![]() Cover of The Beautiful Boy, showing Björn Andrésen in 1970 by David Bailey (international edition) | |
Author | Germaine Greer |
---|---|
Language | English |
Subjects | Art history |
Publisher | Thames & Hudson |
Publication date | 2003 |
Media type | |
Pages | 256 |
ISBN | 978-0-5002-8488-9 |
The Beautiful Boy is a book by radical feminist academic Germaine Greer, published in 2003 as The Boy in the Commonwealth by Thames & Hudson and in the rest of the world by Rizzoli. [1] Its avowed intention was "to advance women's reclamation of their capacity for and right to visual pleasure". [2] [3] [4] The book is a study of the youthful male face and form, from antiquity to the present day, from paintings and drawings to statuary and photographs.
The book was the subject of controversy due to its cover photo and topic matter. The subject of the book's cover picture, Björn Andrésen, stated that his permission was not attained for the photo's use. [5] [6] [7] Some writers characterised the book's nature as paedophilic. [8] [9] [7]
Critical reception was largely positive towards the book's illustrative value as a photo-book, but mixed towards its textual and theoretical value.
The book contains some 200 pictures of boys through the ages, and is a history of boys in Western art and classical mythology. [2] [10] [11] This includes an analysis of Classical, Neoclassical, and Renaissance art. [12] Pictures and discussions range from Cupid to Elvis, Boy George, Kurt Cobain, and Jim Morrison. [2]
Writing in the book's opening pages, Greer says that, "Most people have accepted without question that women are treated as sex objects, viewed principally as body, with a primary duty to attract male attention. Though this is clearly true, it is also true that women are at the same time programmed for failure in their duty of attraction, because boys do it better." [13] [14] [7] She continues by saying that the ideally attractive boy must be "old enough to be capable of sexual response but not yet old enough to shave. This window of opportunity is not only narrow, it is mostly illegal. The male human is beautiful when his cheeks are still smooth, his body hairless, his head full-maned, his eyes clear, his manner shy and his belly flat." [3] [15] [14]
She says that male youth was previously prized artistically, but in more recent centuries was displaced by a preference for adult masculinity. [15] [16] Accordingly, she argues that male youthfulness was desexualised in art. [17] She says that, "At the end of the 20th century, guilty panic about pedophilia completed the criminalisation of awareness of the desires and the charms of boys... Where once boys were considered 'made for love and loved of all' they are now considered attractive only to a perverted taste." [13] [18] According to Greer, "among the attributes that are on the verge of extinction is youthful narcissism". [19] She also wrote that, "Boy sex is irresponsible, spontaneous and principally self-pleasuring". [16]
She argues that young male beauty conveys "male vulnerability" and can be "sexualised with impunity", via the "female gaze". [12] She also says that boys are "debarred from phallic power", [12] [20] and that they are compelled by patriarchy to "annihilate the boy in him and confine himself to the narrower scope available to him in patriarchal society". [12] [21] [22] She proposes that "[Campaigners] against 21st-century sex tourism see the traffic as one-way. Their activities are inspired by horror and compassion for children who are forced by economic necessity to have sex that they are not ready for with older people they could not possibly desire. (This assumption itself should cast some doubt on the campaigners' own motives.) When she was studying the 'bad' sexualised mother, the great Melanie Klein asked herself in a note: 'Who is seducing whom?'" [23] [24]
According to Greer, pederastic lust was not what art that depicted young males historically expressed, and that these images were attractive due to being based in life rather than lust. [25] [16] In her conclusion she says that, "The boy Eros would bring the sexes to a reconciliation, if we would only acknowledge him." [26]
Reviewing The Beautiful Boy in The Guardian , feminist writer Natasha Walter said that "Because Greer relies on such close criticism of the art, this is a book that is best savoured slowly... Greer has chosen to examine her subject thematically rather than chronologically, which means that you are constantly doubling back on yourself, bumping into Cupid again just after you have put away Boy George, which makes it tough trying to hold on to any sense of development across the centuries." [27] According to art critic Sue Hubbard of The Independent , it was "Thoroughly researched and beautifully illustrated... [but it] does not seem really significant in terms of art history and amounts to a footnote within critical theory. Others of a more voyeuristic bent might feel cheated that the book is rather dryer and less erotic than the title promises." [28]
