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The Beautiful Boy

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For other uses, see Beautiful Boy (disambiguation).
The Beautiful Boy
Cover of The Beautiful Boy, showing Björn Andrésen in 1970 by David Bailey (international edition)
AuthorGermaine Greer
LanguageEnglish
SubjectArt history
Published2003
PublisherThames & Hudson
Pages256 pp
ISBN978-0-5002-8488-9

The Beautiful Boy is a book by 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] 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.

Content

The book contains some 200 pictures of boys through the ages, and is a history of boys in Western art.[2][4] This includes an analysis of Classical, Neoclassical, and Renaissance art.[5] Pictures and discussions range from Cupid to Elvis, Boy George, Kurt Cobain, and Jim Morrison.[2] Greer says that male youth was previously prized artistically, but in more recent centuries was displaced by a preference for adult masculinity.[6] Accordingly, she argues that male youthfulness was desexualised in art.[7]

Writing in the book's opening pages, Greer says 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][6][8]

She argues that young male beauty conveys "male vulnerability" and can be "sexualised with impunity", via the "female gaze". She argues that boys are "debarred from phallic power",[5][9] 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".[5][10]

Reception

Book reviews

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."[6] 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]

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] 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."[11]

Controversy

The cover picture caused minor 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"),[12] stated in the press that he objected to the picture having been used without his permission.[13][12] He was fifteen years old when the photograph was taken.[12][14]

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 subgroup 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."[15][16] She was criticised for these comments, with some writers labeling her a paedophile.[17] 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."[18][19] 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."[20][21]

Editions

See also

References

  1. ^ "Greer, Germaine". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 18 April 2022. The Beautiful Boy, Rizzoli International (New York, NY), 2003, published as The Boy, Thames & Hudson (London, England), 2003.
  2. ^ a b c d "The Beautiful Boy". Publishers Weekly. 1 November 2003. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
  3. ^ a b c "The Boy". The Age. 25 October 2003. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
  4. ^ "New Zealand International Arts Festival – Germaine Greer". Library Blog. Wellington City Libraries. 12 March 2012. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
  5. ^ a b c Bowstead, Jay McCauley (2018-05-17). Menswear Revolution: The Transformation of Contemporary Men's Fashion. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 167. ISBN 978-1-4742-8899-6.
  6. ^ a b c Carter, Miranda (12 October 2003). "The brief beauty of the child". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
  7. ^ Blair, Ulanda (June 2008). "Now that I am a man I can go to war: Angela Lynkushka". Artlink. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
  8. ^ Greer, Germaine (2003). The Beautiful Boy. p. 7.
  9. ^ Greer, Germaine (2003). The Beautiful Boy. p. 228.
  10. ^ Greer, Germaine (2003). The Beautiful Boy. p. 28.
  11. ^ Gornall, Jonathan (29 August 2005). "Woman and boy: bad, not beautiful". The Times. Archived from the original on 14 October 2021. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
  12. ^ a b c "I'm not Germaine's toy, says cover boy". The Sydney Morning Herald. AAP. 18 October 2003.
  13. ^ Seaton, Matt (16 October 2003). "'I feel used'". The Guardian.
  14. ^ Warren, Greta (25 November 2015). "Is no-platforming the right approach?". Trinity News. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
  15. ^ Devine, Miranda (10 July 2003). "Generation of taboo breakers are a selfish lot". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2007-09-09. She wouldn't say exactly how young the 'boys' are in her book but has cheerily admitted it will 'get me into a lot of trouble' and expects she will be called a pedophile.
  16. ^ Fray, Peter (5 July 2003). "A feminist buoyant in her passion". The Age. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
  17. ^ Young, Emma (27 October 2003). "Sticks and stones may break bones but not stereotypes". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2007-09-09. 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.
  18. ^ Andrew Denton (2003-09-15). "Enough Rope". ABC TV. Archived from the original on 18 January 2012. Retrieved 2008-02-09. 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.
  19. ^ "Germaine Greer: The Boy". Star Observer. 20 April 2008. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
  20. ^ "Greer braced for 'paedophile book' storm". The Scotsman. 27 July 2003. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
  21. ^ Brooks, Richard; Ham, Paul (27 July 2003). "Pretty boys get Greer excited". The Sunday Times. Archived from the original on 18 April 2022. Retrieved 18 April 2022.

Further reading

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