Sunday, February 18, 2007

Kecks and Daniel Radcliffe's sexuality

It's official! Kecks definitely means undershorts, or underpants, or whatever it is you want to call them. When I wrote about my encounter with the Geordie guy last month, I reported that some people think that kecks means trousers, and even how to spell kecks wasn't completely clear.

The oracle of all wisdom that I invoke here to prove that kecks means undershorts is the 14th-20th February 2007 print edition of the London Time Out listings magazine. In their theatre section, they had the following to say in advance of the opening night of the new production of Equus by Peter Shaffer at the Gielgud Theatre on Shaftsbury Avenue:No kecks in sight!
Potter (known to his mother as Daniel Radcliffe) gets his kecks off on stage, thus kissing goodbye to his childhood in what must be the theatrical equivalent of Britney Spears losing her virginity.
So there you have it, kecks=undershorts, because if you think that Daniel Radcliffe is just going without trousers you're in for a bit of a shock!

This new production of Equus opened on Friday, i.e. just two days ago, and myself and boyfriend number 1 were lucky enough to have tickets very near the front of the stalls for last night's performance. It was a good show, with excellent performances by both Daniel Radcliffe and Richard Griffiths, even though at one point Richard Griffiths needed a few prompts to get through one of his longer speeches.

One of the things which struck me was the different physical dimensions of the two main actors. I don't mean to be rude, but at his current size Richard Griffiths must be one of the widest men I've ever seen. Aged 17, Daniel Radcliffe on the other hand is a typical skinny teenager. But they worked well together. The horses were played by six hunky actors with fabulous wire frame horse heads, with wire frames for hooves as well, which all looked magnificent.

And then there was the nudity. Just before the end of the first half, there's a scene where Alan (played by Daniel Radcliffe) was telling the psychiatrist (played by Richard Griffiths) how he liked to take off all his clothes and ride horses naked. But as he was playing out the scene, although his shirt came off, both trousers and kecks remained firmly in place!

"He's bottled out of the nudity bit, hasn't he?" said boyfriend number 1 to me during the interval, "I'm sure Peter Firth was naked for that bit when he did the film in the 1970's!"

Definitely no kecks!But however much nudity there was in previous productions and films, there was more than enough in the current production. It was all saved up for the finale, when both Daniel Radcliffe and actress Joanna Christie got all their kit off, although I must admit most of my attention was on Daniel!

Is it possible to tell a guy's sexuality purely by looking at his tackle? I've seen a lot of naked guys in the past of course, from school showers and gym changing rooms to gay saunas and encounters. I've had a good idea about the sexuality of a lot of the guys that I've seen naked too. So I like to think that it's with some authority when I say that judging by the shape of his tackle, Daniel Radcliffe looks distinctly heterosexual. Which I guess is good news for all his young female fans, but if there are any young gay male fans out there, sorry to say that I don't think he's one of us!

23 comments:

Bill said...

Actually I think that whilst in some areas of the north of England 'kecks' may mean undershorts, I have always understood the spelling to be 'keks' and for this to refer to trousers; this is certainly what the slang was in the Isle of Man when I lived there as a teenager; I discover here:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=keks
that it is a Liverpudlian slang term, which is probably logical as a lot of Manx slang terms came from either Liverpool or Ireland.

Of course definition 3. at the same URL gives the meaning as 'underpants' as you suggest.

Conclusion - it can mean either trousers or underpants, depending upon the context and who is saying it.

I think the changing menaing of words is a really interesting topic.

Guy In London said...

GB, your use of "kecks", "soz" and "mate" suggest a person of a certain age from somewhere North of Watford. Something that puzzles me is your use of the word "undershorts" whenever you describe getting undressed in one of your encounters. Bill, can you help with regional origins on that word?

GIL

close encounters said...

i have previously heard kegs, but haven't come across kecks before ! urban dictionary lists kegs ... but peevish reckons kecks are trousers ...

btw, maybe you should describe Daniel's tackle, so that your readers can judge for themselves ??

Anonymous said...

I've never lived outside Lancs (currently in Manchester) and it's always been "kecks", and refered to trousers rather than underwear. A keg is a barrel, surely? One of those regional variation things, I think. Scots friends beg to differ entirely and refer to "breeks". Either way, they're all better when they're down. :)

Monty said...

I've never heard of Keks, kecks, breeks, whatever. You Poms have way too many regional terms to keep up with. Thank goodness that here in Sydney, with Mardi Gras just around the corner, no-one is wearing any kind of underwear and so the issue doesn't come up! ha ha! (no pun intended)

What more intrigues me is that you can tell someone's sexuality from the SHAPE of their tackle...what the...? ;-)

Tales of the City said...

Good Lord GB.. reading a man's sexuality from his tackle? Whatever next? Reading tea leaves?