In The Irish Times , Robert O'Byrne said that the book was, "...a dreary and muddled text. Indeed, The Boy could be summarised as mad, bad and not worth knowing. Constantly meandering in its approach, the book fails to deliver clearly what Greer has declared at the outset as her intent: 'to reclaim for women the right to appreciate the short-lived beauty of boys'". [11]
Miranda Carter, reviewing the book for The Daily Telegraph , described it as a "handsomely produced, leisurely coffee-table trawl through the art canon, tracing images of boys in art from childhood through adolescence to young manhood, starting with Grecian kouroi and Greek myths and ending up with pop stars." [15] In a review for The Sunday Times , James Hall says that, "At first flick, The Boy resembles a ravishing picture-book for the smart coffee table. But the text and some of the images are pretty incendiary. Alongside famous Old Master depictions of luscious boys (mythological, biblical and secular), we find recent "art" photographs that have been accused of pandering to paedophiles." [25]
The Age called the book "an insightful survey of male beauty through the ages and a powerful and radical polemic ... It is occasionally undermined by erroneous statements ... and self-indulgent whimsy that you will find—depending on whether you love or hate the author—either endearingly idiosyncratic or utterly outrageous." [3] In Peter Conrad's review of The Beautiful Boy for The Observer , he said that "Greer's ogling defiantly disproves the orthodox feminist notion that 'the act of viewing is masculine'". [26]
Robert Douglas-Fairhurst said of the book in The Art Newspaper , "[Although] she is better at picking fights than constructing arguments, none of Dr Greer's occasional lapses stifles the frisky playfulness of her book as whole... Dr Greer has managed to produce a book that is itself distinctly boyish... Dr Greer's title seems to offer more than a description of her main subject. It also characterises the polymorphous appeal of her way of looking at it." [29] A writer for Publishers Weekly said of the book, "Short on argument but long on lush reproductions of languid young men, the collection is better viewed than read." [2]
In The New Zealand Herald , Alison Jones wrote that, "Greer's affectionate enjoyment of boys will resonate with that of countless mothers (and fathers) who adore their sons' litheness and mourn its passing. It may be prosaic to confess this, but as a mother of teenage sons, I found this book a genuine balm." [22] For Prospect, Sebastian Smee wrote that, "Many people's first instinct may be that she is exploiting the dubious sanctuary of art to validate dangerous desires. But in the current climate, in which we have all but given up on the distinction between eroticism and pornography, Greer is trying to draw a distinction between delight and desire. There is a subtlety in the writing and an openness to complication one doesn't always find in her work. The result is a book that strikes me as courageous." [16]
Writing in The New York Times , Janet Maslin said that the book provided "scholarly text that can't compete with the pictures." [30] In Literary Review , the literary critic Miranda Seymour called the book "a tasty scrapbook of male beauty". [31] Reviewing the book for Australian Book Review , Ian Britain commented that, "There's little here, in fact, that you could call argument, in the sense of a coherent succession of reasoned propositions: nothing so solid or stable to argue against; nothing so stolid or boring. When not beguiled by the next image of upwardly nubile flesh, sumptuously reproduced from the work of the world's great visual artists, you're more at risk of being left stupefied by the next authorial assertion." [32]
In response to Greer's statement in the book about sex tourism, Jenny Diski for the London Review of Books said, "Would it be impossibly puritanical to point out that child prostitution might be qualitatively different from the painful but civilised love of pubescent boys for older women?... And does the same apply to older men and girls, or older men and boys, or older women and girls? Sometimes Greer's admirable intellect is subsumed by the need to make a noise in the world. Which is a pity, because she is addressing a real issue here about our inability to be honest with ourselves; a sorry failure to understand the difference between protecting our own socially constructed sensibilities, and protecting children from harm." However, she also stated that "In the meantime, the good news is that Greer’s theorising permits the production of a very handsome book full of beautifully reproduced paintings and sculptures from galleries around the world." [24]
