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Germain Greer's "The Boy"
Oct. 11th, 2003 04:29 pmI am so dying to read this book. From an extract from the Sydney Morning Herald today:
"There are some who think the expression "male beauty" oxymoronic, even perverse. Students of English as a foreign language are taught that it is incorrect in English to use the word "beautiful" for a male. Good-looking males should be described as "handsome". Handsomeness is not an aesthetic quality so much as a moral quality; handsome is as handsome does. The substitution of the word "handsome" for "beautiful" when referring to a male is the linguistic sign of an implicit understanding that it is wrong, demeaning even, to appreciate men for their looks."
Or...
"In 1978, Margaret Walters argued that women were still estranged from their own visual pleasure: "But even today, a woman is expected to take a narcissistic pleasure in fulfilling male fantasies rather than in exploring and acting out her own. There is still a rigid distinction between the sex that looks and the sex that is looked at."
And later:
"Bands such as The Doors, Led Zeppelin and T. Rex were all masters of male display, and in every case the result is not manly but boyish. As trousers were tight and chests were bared, hair could be released in a flowing cloud, eyes darkened and lips reddened, because maleness was beyond doubt. I was once on stage with The Doors and saw James Morrison turn upstage to stimulate himself before turning to show the outline of his engorged member to his shrieking audience. Such things were not meant to happen and they are rarely found in the record. Today's fans cannot know how Jimi Hendrix used to rub his guitar against his groin, partly as protest and partly because women were watching. Since those days, we have got used to girls wetting the seats at boy-band concerts and grown women throwing their knickers at Tom Jones or tucking banknotes in the G-strings of male strippers.
"Women have now claimed the right to look and to derive pleasure from looking, but the people who capitulate are not men but boys."
(All taken from: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/09/1065676089097.html )
As fans of j-rock, some of us can certainly appreciate the beauty of the young (or at least, young looking) male, because certainly the sexuality of the young male figure is more recognised in Asia, especially Japan, than it is in the West. But based on contemporary Western views, Germain Greer is definately right in that the "beauty" of the young male has been denied and discoraged in the recent West.
And I definately want to read this book now. That extract has stimulated my interest.
"There are some who think the expression "male beauty" oxymoronic, even perverse. Students of English as a foreign language are taught that it is incorrect in English to use the word "beautiful" for a male. Good-looking males should be described as "handsome". Handsomeness is not an aesthetic quality so much as a moral quality; handsome is as handsome does. The substitution of the word "handsome" for "beautiful" when referring to a male is the linguistic sign of an implicit understanding that it is wrong, demeaning even, to appreciate men for their looks."
Or...
"In 1978, Margaret Walters argued that women were still estranged from their own visual pleasure: "But even today, a woman is expected to take a narcissistic pleasure in fulfilling male fantasies rather than in exploring and acting out her own. There is still a rigid distinction between the sex that looks and the sex that is looked at."
And later:
"Bands such as The Doors, Led Zeppelin and T. Rex were all masters of male display, and in every case the result is not manly but boyish. As trousers were tight and chests were bared, hair could be released in a flowing cloud, eyes darkened and lips reddened, because maleness was beyond doubt. I was once on stage with The Doors and saw James Morrison turn upstage to stimulate himself before turning to show the outline of his engorged member to his shrieking audience. Such things were not meant to happen and they are rarely found in the record. Today's fans cannot know how Jimi Hendrix used to rub his guitar against his groin, partly as protest and partly because women were watching. Since those days, we have got used to girls wetting the seats at boy-band concerts and grown women throwing their knickers at Tom Jones or tucking banknotes in the G-strings of male strippers.
"Women have now claimed the right to look and to derive pleasure from looking, but the people who capitulate are not men but boys."
(All taken from: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/09/1065676089097.html )
As fans of j-rock, some of us can certainly appreciate the beauty of the young (or at least, young looking) male, because certainly the sexuality of the young male figure is more recognised in Asia, especially Japan, than it is in the West. But based on contemporary Western views, Germain Greer is definately right in that the "beauty" of the young male has been denied and discoraged in the recent West.
And I definately want to read this book now. That extract has stimulated my interest.