Guy In London said...

GB, now that this has moved on to what's inside the kecks - do you truly believe you can you can tell by the shape. Please educate me - then I'll know who NOT to waste my time with in the changing rooms ;-)

Anonymous said...

Re: Tacklology, the BBC reports today that your iris can be a clue to your personality, so who knows? Gay tackle can't be too straight when extended, I presume?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6375381.stm

Anonymous said...

Sorry, don't care if it's kecks, keks, kegs or whatever....

Much more interested in Daniel's equipment - doesn't this deserve a posting of it's own??? More details please GB.......
x

GB said...

Regarding the definition of 'kecks', on the basis of a couple of the above comments I'm convinced that it means trousers to some people. But it's also true that in all contexts that I've heard or seen it in (apart from urbandictionary.com or peevish definitions), it's always meant undershorts. In fact I now recall another encounter where the guy told me to get my kecks off, and he definitely meant undershorts!

For your information GIL, I'd never ever heard the word undershorts spoken. I just decided that it was a nicer word than all the other words that I could think of for the same thing when I started blogging back in 2005.

And then there's the question of Daniel Radcliffe's tackle. Sorry, but I'm not going to go into lurid descriptions of his tackle because I wouldn't ever want anyone to ever publish details about my tackle on the internet! If you want to know what it looks like, you'll just have to go and see the production yourselves, or find some pervert who's photographed him on stage.

None the less I'll swear that there is just one particular style of tackle that in my experience always belongs to heterosexual guys. It just so happened that Daniel Radcliffe has that style. Apart from that single style, I'd say that tackle is sexuality neutral.

GB xxx

Graham said...

You have avoided giving a real definition of "undershorts" does that mean boxer shorts? or do you use that term to mean any form of underpants.

Perhaps I could ask the direct question, do you wear briefs, slips, boxer briefs, boxer trunks or boxer shorts?

Will said...

With all the photos of Daniel from that shoot that have been seen in the U.S., I've never seen that lovely ass shot. Meaning, it's a lovely shot and it's a lovely ass!

GB said...

OK, just for Graham:

The Official Gay Banker Definition Of Undershorts:

"What a guy wears under his trousers when he's not going commando!"

GB xxx

Graham said...

Mr Gay Banker, I think you are still avoiding the question about the type of underpants that you wear, but I respect that is your right not to answer and to keep the rest of us guessing.

Anonymous said...

gay banker... ive jacked off danny (h.p) before and we still do today.... dirty little secret...

GB said...

Hmmmmm, well, whoever you are 'dannys bitch', I'm not sure I approve of 'kiss and tell' stories. Especially where someone is identified (i.e. d.r.) by someone who's anonymous (i.e. you)!

Take care, GB xxx

Anonymous said...

fine, ive known danny since we were 12. we have done it though mate! gregory benson (dannys bitch)

Anonymous said...

Uh...so because Dan has a small penis (I've talked to someone who saw the show), he's NOT gay?

The Hell. I know many gay men who don't have gigantic porn star penises. Lots of them like to walk around naked at Pride. So are THEY not gay because of their penis size? Jesus. That's just retarded.

Perhaps you ought to rethink your assessment after looking at the new pic of him that popped up here: http://www.liquidgeneration.com/Media/Photos/Funny_Pics/Celebrity/Harry_Hotter/

and THEN come back and tell us that you don't think he's gay.

Anonymous said...

Apologies, here's the link again

http://www.liquidgeneration.com/Media/Photos/
Funny_Pics/Celebrity/Harry_Hotter/

You'll have to fix it up in your address bar.

GB said...

No Anonymous, whoever you are, I am not referring to the size of Daniel's tackle. I also wonder why you expect me to be impressed by an artificial photo. Anyway, every guy should know that flaccid length doesn't necessarily say anything about erect length, and that's what really counts!

GB xxx

Anonymous said...

btw: the photo you linked is not artificial--it's a scan from Dan's cover interview in the magazine 'Details.' And I've seen the one uncensored photo of Dan in "Equus"; what does his size matter, really? He's a very talented actor, he's grounded, & he's wise for his years. Why must we start picking him apart now? That's how child-stars end up in all the shit they do, is from the fucking paparrazzi--that's how Princess Diana was killed. The paparrazzi constantly picking her apart. I thought we were supposed to try & prevent that?

close encounters said...

i was have a look at the photos in the The Press Photographer's Year 08 free exhibition at the National Theatre yesterday, and saw a photo of Daniel Radcliffe ... and his very hairy neither regions, which made me wonder if this is what made GB think that he was straight ?!

Anonymous said...

i saw equus and i can teel u that he does not has a small penis. i'm sure.

and that picture that goes here is fake.. that one of is enis. is fake. evryone allready knows that.