Jonathan Gornall commented on the book in The Times , calling it "a somewhat iffy collection of pictures of pre-pubescent lovelies from life and art, an illustrated paean of praise for the beauty of the young male presented as a feminist rallying cry for women's right to ogle under-age male totty." [33]
In The New York Review of Books , Christopher Alessandrini called it "Part glossy coffee-table smut, part art-historical treatise on desire" as well as an "out-of-print curiosity". He also said that "it remains an unusual bit of propaganda calling for the return of young men to the realm of public attraction... the claim that beautiful boys are essential fixtures of public life is hardly radical. Western art history corroborates it: How many iterations of St. Sebastian, bound and stuck with arrows, decorate the public squares and churches of Europe? How many likenesses of Ganymede, commissioned by lords and counts?" [7]
The cover picture caused controversy when the subject of the photograph, Björn Andrésen, a Swedish actor and musician who played Tadzio in Death in Venice (billed by the director Luchino Visconti as "the most beautiful boy in the world"), [6] [29] stated in the press that he objected to the picture having been used without his permission. [5] [6] He was fifteen years old when the photograph was taken. [6] [34] Greer's publisher, Thames & Hudson, said they did not require his permission to use the picture on the book's cover. The company's publishing director, Jamie Camplin, stated that they had acquired permission from David Bailey instead. Camplin was also quoted as saying, "It's not exploitation, it's the opposite. She's celebrating it, enjoying it. Here's this wonderful-looking young man: enjoy it!". [6] Andrésen was reportedly also disturbed by the content of Greer's book. He stated, "Adult love for adolescents is something that I am against in principle... Emotionally perhaps, and intellectually, I am disturbed by it—because I have some insight into what this kind of love is about." [6] [5]
Greer has described her book as "full of pictures of 'ravishing' pre-adult boys with hairless chests, wide-apart legs and slim waists". She goes on to say that, "I know that the only people who are supposed to like looking at pictures of boys are a sub-group of gay men", she wrote in London's Daily Telegraph . "Well, I'd like to reclaim for women the right to appreciate the short-lived beauty of boys, real boys, not simpering 30-year-olds with shaved chests." [35] [36] She was criticised for these comments, with some writers labeling her a paedophile. [8] Greer responded vigorously on Andrew Denton's television talk show Enough Rope . Denton quoted her as having said to the Sydney Morning Herald that, "A woman of taste is a pederast—boys rather than men." [37] [38] She had anticipated that she would be called a paedophile after the book's publication, and was quoted as saying "This book is going to get me into a lot of trouble. I'll be called a paedophile after this." [39] [40]
Naomi Rebekah Wolf is an American feminist author, journalist, and conspiracy theorist.
Warren Thomas Farrell is an American political scientist, activist, and author of seven books on men's and women's issues. Farrell initially came to prominence in the 1970s as a supporter of second wave feminism but has since become a leading figure of the men's rights movement. He served on the New York City Board of the National Organization for Women (NOW). Farrell advocates for "a gender liberation movement", with "both sexes walking a mile in each other's moccasins".
Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson is a 1990 work about sexual decadence in Western literature and the visual arts by scholar Camille Paglia, in which she addresses major artists and writers such as Donatello, Sandro Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, Emily Brontë, and Oscar Wilde. Following Friedrich Nietzsche, Paglia argues that the primary conflict in Western culture is between the binary forces of the Apollonian and Dionysian, Apollo being associated with order and symmetry, and Dionysus with chaos, disorder, and nature. The book became a bestseller, received critical reviews from numerous feminist scholars, and was praised by numerous literary critics.
