Looking Good: Male Body Image in Modern America

By Lynne Luciano

Book Overview

A valuable examination of the tyranny of body image--this time over men

Not so long ago, what the average American man did mattered more than how he looked. Since the 1970s, however, projecting the right look has become more and more essential, and men are spending millions of dollars on fitness training, bodybuilding, hair replacement, and cosmetic surgery in the relentless pursuit of physical perfection.

What has caused American men to fall into the beauty trap so long assumed to be a special danger for women? This book looks at the confluence of social, economic, and cultural changes that have shaped the new cult of male body image in postwar America. Lynne Luciano explores what men are doing to themselves, asks why they are doing it, and discovers what this new world tells us about American society today.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0809066386
• ISBN13: 9780809066384
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Hill & Wang
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.72 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Good review

An often laugh-out-loud funny, but brief history of 20th century male vanity and ways of enhancing the male image.

The high cost of having it all

Luciano's message is both served and undermined by her mesmerizing and even-toned prose. I found myself at times wishing that she would get on a soap box and spew alarmist Vance-Packard-like jeremiads. I wanted her to denounce the predatory industries--medical, pharmaceutical, fitness, clothing, advertising--that seem to conspire to make people (in this case, men) so discontent (and preoccupied) with themselves. But Luciano is careful not to do this. The responsibility for this mad obsession with looking good (read "young") must be shared. Beginning with the 50s Organizational Man, Luciano traces how men's attitudes about themselves, their place in the economy, and their relationship with women has evolved in the last half-century. Though she presents more than adequate data (statistical and anecdotal) to make her points (her descriptions of hair-replacement and penile enlargement surgeries are not for the squeamish), it is her ability to interpret the broader economic, societal, and psychological issues that make "Looking Good" such a fascinating read.If you read and enjoy this book, you'll probably also enjoy "The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private" by Susan Bordo. Bordo's take on this subject is more personal. I find it interesting that two of the most insightful books written about men recently have come from the pens of female academics.