This fashion shorts was produced exclusively for KALTBLUT Magazine in Berlin by director Daniel Lathwesen and combines fashion aesthetics with a dark cinematic reference.
Inspired by Sid Davis's so-called "educational film" about the dangers of predatory homosexuals—a work that exaggerated and distorted the strict moral order prevalent in the 1960s—the piece approaches the topic with a playful wink and the question: were you really serious?
The 1961 original is reimagined here to question and comment on the rigid views of society at the time. Sid Davis's infamous film portrays homosexuality as a "disease" and criminal behavior. It falsely claims that homosexuals inevitably and fundamentally molest children and teenagers.
His film "Boys Beware" (1961) is cited by historians and LGBT activists as one of the most damaging examples of the pathologization of homosexuality. Equating homosexuality with pedophilia and mental illness, it helped to cement the image of the "predatory homosexual" in American society.
This was no joke—Davis's films provided the visual justification for the political persecution of LGBT people during the McCarthy era, in which thousands were dismissed from public service for being deemed a "security risk" or morally unstable.
Sid Davis (1916–2006)—incidentally, a close friend of John Wayne, whose on-screen double he was for many years—was an influential American independent filmmaker best known for his more than 150 so-called "social guidance films." These short, often depressingly pessimistic "educational films" were shown in US schools nationwide between the 1950s and 1970s to warn children about moral and physical dangers.
Today, the original film, *Boys Beware*, is considered a historical document of the intolerance and homophobia prevalent in the US during the 1950s and 60s. Due to its absurd and exaggerated portrayal, it has become an object of ridicule in popular culture.
Since the late 1980s, the LGBT community has reclaimed these "horror films." Because of the wooden acting, absurd dialogue, and ridiculously over-the-top moralizing, films like *Boys Beware* are now celebrated as "camp" in queer culture. Incidentally, Davis, who harmed thousands of people with his nonsense, remained unrepentant until his death in 2006.