Constructing Masculinity is an anthology of 21 original texts based on presentations at the Constructing Masculity conference held at the DIA Center for the Arts in New York.

Constructing Masculinities is organized into five discursive areas addressed by leading academics, social and applied scientists, legal scholars, poets, activists and cultural critics. "What is Masculinity?" questions society's normative standards of the masculine and contemplates the extent to which men and women can transcend these stereotypes and proscriptions; "Masculinity and Representation" explores the ways in which representations of masculinity and maleness in the media and the arts produce, challenge and ultimately shape notions of the masculine; "How Science Defines Men" and "Masculinity and the Rule of Law" consider masculinity in relationship to science and law, two dominant social institutions that play a vital role in constructing stereotypes and establishing gendered power relationships; "Male Subjectivity and Responsibilty" asks how an informed and activist notion of masculinity can contribute to the political debates about identity and power.

Constructing Masculinity takes us beyond the notion of "men in feminism" to a more radical rethinking of the status of masculinity itself. Men must do more than admit their complicity in the patriarchy; they must begin to rethink the very boundaries that shape and define what it means to be a man. Conversely, women must play an important role in this reevaluation, an idea suggested by Eve KosofskySedgwick's admonition that "when something is about masculinity, it isn't always about men."' Far from being just about men, Constructing Masculinity engages, inflicts upon, and has vital meaning for all members of society.

Contributors: Stanley Aronowitz, Derrick Bell, Leo Bersani, Homi Bhabha, Marcellus Blount, Judith Butler, Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, Barbara Ehrenreich, Anne Fausto-Sterling, Richard Fung, Sander Gilman, Marjorie Heins, bell hooks, Wayne Koestenbaum, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Carrie Mai, Philomena Mariani, Andrew Ross, Sapphire, Paul Smith, Abagail Solomon-Godeau, Michael Taussig, Kendall Thomas, Carole Vance, Michele Wallace, Simon Watney, Patricia Williams, George Yudice

eBook available with sample pages: HB:0415910528

A collection of intensive discussions about the role of visual arts in public life The past decade has seen American culture deeply divided by debates over social identity, public morality, communal values and freedom of expression. A key focus of these polarizing discussions has been the role of visual arts in public life. In Art Matters, five leading cultural critics and two prominent contemporary artists show the ways that this debate has profoundly reshaped our view of American culture. Lucy Lippard investigates the extraordinary recent transformations in visual art; Michele Wallace takes on high art, popular culture, and African American identity; David Deitcher discusses queer culture and AIDS; Carole S. Vance ponders censorship and sexually explicit imagery; and Lewis Hyde considers democracy and culture. Projects by artists Julie Ault and Andrea Fraser provide a context for these debates. Art Matters also offers a close examination of attempts to develop alternative funding sources for artists, focusing specifically on the influential private foundation Art Matters-a foundation which became an important proponent for new forms of art and for protecting freedom of expression through its funding and advocacy efforts.

Throughout the modern era, photography has been enlisted to classify the world and its people. Driven by a belief in the scientific objectivity of photographic evidence, the systems utilized to classify photographs have shaped modern visual culture. Accompanying the exhibition The Order of Things: Photography from The Walther Collection, this book investigates the production and uses of serial portraiture, vernacular imagery, architectural surveys and time-based performance in photography from the 1880s to the present, bringing together works by artists from Europe, Africa, Asia and North America. Setting early modernist photographers Karl Blossfeldt and August Sander in dialogue with contemporary artists such as Ai Weiwei, Nobuyoshi Araki, Richard Avedon, Zanele Muholi, Stephen Shore and Zhang Huan, The Order of Things illustrates how typological methods in photography have developed globally.

Drawn from the International Center of Photography's archives, this book highlights the incomparable style and fascinating career of Weegee, one of New York City's quintessential press photographers. For a decade between 1935 and 1946, Weegee made a name for himself snapping crime scenes, victims, and perpetrators. Armed with a Speed Graphic camera and a police-band radio, Weegee often beat the cops to the story, determined to sell his pictures to the sensation-hungry tabloids. His stark black-and-white photos were often lurid and unsettling. Yet, as this beautifully produced volume shows, they were also brimming with humanity. Designed as a series of "dossiers," this book follows Weegee's transformation from a freelancer to a photo-detective. It explores his relationship with the tabloid press and gangster culture and reveals his intimate knowledge of New York's darkest corners. It provides readers with a rich historical experience--a New York City "noir" shot through the lens of one of its most iconoclastic figures.

A "Village Voice" Best Book of the Year, this collection of essays covers a range of topics, from "Education and Democracy" and "Politics and Election" to "Cultural Participation" and "AIDS and Democracy: A Case Study."

With contributions by: Erma Bombeck Noam Chomsky Alexander Cockburn David Deitcher Lisa Duggan Barbara Ehrenreich Deirdre English Stuart Ewen Henry Louis Gates Jr. Group Material bell hooks Gary Indiana Catherine Lord Bill Moyers William Olander Mark P. Petracca Yvonne Rainer Vito Russo Ira Shor Tom Stoddard Polly Thistlethwaite Brian Wallis

Discussions in Contemporary Culture is an award-winning series co-published with the Dia Center for the Arts in New York City. These volumes offer rich and timely discourses on a broad range of cultural issues and critical theory. The collection covers topics from urban planning to popular culture and literature, and continually attracts a wide and dedicated readership.