The culture of male beauty in Britain : from the first photographs to David Beckham / Paul R. Deslandes.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Deslandes, Paul R., 1965- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Masculine beauty (Aesthetics)--England.

Masculine beauty (Aesthetics).

Beauty culture--England.

Beauty culture.

England.

Physical Description:

xiv, 414 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2021.

Summary:

"In The Culture of Male Beauty in Britain, Paul Deslandes offers the definitive account of how notions of male beauty changed in Britain over the past few centuries. With both fluid prose and 120 carefully selected images, Deslandes traces the sustained and culturally significant, masculine engagement with beauty culture in Britain from the nineteenth century to the present, including considerations of advertising, health, pornography, psychology, sport, and celebrity culture. Deslandes's account chronicles the ebb and flow of certain beauty standards in British male culture, illustrating the slow rise of the cult of youth, the growth of muscularity as both a masculine attribute and a marker of attractiveness, and the falling in and out of fashion of hirsuteness and hairlessness. Along the way, he links discussions of youth, fitness, and beauty to growing concerns about race and empire and fears about degeneracy. With respect to the postwar world, he also highlights the ways expressing what one found attractive became central to the development of modern sexual subjectivities, especially as distinctive gay and heterosexual identities coalesced in British culture. This book shows not only how notions of beauty changed, but also how the British came to understand themselves as a visual people and as sophisticated consumers of theatrical and cinematographic images, photographs, and advertisements"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: pt. ONE Setting the Stage: The Foundations of Modern Male Beauty

ch. 1 Physiognomists and Photographers

ch. 2 Beauty Experts and Hairdressing Entrepreneurs

ch. 3 Artists, Athletes, and Celebrities

ch. 4 Poets, Soldiers, and Monuments

pt. TWO Men on Display in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries

ch. 5 Brylcreem Men, Cinema Idols, and Uniforms

ch. 6 Teenagers, Bodybuilders, and Models

ch. 7 Youthful Rebels, Gender-Benders, and Gay Men

ch. 8 Insecure Men, Metrosexuals, and Spornosexuals.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780226771618

022677161X

OCLC:

1241244492

Publisher Number:

99989315548