid to send me a message for some more! i might make a part two if i find or remember more names that weren’t here!!

female:

joanna/johanna/joanne - gift from god

roxanne - dawn of the day

claudia - lame

suzanne - lily

nancy - grace

audrey - noble and strong

calliope - beautiful voice

paulette - small and humble

kiana - ancient

lorelai - to watch a cliff/ambush cliff

effy - well spoken

renata - born again

darby - free from envy

darcy - dark

greta - pearl

mellie - brave strength

veena - musical

brandy - flaming torch

shannon - wise river

sionna - possessor of wisdom

daisy - day’s eye

lara - famous, protection, and cheerful

margot - pearl

lynette - bird

alice - noble

edie - prosperous in war

rosemary - dew of the sea, bitter rose

nicolette - people of victory

lana - harmony

siobhan - the lord is gracious

helen - bright, shining light

helena - bright, shining light

yelena - shining one

natalia - birthday of the lord

enya - fire

anya - grace

samantha - told by god

felicity - good fortune

ramona - wise protector

matilda - battle mighty

bronwyn - white breast

laura - bay laural

blanche - white

cassandra - prophetess

bonnie - beautiful, cheerful

nadia - hope

colette - people of victory

alyssa - noble

sabrina - river severn

beverly - dweller near the beaver stream

heather - a flowering evergreen plant

elodie - foreign riches

melody - song

posy/posey - a bunch of flowers

zelda - dark battle

libby - pledged to god

luna - moon

adina - slender, delicate

rhiannon - divine queen

dolores - lady of sorrows

dorothy - gift of god

agatha - good woman

hannah - grace

cher - beloved

alicia - noble

mina - protector

vanessa - literary invention, butterfly

marcella - warlike

marisa - of the sea

nora - light

janine - god is gracious

valentina - strength, health

valencia - brave, strong

ada - noble

jasmine - flower

magdalena - of magdala

gwendolyn - white ring

sophie/sophia/sofia - wisdom

letitia - joy, gladness

nicole - people of victory

naomi - pleasantness

hilda - battle woman

katerina - pure

audra - noble strength

wendy - friend

viola - violet

tilly - battle mighty

bernadette - brave as a bear

birdie - bird

mara - bitter

imogen - maiden

eloise - healthy, wide

amaya - night rain

amara - grace, bitter

mya/maya - water

diana - divine

anastasia - resurrection

genevieve - woman of the race

angelica - angelic

celine - heavenly

chrissa - follower of christ

myrtle - a flowering shrub

odessa - wrathful

beatrice/beatrix - she who brings happiness

winifred - blessed peacemaking

marnie - rejoice

velma - resolute protection

eleanor - light

elizabeth - pledged to god

ophelia/ofelia - help

gemma - precious stone

greta - pearl

christine - anointed

daphne - laurel or bay tree

juliette - youthful

amber - jewel

dinah - god will judge

danika - morning star

esther - star

marisol - mary of sun or solitude

mariella - bitter or wished for child

mariel - bitter

muriel - of the bright sea

phoebe - radiant, shining one

winona - firstborn daughter

olivia - olive tree

jessica - rich

yvonne - yew wood

camila - young ceremonial attendant 

marcia - warlike

carrie/kerry - free man

victoria - victory

chloe - blooming, fertility

sabine - woman of the people

veronica - she who brings victory, true image

rachel - beautiful in form and countenance

wilhelmina - resolute protection

odeya - i will thank god

tabitha - gazelle

lacy - belonging to lace

willow - willow tree

charisma - charismatic

sarah - princess

sally - princess

cordelia - heart, daughter of the sea

jade - stone of the side

violet - purple

isadora - gift of isis

barbara - foreign woman

moxie - know how

brittany - from briton

dionne - divine

sonia/sonya - wisdom

sibyl - seer, oracle

mallory - unfortunate

male:

warren - park keeper

fitzgerald - son of gerald

fitzwilliam - son of william

tiago - saint james

gideon - hewer

clinton/clint - hilltop town

diego - supplanter

simon - the listener

charles - free man

zachary - the lord has remembered 

edward - wealthy guardian

trevor - from the large village

gregory - vigilant, a watchman

gerald - ruler with the spear

holden - hollow valley

richard - dominant ruler

ronan - little seal

roman - of rome

frank - free man

peter - rock

stanley - near the stony clearing

sebastian - revered

fletcher - arrow maker

steve - garland, crown

jimmy - supplanter

dewey - beloved

james - supplanter

michael - who is like god?

