Verfügbar:*
Bibliothek | Materialtyp | Regalnummer | Anzahl untergeordneter Datensätze | Regalstandort | Status | Item Holds |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Suche... Science | Book | 305.3 L963L, 2001 | 1 | Stacks | Suche... Unknown | Suche... Unavailable |
Suche... Science | Book | BF697.5 .B63 L83 2001 | 1 | Stacks | Suche... Unknown | Suche... Unavailable |
Suche... Science | Book | GCMAIN 306.4 L937L | 1 | Stacks | Suche... Unknown | Suche... Unavailable |
Bound With These Titles
Bestellt.
Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung
Luciano (history, U. California, Dominguez Hills) in a revision of her dissertation (at the U. of South California) quantifies the recent revolution in American male body image that has occurred as Baby Boomers have aged in part by the consumer industries that have grown to support it. She leads the reader up to the present by exploring the American male image in chapters for each decade from the 1950s to the 1990s, highlighting the concurrent growth in vanity industries that include cosmetic surgery, fitness training, bodybuilding, and hair replacement. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR
Rezensionen (3)
Publisher's Weekly-Rezension
Clothes, they used to say, make the man. Now sartorial grace is bolstered by a world of male cosmetics, diet products, hair products, hair-replacements and plastic surgeries. So much for uncontrived manliness. In this breezy, informative book (based upon the author's doctoral dissertation), Luciano traces the complicated and often surprising history of constructed masculinity. While the book focuses primarily on consumer patterns surrounding products that enhance masculinity (for example, in 1996 the bill for male plastic surgery reached $500 million, while in 1997 American men spent $3 billion on grooming aids and fragrances), Luciano deftly weaves these concerns into a larger historical narrative. She peppers her work with fascinating tidbits, from the fact that Julius Caesar crowned himself with laurels to hide his encroaching baldness to Pope Pius's XII's 1958 condemnation of plastic surgery because it "enhanc[es] the power of seduction, thus leading others more easily into sin." Luciano is at her smartest when looking at consumer products, like the electric reducing fads of the 1950s. Her competent, if often simplified, survey of cultural and sexual attitudes at times assumes a tone of moral conservatism, as when she states that "divorce was the logical outcome of the quest for self-fulfillment" popular during the 1970s, or when she ponders the "moral and ethical" issues of enhancing sexual performance through pharmaceuticals. While some of this material overlaps with Susan Bordo's The Male Body (1999) and Harrison Pope's The Adonis Complex (2000), Luciano's emphasis on historical and economic aspects of masculinity offers a refreshing perspective on Western views of the subject. (Jan. 19) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist-Rezension
College history teacher Luciano isn't interested in advising men on good grooming and tasteful dressing, despite what the title of her book might suggest. Instead, her study offers a serious but fluid and well-written "journey through the world of male vanity." She reports that eating disorders occur more frequently in American men than ever before and that increasing numbers of men resort to plastic surgery and hair modifications to increase their physical appeal. Why, Luciano asks, have men in this country apparently fallen into the "beauty trap so long assumed to be the special burden of women?" She examines social, economic, and cultural changes that "have been instrumental in shaping the new cult of male body image in postwar America," focusing her investigation on the four areas men have been most concerned about since the 1950s in terms of body alteration and enhancement: hair, physical fitness and body shape, cosmetic surgery, and sexual performance. A thought-provoking study. --Brad Hooper
Choice-Rezension
Today we are not surprised to see men preening, trying to stay fit, and presenting themselves as favorably as do their female counterparts. In a readable, historical account, Luciano lays out the societal changes that have promoted the growing male preoccupation with body images and self-esteem. The essential point she makes: male bodies have become as public as women's, with the resultant continuous scrutiny, lust, and evaluation. Luciano contends the blame can be attributed to major societal shifts, primarily affluence, but also consumerism; drug availability; female independence; the loss of male, middle-class job security; and baby boom resistance to aging, best illustrated by the Viagra phenomenon. Excessive expectations play a large role in the changing standards, too. Currently, many men feel they must remain competitive in all arenas of life to prosper: physical fitness, job readiness, and sexual prowess. Although the author provides good contrast between past and present, additional comparisons by ethnicity and sexual orientation would have strengthened the book. Many women have fought against being evaluated solely on looks; are men resisting as well? If they are, what forms does this resistance take? Nevertheless, recommended for studies in gender and social psychology. S. D. Borchert Lake Erie College
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Acknowledgments | p. ix |
Introduction | p. 3 |
1. Looking Good: A Historical Perspective | p. 13 |
2. The Organization Man: Men in the 1950s | p. 37 |
3. "Finding the Real Me": Men in the 1960s | p. 75 |
4. A Culture of Narcissism: Men in the 1970s | p. 101 |
5. Bingeing and Buffing Up: Men in the 1980s | p. 133 |
6. "No Man Ever Needs to Feel Inadequate Again": Men in the 1990s | p. 169 |
Notes | p. 211 |
Bibliographical Essay | p. 237 |
Index | p. 249 |