The Female Eunuch is a 1970 book by Germaine Greer that became an international bestseller and an important text in the feminist movement. Greer's thesis is that the "traditional" suburban, consumerist, nuclear family represses women sexually, and that this devitalises them, rendering them eunuchs. The book was published in London in October 1970. It received a mixed reception, but by March 1971, it had nearly sold out its second printing. It has been translated into eleven languages.
Björn Johan Andrésen is a Swedish actor and musician. He is best known for playing the 14-year-old Tadzio in Luchino Visconti's 1971 film adaptation of the 1912 Thomas Mann novella Death in Venice. He also played a minor role in Ari Aster's 2019 folk horror film Midsommar.
The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women is a nonfiction book by Naomi Wolf, originally published in 1990 by Chatto & Windus in the UK and William Morrow & Co (1991) in the United States. It was republished in 2002 by HarperPerennial with a new introduction.
Death in Venice is a 1971 historical drama film directed and produced by Italian filmmaker Luchino Visconti, adapted by Visconti and Nicola Badalucco from the 1912 novella of the same name by German author Thomas Mann. It stars Dirk Bogarde as Gustav von Aschenbach and Björn Andrésen as Tadzio, with supporting roles played by Mark Burns, Marisa Berenson and Silvana Mangano. It was filmed in Technicolor by Pasqualino De Santis, with a soundtrack featuring classical composers such as Gustav Mahler, Ludwig van Beethoven and Modest Mussorgsky. It is the second part of Visconti's thematic "German Trilogy"—preceded by The Damned (1969) and followed by Ludwig (1973).
Sexual Politics is the debut book by American writer and activist Kate Millett, based on her PhD dissertation at Columbia University. It was published in 1970 by Doubleday. It is regarded as a classic of feminism and one of radical feminism's key texts, a formative piece in shaping the intentions of the second-wave feminist movement. In Sexual Politics, an explicit focus is placed on the omnipresence of male dominance throughout prominent 20th century art and literature. According to Millett, western literature reflects patriarchal constructions and the heteronormativity of society. She argues that men have established power over women, but that this power is the result of social constructs rather than innate or biological qualities.
Artemisia is a 1997 French-German-Italian biographical film about Artemisia Gentileschi, the female Italian Baroque painter. The film was directed by Agnès Merlet, and stars Valentina Cervi and Michel Serrault.
Germaine Greer is an Australian writer and public intellectual, regarded as one of the major voices of the second-wave feminism movement in the latter half of the 20th century.
Jacqueline "Jacqui" Michot Ceballos is an American feminist and activist. Ceballos is the former president of New York Chapter of the National Organization for Women and founder of the Veteran Feminists of America organization which documents the history of Second wave feminism and pioneer feminists. Ceballos' 1971 debate on sexual politics with Norman Mailer and Germaine Greer is recorded in the 1979 film Town Bloody Hall. Ceballos is also featured in the feminist history film She's Beautiful When She's Angry.
Camille Anna Paglia is an American feminist academic and social critic. Paglia has been a professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, since 1984. She is critical of many aspects of modern culture and is the author of Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (1990) and other books. She is also a critic of contemporary American feminism and of post-structuralism, as well as a commentator on multiple aspects of American culture such as its visual art, music, and film history.
Jessica Yatrofsky is an American artist, photographer and filmmaker living in Brooklyn, NY.
Puberty Blues (1979) is a novel by the Australian writers Gabrielle Carey and Kathy Lette. It is their first published book. It has long been controversial with adults but much sought out by teenagers for its depictions of adolescent sex. A film based on the novel was released in 1981. A television series based on the novel began airing in 2012.
The Man Who Wrote Frankenstein is a 2007 book written and published by John Lauritsen, which defends the unorthodox hypothesis that the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, not his wife Mary Shelley, is the real author of Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818). The book also argues that the novel "has consistently been underrated and misinterpreted", and that its dominant theme is "male love."
