The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private
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Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Written By: Susan Bordo
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 305
EAN: 9780374527327
ISBN: 0374527326
Label: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 368
Publication Date: 2000-07-15
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Studio: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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Editorial Reviews for The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private
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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.
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Consumer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Focus on the MALE
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: banal
Comment: "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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Male Body
Comment: 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!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good Information and sometimes entertaining
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Patronizing writing style diminishes this book
Comment: 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.
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More Information on The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private
EJHS - The Male Body - Book Review
Electronic Journal of Human Sexuality, Volume 3, September 20, 2000 www.ejhs.org. Book Review. The Male Body. A New Look At Men In Public And In Private
Susan Bordo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bordo wants to “bring theory down to earth” (Bordo 1997:24). The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private (1999) With The Male Body Bordo shifts her focus from ...
Susan Bordo
THE MALE BODY: A NEW LOOK AT MEN IN PUBLIC AND IN PRIVATE, by Susan Bordo. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 320 pages, $25. It used to be that the quest for beauty was pretty much a ...
Popular Culture -- GENDER ISSUES
Bordo, Susan. The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999.
Unbearable Weight, Tenth Anniversary Edition
She is the author of The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private (1999), and Twilight Zones: The Hidden Life of Cultural Images from Plato to O.J. (California, 1997).
Bordo Susan from FOLDOC
The Hidden Life of Cultural Images from Plato to O.J. (1997) and The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private (1999). [A Dictionary of Philosophical Terms and Names]
'Body Studies' Expert To Give Graduate Studies Lecture At UK
... books, but the title that captured the most attention was "The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private.
Macmillan: The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private ...
Macmillan: The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private Susan Bordo: Bonus Publisher Materials: Praise, Author Biography
Centre College: Expert to challenge idea of a "perfect" body
The Hidden Life of Cultural Images from Plato to O.J.; and The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private. Bordo's best-known book, Unbearable Weight, is widely cited ...
American Popular Culture
Bordo, Susan. The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999.
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