garfield - triangle field

ethan - strong, firm

clive - lives near a cliff

owen - young warrior

jackson - son of jack

christopher - bearer of christ

ernest - serious or resolute

jeffrey - pledge of peace

dean - church official

leonard - brave lion

romeo - pilgrim to rome

duncan - dark warrior

trent - the flooder

malcom - malevolent, devotee of saint columba

roy - red haired

ross - upland, peninsula 

bernard - strong, brave as a bear

jared -  he descends

enrique - estate ruler

axel - father of peace

zayn/zane - god is gracious

xavier - new house or bright

zander - defending men

vincent - conquering

duke - nobility

bo/beau - handsome

william - resolute protection

finn/finnegan - fair

clyde - river

hunter - one who hunts

benjamin - benevolent, son of the right hand

garrett - spear strength

hugo - mind, intellect

oscar - god spear, deer lover, champion warrior

dante - enduring

enzo - estate ruler

mateo - gift of god

wyatt - brave in war

seth - appointed, placed

jay - jaybird

carlos - freeman

logan - small hollow

ace - one, unity

henry - estate ruler

eric/erik - eternal ruler

timothy - honoring god

kent - edge

frederick - peaceful ruler

nicholas - people of victory

anthony - priceless one

asher - fortunate, blessed

dimitri - follower of demeter

sean/shawn - god is gracious

gabriel/gabe - god is my strength

timothy - honoring god

colin - pup

jameson - son of james

conrad - brave counsel

alexander/xander - defending men

harvey - battle worthy

oliver - olive tree

lance - servant

rupert - bright fame

johnathan - gift of jehovah

robert - bright fame

dustin brave warrior, thor’s stone

alberto - noble, bright

nolan - champion

marcus - warlike

elias - yahweh is god

fernald - from the fern slope

klaus - people of victory

jaques - supplanter

bertrand - magnificent crow

atticus - from attica

cole - swarthy, coal black

darian - kingly or possess well

andrew - strong and manly

joshua - the lord is my salvation

joss - the merry one

albert - noble, bright

felix - happy, fortunate

andre - man

maxwell - great stream

maximillian - greatest

willard - resolutely brave

raphael - god has healed

marius - god of war

scott - from scotland

kane - warrior

homer - security, pledge

caleb - devotion to god

alfred/alfie - wise counselor

randy - shield wolf

conner/connor - lover of hounds

unisex:

ashley - lives in the ash tree grove/meadow of ash tree’s

jordan - flowing down

rowan - little redhead

aspen - quiver in the lightest breeze

sutton - from the southern homestead

dylan - child of the sea

shaw - lives by the thicket

cody/kody - helpful, pillow

dakota/decota - friendly one

riley - courageous

reese - ardent, fiery

kendall - valley of the river kent

peyton/payton - fighting mans estate

taylor - tailor

blake - fair haired, dark

arden - valley of the eagle

rory - red king

mica/micah - who is like the lord

wren - spear

spencer - keeper of provisions

maddox - fortunate

lennox - elm grove

casper/kasper - treasurer

quinn - wisdom

casey - brave in battle

andy/andi - strong

drew - strong

jamie - supplanter

cameron - crooked nose

kolbey/colby/etc - from a coal town

regan - little king

aaron/erin - enlightened

max - greatest

gale/gail - my father rejoices

ty/tai - great extreme

kit - pure

morgan - sea born

renee - reborn

joey - jehovah increases

sloane - raider

andrea - strong

brooke - small stream

rooney - descendant of the champion

jackie - supplanter

shelby - estate on the ledge

harper - harp player

allison - noble

sandy - defending men

gal - wave

eman - belief, faith

miles - soldier, merciful

dashiell/dash - unknown

cooper - barrel maker

dale - valley

howard - high guardian or brave heart 

tyler - maker of tiles

mason/maysenne - stoneworker

rudy - famous wolf

ryan - little king

dorian - child of the sea

shane - gift from god

drew - descendant of the druid

[wikitopx]

Finding the perfect name for your newborn baby may take some time and careful consideration, but it can also be very interesting.

