 
|
|
Paperback
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
An exciting new popular study of the male body--fresh, honest, and full of revelationsIn this surprising, candid cultural analysis, Susan Bordo begins with a frank, tender look at her own father's body and goes on to perceptively scrutinize the presentation of maleness in everyday life.Men's (and women's) ideas about men's bodies are heavily influenced by society's expectations, and Bordo helps us understand where those ideas come from. In chapters on the penis (in all its incarnations), fifties Hollywood, male beauty standards, and sexual harassment, and in discussions of topics ranging from Marlon Brando and Boogie Nights to Philip Roth and Lady Chatterley's Lover, Bordo offers fresh and unexpected insights. Always--whether she is examining Michael Jordan or Humbert Humbert, the butch phallus or her own grade-school experiences--she rejects rigid categories in favor of an honest, nuanced version of men as flesh-and-blood human beings.
Shock waves riveted the Mattel, Inc., boardroom in 1961 when female executives suggested that Barbie's boy-toy, Ken--in keeping with Barbie's own physiognomy--ought to be a little more anatomically correct. No one was suggesting 1.25-inch-to-1-inch-scale plastic genitalia, mind you, just a modest groin bulge. But male execs at the toy company were scandalized; the suggested modifications did not make Ken more "authentic" in their eyes--they made him pornographic. My, how things have changed. In The Male Body, Susan Bordo (who snagged a Pulitzer nomination for 1993's Unbearable Weight) offers a frank, sprightly, and, yes, educational look at the male nude as an index to attitudes about sexuality in the broth of media and pop culture in which, like it or not, we all stew. While the Greeks were unafraid to celebrate masculine beauty, men have been strangely sexless throughout most of Western history--until Hollywood rediscovered the male body when Marlon Brando first shed his T-shirt in A Streetcar Named Desire. It's only been in the '90s, however, that the male image has gone so far as to reclaim its penis. From de facto censorship to near idolatry, has ever an organ made such a journey in one brief decade? But it's not the penis alone that makes a man a man; perhaps, Bordo concludes, it's time for us to rethink our metaphors of manhood. --Patrizia DiLucchio
| Customer Reviews: |
|
| |
| Focus on the MALE |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
 |
|
With all the focus on the female body it was nice to see a writer focusing on the male for a change. A good book.
|
| banal |
| Customer Rating: 2 out of 5 |
 |
|
"The Male Body" is tedious and banal. Perhaps an undergraduate would find the book illuminating, but anyone who's given a few minutes thought to modern American portrayals of male sexuality will find nothing new here.
|
| The Male Body |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
|
|
About me: 21 year old male, university student. (sciences/pre med)
I picked up this book some time ago while searching for books on a completely unrelated topic. It's become one of my absolute favorites. I've let at least 5 of my friends borrow it. (Or should I say I pushed it on them.)
Obviously, I'm not as serious a reviewer as some seem to be, so bear with me.
I caught this book a little late, a few years after it was originally published, but feel her comments are still dead on. I thought it was written very professionally, yet casual at the same time. I did not feel like I was being condescended upon, it felt like something "we" were discussing over a coffee.
She starts off with a candid retrospective of sorts on her father, then changes direction entirely with the opening sentence in the following chapter: "Becky Stone was the first of my friends to actually see one."
Other topics include an analysis on media images, women's bodies, and of course, men's. A few of my favorite passages in the book include: the whole section on "Public Images", as well as "Gentleman or Beast? The Double Bind of Masculinity", "The Sexual Harasser Is a Bully, not a Sex Fiend" and "Beautiful Girls, From Both Sides Now."
Remarkably insightful, with theories and analysis that are hard to argue, her comments hit home and make you think whether you agree or not. I suspect even the most chauvinistic reader would have a hard time "debating" or "disproving" some of her thoughts and theories behind media images and the like, in my opinion. Sometimes I may not have wanted to "hear" some of things she had written but couldn't think of any retaliation.
At certain times in the book, it felt as if she was poking around in my head, most of her thoughts about the male body and men in general congruent with my thoughts about myself!
An exciting topic by itself, I highly recommend this book for anyone curious about the male body. You will finish this book smiling, perhaps even with a change in the way you look at yourself, or the culture around you. (I constantly find myself looking deeper into what is given and shown to us than I did previously.) There will undoubtedly be times during reading where you will stop, needing to discuss what you've read with your friends! At least I did. :)
I don't think there are any bad parts to this book, but some might find certain parts uninteresting. That's a given! To me, that doesn't qualify as bad. I think everyone who decides to buy this book will be talking after they put it down, regardless of how much you loved it. 5 stars!
|
| Good Information and sometimes entertaining |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
 |
|
I thought that Bordo did a lot of good research and brought up relevant topics. She includes good information but it sometimes feels like she's getting paid on a per page basis--dragging out simple topics for pages and pages. I get it already. Also, the "nudge, nudge, wink, wink" stuff got boring. Of course we get the puns--ha ha--we're talking about sex, but c'mon, we don't need someone to point out every pun in the book. It's a worthwhile read and you will go away with some good info, but there is probably another book out there that gives the same info in a shorter and more entertaining way.
|
| Patronizing writing style diminishes this book |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
|
|
Bordo makes some good points, and the subject matter is fascinating, but the breezy chattiness of her prose is off-putting, and there is a condescending "wink, nudge" tone to this book that is annoying. If you can look past that, this is an intriguing and well-considered book.
|
|
