Stud: Architectures of Masculinity

Rating:
Summary: A fun and thought-provoking analysis of masculinity
Review: This excellent book offers a variety of perspectives on not only the psychology of space but also the ways that these spaces are masculinized and created to promote the ideals of heterosexual masculinity. Of particular note in this anthology are "Rock Hudsons Bachelor Apartment in Pillow Talk", an analysis of the bachelor pad and its overt design with the intention of accentuating the heterosexual and "closeting" the homosexual in the partitioning of male desire; and the sometimes humorous "Electric Carving Knife", a device marketed toward men as a means of perpetuating the male tradition of the meat carver. I also very much enjoyed the essay on "Gay use of the streets", concerning the appropriation of public spaces as a means of forming a cultural network in the cities of the 1920's.

This is a very interesting examination of masculinity, and anyone interested in this topic should enjoy this multi-dimensional analysis of masculinity and its architectures. It comes with my heartiest recommendation (and, for any men out there, you probably will never again look at the electric carving knife in quite the same way!)