In fact, it's one of the first and biggest decisions you have to make as a new parent. Are you looking for a son to speak of a family tradition or celebrate a cultural tradition? Whatever your approach, you'll find lots of great options on the following list of the 1,000 most popular boys, according to Social Security Administration (SSA). Take a look to help you narrow down your favorites list (or inspire new ones) and enjoy the experience of finding your favorite name for your new son.

[toc]

1. Top 1,000 Baby Boy Names

Liam

Noah

William

James

Oliver

Benjamin

Elijah

Lucas

Mason

Logan

Alexander

Ethan

Jacob

Michael

Daniel

Henry

Jackson

Sebastian

Aiden

Matthew

Samuel

David

Joseph

Carter

Owen

Wyatt

John

Jack

Luke

Jayden

Dylan

Grayson

Levi

Isaac

Gabriel

Julian

Mateo

Anthony

Jaxon

Lincoln

Joshua

Christopher

Andrew

Theodore

Caleb

Ryan

Asher

Nathan

Thomas

Leo

Isaiah

Charles

Josiah

Hudson

Christian

Hunter

Connor

Eli

Ezra

Aaron

Landon

Adrian

Jonathan

Nolan

Jeremiah

Easton

Elias

Colton

Cameron

Carson

Robert

Angel

Maverick

Nicholas

Dominic

Jaxson

Greyson

Adam

Ian

Austin

Santiago

Jordan

Cooper

Brayden

Roman

Evan

Ezekiel

Xavier

Jose

Jace

Jameson

Leonardo

Bryson

Axel

Everett

Parker

Kayden

Miles

Sawyer

Jason

Declan

Weston

Micah

Ayden

Wesley

Luca

Vincent

Damian

Zachary

Silas

Gavin

Chase

Kai

Emmett

Harrison

Nathaniel

Kingston

Cole

Tyler

Bennett

Bentley

Ryker

Tristan

Brandon

Kevin

Luis

George

Ashton

Rowan

Braxton

Ryder

Gael

Ivan

Diego

Maxwell

Max

Carlos

Kaiden

Juan

Maddox

Justin

Waylon

Calvin

Giovanni

Jonah

Abel

Jayce

Jesus

Amir

King

Beau

Camden

Alex

Jasper

Malachi

Brody

Jude

Blake

Emmanuel

Eric

Brooks

Elliot

Antonio

Abraham

Timothy

Finn

Rhett

Elliott

Edward

August

Xander

Alan

Dean

Lorenzo

Bryce

Karter

Victor

Milo

Miguel

Hayden

Graham

Grant

Zion

Tucker

Jesse

Zayden

Joel

Richard

Patrick

Emiliano

Avery

Nicolas

Brantley

Dawson

Myles

Matteo

River

Steven

Thiago

Zane

Matias

Judah

Messiah

Jeremy

Preston

Oscar

Kaleb

Alejandro

Marcus

Mark

Peter

Maximus

Barrett

Jax

Andres

Holden

Legend

Charlie

Knox

Kaden

Paxton

Kyrie

Kyle

Griffin

Josue

Kenneth

Beckett

Enzo

Adriel

Arthur

Felix

Bryan

Lukas

Paul

Brian

Colt

Caden

Leon

Archer

Omar

Israel

Aidan

Theo

Javier

Remington

Jaden

Bradley

Emilio

Colin

Riley

Cayden

Phoenix

Clayton

Simon

Ace

Nash

Derek

Rafael

Zander

Brady

Jorge

Jake

Louis

Damien

Karson

Walker

Maximiliano

Amari

Sean

Chance

Walter

Martin

Finley

Andre

Tobias

Cash

Corbin

Arlo

Iker

Erick

Emerson

Gunner

Cody

Stephen

Francisco

Killian

Dallas

Reid

Manuel

Lane

Atlas

Rylan

Jensen

Ronan

Beckham

Daxton

Anderson

Kameron

Raymond

Orion

Cristian

Tanner

Kyler

Jett

Cohen

Ricardo

Spencer

Gideon

Ali

Fernando

Jaiden

Titus

Travis

Bodhi

Eduardo

Dante

Ellis

Prince

Kane

Luka

Kash

Hendrix

Desmond

Donovan

Mario

Atticus

Cruz

Garrett

Hector

Angelo

Jeffrey

Edwin

Cesar

Zayn

Devin

Conor

Warren

Odin

Jayceon

Romeo

Julius

Jaylen

Hayes

Kayson

Muhammad

Jaxton

Joaquin

Caiden

Dakota

Major

Keegan

Sergio

Marshall

Johnny

Kade

Edgar

Leonel

Ismael

Marco

Tyson

Wade

Collin

Troy

Nasir

Conner

Adonis

Jared

Rory

Andy

Jase

Lennox

Shane

Malik

Ari

Reed

Seth

Clark

Erik

Lawson

Trevor

Gage

Nico

Malakai

Quinn

Cade

Johnathan

Sullivan

Solomon

Cyrus

Fabian

Pedro

Frank

Shawn

Malcolm

Khalil

Nehemiah

Dalton

Mathias

Jay

Ibrahim

Peyton

Winston

Kason

Zayne

Noel

Princeton

Matthias

Gregory

Sterling

Dominick

Elian

Grady

Russell

Finnegan

Ruben

Gianni

Porter

Kendrick

Leland

Pablo

Allen

Hugo

Raiden

Kolton

Remy

Ezequiel

Damon

Emanuel

Zaiden

Otto

Bowen

Marcos

Abram

Kasen

Franklin

Royce

Jonas

Sage

Philip

Esteban

Drake

Kashton

Roberto

Harvey

Alexis

Kian

Jamison

Maximilian

Adan

Milan

Phillip

Albert

Dax

Mohamed

Ronin

Kamden

Hank

Memphis

Oakley

Augustus

Drew

Moises

Armani

Rhys

Benson

Jayson

Kyson

Braylen

Corey

Gunnar

Omari

Alonzo

Landen

Armando

Derrick

Dexter

Enrique

Bruce

Nikolai

Francis

Rocco

Kairo

Royal

Zachariah

Arjun

Deacon

Skyler

Eden

Alijah

Rowen

Pierce

Uriel

Ronald

Luciano

Tate

Frederick

Kieran

Lawrence

Moses

Rodrigo

Brycen

Leonidas

Nixon

Keith

Chandler

Case

Davis

Asa

Darius

Isaias

Aden

Jaime

Landyn

Raul

Niko

Trenton

Apollo

Cairo

Izaiah

Scott

Dorian

Julio

Wilder

Santino

Dustin

Donald

Raphael

Saul

Taylor

Ayaan

Duke

Ryland

Tatum

Ahmed

Moshe

Edison

Emmitt

Cannon

Alec

Danny

Keaton

Roy

Conrad

Roland

Quentin

Lewis

Samson

Brock

Kylan

Cason

Ahmad

Jalen

Nikolas

Braylon

Kamari

Dennis

Callum

Justice

Soren

Rayan

Aarav

Gerardo

Ares

Brendan

Jamari

Kaison

Yusuf

Issac

Jasiah

Callen

Forrest

Makai

Crew

Kobe

Bo

Julien

Mathew

Braden

Johan

Marvin

Zaid

Stetson

Casey

Ty

Ariel

Tony

Zain

Callan

Cullen

Sincere

Uriah

Dillon

Kannon

Colby

Axton

Cassius

Quinton

Mekhi

Reece

Alessandro

Jerry

Mauricio

Sam

Trey

Mohammad

Alberto

Gustavo

Arturo

Fletcher

Marcelo

Abdiel

Hamza

Alfredo

Chris

Finnley

Curtis

Kellan

Quincy

Kase

Harry

Kyree

Wilson

Cayson

Hezekiah

Kohen

Neil

Mohammed

Raylan

Kaysen

Lucca

Sylas

Mack

Leonard

Lionel

Ford

Roger

Rex

Alden

Boston

Colson

Briggs

Zeke

Dariel

Kingsley

Valentino

Jamir

Salvador

Vihaan

Mitchell

Lance

Lucian

Darren

Jimmy

Alvin

Amos

Tripp

Zaire

Layton

Reese

Casen

Colten

Brennan

Korbin

Sonny

Bruno

Orlando

Devon

Huxley

Boone

Maurice

Nelson

Douglas

Randy

Gary

Lennon

Titan

Denver

Jaziel

Noe

Jefferson

Ricky

Lochlan

Rayden

Bryant

Langston

Lachlan

Clay

Abdullah

Lee

Baylor

Leandro

Ben

Kareem

Layne

Joe

Crosby

Deandre

Demetrius

Kellen

Carl

Jakob

Ridge

Bronson

Jedidiah

Rohan

Larry

Stanley

Tomas

Shiloh

Thaddeus

Watson

Baker

Vicente

Koda

Jagger

Nathanael

Carmelo

Shepherd

Graysen

Melvin

Ernesto

Jamie

Yosef

Clyde

Eddie

Tristen

Grey

Ray

Tommy

Samir

Ramon

Santana

Kristian

Marcel

Wells

Zyaire

Brecken

Byron

Otis

Reyansh

Axl

Joey

Trace

Morgan

Musa

Harlan

Enoch

Henrik

Kristopher

Talon

Rey

Guillermo

Houston

Jon

Vincenzo

Dane

Terry

Azariah

Castiel

Kye

Augustine

Zechariah

Joziah

Kamryn

Hassan

Jamal

Chaim

Bodie

Emery

Branson

Jaxtyn

Kole

Wayne

Aryan

Alonso

Brixton

Madden

Allan

Flynn

Jaxen

Harley

Magnus

Sutton

Dash

Anders

Westley

Brett

Emory

Felipe

Yousef

Jadiel

Mordechai

Dominik

Junior

Eliseo

Fisher

Harold

Jaxxon

Kamdyn

Maximo

Caspian

Kelvin

Damari

Fox

Trent

Hugh

Briar

Franco

Keanu

Terrance

Yahir

Ameer

Kaiser

Thatcher

Ishaan

Koa

Merrick

Coen

Rodney

Brayan

London

Rudy

Gordon

Bobby

Aron

Marc

Van

Anakin

Canaan

Dario

Reginald

Westin

Darian

Ledger

Leighton

Maxton

Tadeo

Valentin

Aldo

Khalid

Nickolas

Toby

Dayton

Jacoby

Billy

Gatlin

Elisha

Jabari

Jermaine

Alvaro

Marlon

Mayson

Blaze

Jeffery

Kace

Braydon

Achilles

Brysen

Saint

Xzavier

Aydin

Eugene

Adrien

Cain

Kylo

Nova

Onyx

Arian

Bjorn

Jerome

Miller

Alfred

Kenzo

Kyng

Leroy

Maison

Jordy

Stefan

Wallace

Benicio

Kendall

Zayd

Blaine

Tristian

Anson

Gannon

Jeremias

Marley

Ronnie

Dangelo

Kody

Will

Bentlee

Gerald

Salvatore

Turner

Chad

Misael

Mustafa

Konnor

Maxim

Rogelio

Zakai

Cory

Judson

Brentley

Darwin

Louie

Ulises

Dakari

Rocky

Wesson

Alfonso

Payton

Dwayne

Juelz

Duncan

Keagan

Deshawn

Bode

Bridger

Skylar

Brodie

Landry

Avi

Keenan

Reuben

Jaxx

Rene

Yehuda

Imran

Yael

Alexzander

Willie

Cristiano

Heath

Lyric

Davion

Elon

Karsyn

Krew

Jairo

Maddux

Ephraim

Ignacio

Vivaan

Aries

Vance

Boden

Lyle

Ralph

Reign

Camilo

Draven

Terrence

Idris

Ira

Javion

Jericho

Khari

Marcellus

Creed

Shepard

Terrell

Ahmir

Camdyn

Cedric

Howard

Jad

Zahir

Harper

Justus

Forest

Gibson

Zev

Alaric

Decker

Ernest

Jesiah

Torin

Benedict

Bowie

Deangelo

Genesis

Harlem

Kalel

Kylen

Bishop

Immanuel

Lian

Zavier

Archie

Davian

Gus

Kabir

Korbyn

Randall

Benton

Coleman

Markus

2. Top 10 beautiful Middles names for baby Boys

Ace

Abe

Beck

Blake

Dean

Grant

Hugh

James

Charles

George

More ideals for you: Top 1000 baby Girl names

From : https://wikitopx.com/name-meanings/top-1000-baby-boy-names-711929.html

[penciladdictontheweb]

Shots?

01. Full name: Jameson ‘Shots’ Spirit 02. Best friend: He has many ‘best friends’ but his favourites are Ormad and Chips. 03. Sexuality: Pansexual 04. Favorite color: Golden yellow 05. Relationship status: Single 06. Ideal mate: Someone who really enjoys cuddling. 07. Turn-ons: Gentle kisses. 08. Favorite food: Anything beef. 09. Crushes: Lucifer ( @devilishcrybaby ) 10. Favorite music: Swing and Jazz! 11. Biggest fear: Metal construction nails.  12. Biggest fantasy: To be, an actual father. Like to have kids and get married and stuff. 13. Bad habits:  Licking his teeth.  14. Biggest regret: Not being able to save his family and giving up on them. 15. Best kept secrets: He’s a huge sucker for young kids and literally can’t say no to them.  16. Last thought: “Rudy’s face is so soft..... Wait is it weird that I think it’s nice to touch?” 17. Worst romantic experience: Drinks and first time with sex. Let’s just say someone threw up on the other person. 18. Biggest insecurity: How easily he cries.  19. Weapon of choice: Fire magic (From his Deal) 20. Role Model: Ormad ( <:D )

[bugsinshoes]

AFTER SO LONG !!!! HERE THEY ARE !!!!!!

sam and rudy's reference sheets !!! i had to post them together since they're inseparable. the besties ever ❤️

[themanofgloom]

Talk about Shots (For both Rudy and Ormad)

Ormad talks about people

“He’s kinda funny. Imagine going out for a nice walk and then you just see this tall guy with a shot glass for a head shivering in the cold. Like, I first questioned if I was like, high, and then I realized that I am only thirteen and if I had any drugs at all my dad wouldn’t like that! Shots -- Jameson? I don’t know which one he likes better -- is such a dad. Like, a nervous dad. Like my dad, but without the spooky stuff.”

Ormad only cracked a small smile. “He’s amusing.”

[parkerbombshell]

Pulsebeat 262

Pulsebeat a new release based punk, alt. whatever show out of Abingdon, Oxfordshire broadcasting Mondays 3pm EST bombshellradio.com #Punk #Powerpop Pulsebeat 262 A1       1 Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers - AHHHH! 2 Moving Targets - Apart 3 Diaz Brothers - On Memory Hill 4 Viagra Boys - Punk Rock Loser 5 Spizz Energi - Here Come The Machines 6 The Smile - We Don't Know What Tomorrow Brings 7 Shooting Daggers - Manic Pixie Dream Girl 8 Bob Mould - American Crisis 9 Henry Blacker - Where Is My Power ? 10 The Routes - The Robots 11 Spam Javelin - The Man Don't Give A Fake 12 Neon Hearts - Regulations 13 Mad Daddy - It Ain't Easy 14 Deep Tan - Rudy Ya Ya Ya 15 Merrell Fankhauser and HMS Bounty - Drivin' Sideways (on a one way street) 16 Bobby Jameson - Viet Nam 17 Sawel Underground - Pass On By 18 The Nightingales - Let's Think About Living 19 Faz Waltz - Soon I'm Gone 20 Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks - Forty Days   Read the full article

[isa-ghost]

Bunker #88720 Memes

HOT POTATO

Weee ich fliege

=)

Are you sure about that?

Jackie’s dick

Anti’s pickle dick

World Wade™

WVSUN

Heeky

I AM BEST BLANKET

Godamn it Henrik

Son of a bitch Henrik

Cheerios

Mom’s spatula

Fleeing into the void and cackling

/me has left

“You fucking cabbage”

“Anti fuck off you stapler”

Oof

“QUICK, MOM ISNT AROUND, FOOD DISCOURSE”

Parentals hospital bed

The cliff metaphor ;_;

LITTLE SCHNEEPLESTEINS

Mom is proud of her gay children

Green covfefe fucker

The Chase pic that saved under April 12th

Yote in the throat

Nerd Boy and Loser

Covering Jameson’s ears when there’s sin happening

Fae getting attacked by bread

HE DICC DO THE CRONCH

Asking Vincent

Vincent's brother Greg

Markos the classic movie villain

AH DAWN HATCH WHAT A PLEASANT SURPRISE

Schneeplegoose

"I HATE THIS GAME OF EMOTIONS WE PLAY"

Someone: "concept:" Everyone: "oh no"

Jackie and Marvin are gay dads

Muffin and Ninja

Throwing Dawn at Henrik

Schneep needs a body

Ethan's washing machine

Nora forgetting who Anti is

CAH CAH CAH CAH

Rooty tooty Ima shooty

Nora sending pics of Knuckles the Echidna at 3am with no context

Accidental Schneep hentai

Constantly foreshadowing Jackie’s death

Dijiorno

Vincent’s trench coat full of bees

No Sleep™

Lillie’s reaction images

Gay Newt and Gayer Newt

WEASEL MAD

Vincent's 18 brothers, Greg, Stanley, Hubert, Geff, Norbert, Hank, Ned, Rudy, Estaban, Eugene, Wilbur, Raul, Brad, Nelson, Lark, Kevin, Vern and Oswald

@a-septic-mind @no-strings-puppet @dorito-with-no-weakness @decubelli @masohno @badassbubblegumbitch @igadgetpage @hyper-kitten-9 @sans-the-comic

[munacademyhq]

the following students and staff have unenrolled from the academy: mary faraday, nadia barnes, charlotte king, moon junseo, yang chinhae, ashton delvey, gwen cressley, seong moonbyeol, millie nair, kayla rogue, emma rae lee, aysun azra, meg marker, axel jameson, 

kim chungha, solana rowe, zoe kravitz, gong yoo, han jisung, avan jogia, florence pugh, jeon jiwoo, banita sandhu, ryan destiny, park sodam,  aslihan malbora,  emily alyn lind, and  rudy pankow are now open to be played again! 

[trans-and-baby-names]

can you think of any masc names that remind you of the cold/winter that aren't holiday related? (I hope you find luck with your name!!)

Hmm. These give me cold/winter vibes, I hope they help! (Thank you!)

Alan/Allen AnthonyAsherAxelBlazeBodhiBowieBrooksCarterChristian ChristopherCoal/ColeColtonCorbinDenverDennisDennisonDeweyDouglasEzekielEzraFelixFox GabrielHenryJackJasperJamesonJonahJonasJonathanJoshuaJulian/JulienJude KeatonMalcolm MasonNathanNathanielNicholas NicoNoahNoel (pronounced like Joel)OliverPaxPaxtonRen/WrenRhettRobinRomanRory Roscoe RudyRufusRussell SageShepherd SilasSterlingSullivanThatcher TheodoreTiberius WendallWilsonWolf

I’m not sure if any of these are what you were looking for but let me know if you want more (possibly with examples of names you like) and I’ll try to find some your style!