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| Margaret Mead Made Me Gay
ISBN: 9780822381341
Platform/Publisher: Project MUSE / Duke University Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Chapters; Download: Chapters
Subjects: Anthropologists; Lesbian anthropologists; Homophobia in anthropology; Lesbian feminism; Lesbians; Gays;
The wonderful title of this collection refers to the moment when NewtonÄa college student ashamed of her feelings for other womenÄread Coming of Age in Samoa and realized that various cultures have differing ideas of what constitutes "normal" sexuality. It seems only fitting, then, that Newton (Cherry Grove, Fire Island), now a professor of anthropology at SUNY Purchase, would become a pioneering scholar in lesbian and gay studies. This collectionÄan intellectual genealogy of Newton's work from the last 30 yearsÄreveals the prescience and durability of her earliest writings. The selections from her influential 1972 study of drag culture, Mother Camp, make effortless statements about gender presentation as "performance" and "impersonation" that are now staples of contemporary queer theory. In the 1960s, however, she had little professional support from her colleagues ("My topic was widely viewed as an inappropriate dirty joke"). Her newer pieces prove just as stimulating and vital. "Theater: Gay Anti-Church" argues that for gay people, theater serves as an almost religious site of community, iconography and ritual. A chapter from her upcoming autobiography, My Butch Career, shares personal revelations and exposes the formation of young butch identity: "My child body was a strong and capable instrument somehow stuffed into the word `girl.' " This collection will be deservedly popular among devotees of gay and lesbian studies and anthropology. 23 b&w photos. (Jan. 9) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Esther Newton is Professor of Anthropology and Kempner Distinguished Professor at State University of New York at Purchase. She is the author of several books, including Mother Camp, a groundbreaking study of American drag queens, and Cherry Grove, Fire Island: Sixty Years in America's First Gay and Lesbian Town . Among other distinctions, she was Scholarly Advisor for the documentary film Paris Is Burning , a founding member of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center, and member of the Advisory Group for Stonewall History Project. |
