Everything you think you know about Tom of Finland is about to be redefined by this amazing film. I thought Tom of Finland was just some guy who got famous for drawing pictures of sexy biker gay guys. However, in this film there is soooo… much more that I discovered about the life of Touko Laaksonen, who under the pen name “Tom of Finland” became famous for expanding the portrayal of gay life through art. My first misconception was that Tom’s real name was Tom and I was wrong right off the bat on that. Also, I did not know that he came up with ideas for his art through his time in World War II. His fetishistic interest in uniformed men came from encounters with men in army uniforms, especially soldiers of the German Wehrmacht serving in Finland at that time.
There are different nuances to Touko’s life that illustrate the struggle for gay men to express themselves without retribution from the government and other gay men. Tom of Finland shattered a norm and stereotype of gay culture in this time and really brought an age of sexual expression to our community that does what we love to do …. push boundaries. WATCH