Australia has a long-standing association with the protection and creation of women's rights. Australia was the second country in the world to give women the right to vote and the first to give women the right to be elected to a national parliament. The Australian state of South Australia, then a British colony, was the first parliament in the world to grant women full suffrage rights. Australia has since had multiple notable women serving in public office as well as other fields. Women in Australia with the notable exception of Indigenous women, were granted the right to vote and to be elected at federal elections in 1902.
Town Bloody Hall is a 1979 documentary film of a panel debate between feminist advocates and activist Norman Mailer. Filmed on April 30, 1971, in The Town Hall in New York City. Town Bloody Hall features a panel of feminist advocates for the women's liberation movement and Norman Mailer, author of The Prisoner of Sex (1971). Chris Hegedus and D. A. Pennebaker produced the film, which stars Jacqueline Ceballos, Germaine Greer, Jill Johnston, Diana Trilling, and Norman Mailer. The footage of the panel was recorded and released as a documentary in 1979. Produced by Shirley Broughton, the event was originally filmed by Pennebaker. The footage was then filed and rendered unusable. Hegedus met Pennebaker a few years later, and the two edited the final version of the film for its release in 1979. Pennebaker described his filming style as one that exists without labels, in order to let the viewer come to a conclusion about the material, which inspired the nature of the Town Bloody Hall documentary. The recording of the debate was intended to ensure the unbiased documentation, allowing it to become a concrete moment in feminist history.
The Most Beautiful Boy in the World is a 2021 Swedish documentary film about Björn Andrésen and the effects of fame thrust upon him when he appeared in Luchino Visconti's 1971 film Death in Venice. Andrésen was just 16 when the film came out, and was unprepared for instantly becoming an international celebrity.
Daddy, We Hardly Knew You is a 1989 book by feminist academic Germaine Greer. The book is a biography about her father who was an Australian intelligence officer during World War II. According to Penguin Random House, the book took three years to write and her objective was to discover information about her father that she claimed was distant from her life.
Shakespeare's Wife is a book by feminist academic Germaine Greer which was first published in 2007 by Bloomsbury. The book is a biography of Anne Hathaway, the wife of English poet and playwright William Shakespeare who was born in Shottery, a former small village within Stratford-upon-Avon. At the time of its publication, very little was known about Hathaway with most information being sourced from historic legal documents. Greer, in addition to discussing the content of Hathaway's life, also outlines various aspects of a provincial Elizabethan woman's life as a means to understand the lifestyle she likely led.
The Beautiful Boy, Rizzoli International (New York, NY), 2003, published as The Boy, Thames & Hudson (London, England), 2003.
The knee-jerk response to an older woman writing of her appreciation of semi-naked boys has elicited accusations of pedophilia. The delayed response should be a more mild questioning of why a woman who has passionately railed against the exploitation of the female body has identified the reversal of the gender roles in this same scenario of objectification as feminist.
Andrew Denton: There are those who say – have already said in print – that what you're doing is creepy. It's no different to an old man staring at a young girl and lusting after them.
Germaine Greer: (chuckles) Well, you can't stop the old man staring at the young girl and lusting. What are you going to do – tell old men that they must be blindfold or something? I don't think that's particularly creepy as long as they understand that they're not ... they have no right to lay hands on that person. But you can't stop them. How could you? I mean, the luminous figure of a beautiful young girl walking down the street and the old men sitting on the wall, leaning on their sticks. What are you going to say? "Look the other way, you dreadful old bastards"? What are you going to say? It's part of the joy of life is admiring the beauty of things that are beautiful. What is important to me about the Boy is that once upon a time his beauty was understood and celebrated by people of both sexes. A boy was allowed to dress in very bright colours, he was allowed to show himself off in the street, he dyed his hair, he wore make-up, he wore a little cap tipped over his eye with a big feather in, he wore tight pants and cropped jackets and so on. And the girls looked down from behind their jalousie and talked about the best-looking boys.