Vested Interests: Cross-dressing and Cultural Anxiety
by Marjorie Garber
List Price:
Our Price: $31.63
You Save: $6.32 (17%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $29.00 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Marjorie GarberEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1997-11-27
ISBN: 0415919517
Number of pages: 456
Publisher: Routledge
Book Reviews of Vested Interests: Cross-dressing and Cultural Anxiety
Book Review: Accumulating Dust, But Some Parts Still Worth More Than Just 3 Stars
Summary: 3 Stars
I read the original 1992 hardcover edition. Which means, this book is dated. Definitely missing yet is for example the concept of metrosexuality. The newest films analyzed are Tootsie (1982) and Yentl (1983), already a decade old when this book was published.
Marjorie Garber uses a very rich vocabulary, some of which I was even able to stump internet dictionaries with. On the other hand, she uses unintended racist vocabulary. She may have known better in 1992.
Many parts of the 390-paged book (+ 35 pages of footnotes and 38 picture pages, some of which are in color) are very interesting to read. Usually, when playing topsyturvy with our Western concepts of gender. For example that the pink-blue baby colors were reversed before WWI. When and in what circumstances Muslim societies appear to harbor more gender freedoms than the West. (Though the author doesn't mention everything possible.) Many history lessons are to be learned, e.g. that Joan of Arc wasn't tried under the inquisition for heresy, but transvestism.
Lengthy chapters are reserved for classic films, sumptuary laws, Peter Pan, Salome, detective stories, M. Butterfly, the posthumous Harold Washington scandal, Josephine Baker and the image connection among Valentino, Liberace and Elvis. With most of these chapters I had the feeling that they were somewhat arbitrary or that separate long articles, worthy as they may be individually, were compiled for a book, which often loses sight of its overall coherence. Even though I liked reading about all of that, it felt too much like a patchwork text instead of clear messages.
If you are interested in gender studies, don't miss out on this one. Just make sure, this will not remain the only one. Some other books include The Mismeasure of Woman, Myths Of Gender: Biological Theories About Women And Men, Revised Edition, The Meanings of Sex Difference in the Middle Ages: Medicine, Science, and Culture (Cambridge Studies in the History of Medicine) and Nature's Body: Gender In The Making Of Modern Science
Pop Culture Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Pop Culture Books
Enterprise and Heritage: Crosscurrents of National CultureRoutledge; Published: 1991-07-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $150.00
Lichtenstein: Girls (Gagosian Gallery)Gagosian Gallery; Published: 2008-08-26; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $49.99
Price in other shops:
Chris Ware (Monographics Series)by Daniel Raeburn
Yale University Press; Published: 2004-10-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.94
Price in other shops:
Public Art by the BookUniversity of Washington Press; Published: 2005-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $44.29
Price in other shops:
Badlands: New Horizons in LandscapeThe MIT Press; Published: 2008-07-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $17.87
Price in other shops:
Discourses: Conversations about Postmodern Culture (Documentary Sources in Contemporary Art)The MIT Press; Published: 1989-11-08; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $25.00
Price in other shops:
Taking the Trainby Joe Austin
Columbia University Press; Published: 2001-08-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $25.09
Price in other shops:
The Flash Press: Sporting Male Weeklies in 1840s New York (Historical Studies of Urban America)by Patricia Cline Cohen, Timothy J. Gilfoyle, Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz, American Antiquarian Society
University Of Chicago Press; Published: 2008-05-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops:
Enabling Creative Chaos: The Organization Behind the Burning Man Eventby Katherine K. Chen
University Of Chicago Press; Published: 2009-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.00
Price in other shops:
Wallbangin': Graffiti and Gangs in L.A.by Susan A. Phillips
University Of Chicago Press; Published: 1999-07-15; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (Routledge Classics)by Judith Butler
Routledge; Published: 2006-05-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.50
Price in other shops:
The Practice of Love: Lesbian Sexuality and Perverse Desireby Teresa de Lauretis
Indiana University Press; Published: 1994-05-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.23
Price in other shops:
No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive (Series Q)by Lee Edelman
Duke University Press Books; Published: 2004-12-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $21.15
Price in other shops:
Homosby Leo Bersani
Harvard University Press; Published: 1996-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.50
Price in other shops:
Girl In Blueby Ann Rinaldi
Scholastic Paperbacks; Published: 2005-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.29
Price in other shops:
After Sex?: On Writing since Queer Theory (Series Q)by Jonathan Goldberg, Michael Moon, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
Duke University Press Books; Published: 2011-01-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $21.06
Price in other shops:
Epistemology of the Closet: Updated with a New Prefaceby Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
University of California Press; Published: 2008-01-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.98
Price in other shops:
Tipping the Velvet: A Novelby Sarah Waters
Riverhead Trade; Published: 2000-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.78
Price in other shops:
Female Masculinityby Judith Halberstam
Duke University Press Books; Published: 1998-10-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $17.04
Price in other shops:
Cross Dressing, Sex, and Genderby Vern L. Bullough, Bonnie Bullough
University of Pennsylvania Press; Published: 1993-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $17.00
Price in other shops: