A bold, unconventional cultural exploration of the male body and its current place in the Western World examines contemporary perspectives on masculinity in everything from Playboy to Michael Jordan to the recent Viagra craze.

The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and Private

Politics & Social Sciences

Bordo, Susan

Social Sciences

Farrar. Straus & Giroux

An exciting new popular study of the male body--fresh, honest, and full of revelations
In this surprising, candid cultural analysis, Susan Bordo begins with a frank, tender look at her own father's body and goes on to perceptively scrutinize the presentation of maleness in everyday life.
Men's (and women's) ideas about men's bodies are heavily influenced by society's expectations, and Bordo helps us understand where those ideas come from. In chapters on the penis (in all its incarnations), fifties Hollywood, male beauty standards, and sexual harassment, and in discussions of topics ranging from Marlon Brando and Boogie Nights to Philip Roth and Lady Chatterley's Lover, Bordo offers fresh and unexpected insights. Always--whether she is examining Michael Jordan or Humbert Humbert, the butch phallus or her own grade-school experiences--she rejects rigid categories in favor of an honest, nuanced version of men as flesh-and-blood human beings.

The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private

Farrar. Straus and Giroux

In this provocative book, Susan Bordo untangles the myths, ideologies, and pathologies of the modern female body. Bordo explores our tortured fascination with food, hunger, desire, and control, and its effects on women's lives.

Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body

Philosophy

University of California Press

Twilight Zones: The Hidden Life of Cultural Images from Plato to O.J.

Considering everything from Nike ads, emaciated models, and surgically altered breasts to the culture wars and the O.J. Simpson trial, Susan Bordo deciphers the hidden life of cultural images and the impact they have on our lives. She builds on the provocative themes introduced in her acclaimed work Unbearable Weight—which explores the social and political underpinnings of women's obsession with bodily image—to offer a singularly readable and perceptive interpretation of our image-saturated culture. As it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between appearance and reality, she argues, we need to rehabilitate the notion that not all versions of reality are equally trustworthy. Bordo writes with deep compassion, unnerving honesty, and bracing intelligence. Looking to the body and bodily practices as a concrete arena where cultural fantasies and anxieties are played out, she examines the mystique and the reality of empowerment through cosmetic surgery. Her brilliant discussion of sexual harassment reflects on the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill controversy as well as the film Disclosure. She suggests that sexuality, although one of the mediums of harassment, is not its essence, and she calls for the recasting of harassers as bullies rather than sex fiends. Bordo also challenges the continuing marginalization of feminist thought, in particular the failure to read feminist work as cultural criticism. Finally, in a powerful and moving essay called "Missing Kitchens"—written in collaboration with her two sisters—Bordo explores notions of bodies, place, and space through a recreation of the topographies of her childhood. Throughout these essays, Bordo avoids dogma and easy caricature. Consistently, and on many levels, she demonstrates the profound relationship between our lives and our theories, our feelings and our thoughts.

Considering everything from Nike ads, emaciated models, and surgically altered breasts to the culture wars and the O.J. Simpson trial, Susan Bordo deciphers the hidden life of cultural images and the impact they have on our lives. She builds on the provocative themes introduced in her acclaimed work Unbearable Weight―which explores the social and political underpinnings of women's obsession with bodily image―to offer a singularly readable and perceptive interpretation of our image-saturated culture. As it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between appearance and reality, she argues, we need to rehabilitate the notion that not all versions of reality are equally trustworthy. Bordo writes with deep compassion, unnerving honesty, and bracing intelligence. Looking to the body and bodily practices as a concrete arena where cultural fantasies and anxieties are played out, she examines the mystique and the reality of empowerment through cosmetic surgery. Her brilliant discussion of sexual harassment reflects on the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill controversy as well as the film Disclosure. She suggests that sexuality, although one of the mediums of harassment, is not its essence, and she calls for the recasting of harassers as bullies rather than sex fiends. Bordo also challenges the continuing marginalization of feminist thought, in particular the failure to read feminist work as cultural criticism. Finally, in a powerful and moving essay called "Missing Kitchens"―written in collaboration with her two sisters―Bordo explores notions of bodies, place, and space through a recreation of the topographies of her childhood. Throughout these essays, Bordo avoids dogma and easy caricature. Consistently, and on many levels, she demonstrates the profound relationship between our lives and our theories, our feelings and our thoughts.

"Unbearable Weight is brilliant. From an immensely knowledgeable feminist perspective, in engaging, jargonless (!) prose, Bordo analyzes a whole range of issues connected to the body―weight and weight loss, exercise, media images, movies, advertising, anorexia and bulimia, and much more―in a way that makes sense of our current social landscape―finally! This is a great book for anyone who wonders why women's magazines are always describing delicious food as 'sinful' and why there is a cake called Death by Chocolate. Loved it!"―Katha Pollitt, Nation columnist and author of Subject to Debate: Sense and Dissents on Women, Politics, and Culture (2001)

Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body, Tenth Anniversary Edition

Literature & Fiction

Heywood, Leslie

History & Criticism

The Creation of Anne Boleyn: A New Look at England’s Most Notorious Queen

Part biography, part cultural history, The Creation of Anne Boleyn is a fascinating reconstruction of Anne’s life and an illuminating look at her afterlife in the popular imagination. Why is Anne so compelling? Why has she inspired such extreme reactions? What did she really look like? Was she the flaxen-haired martyr of Romantic paintings or the raven-haired seductress of twenty-first-century portrayals? (Answer: neither.) And perhaps the most provocative questions concern Anne’s death more than her life. How could Henry order the execution of a once beloved wife? Drawing on scholarship and critical analysis, Bordo probes the complexities of one of history’s most infamous relationships. Bordo also shows how generations of polemicists, biographers, novelists, and filmmakers imagined and re-imagined Anne: whore, martyr, cautionary tale, proto “mean girl,” feminist icon, and everything in between. In this lively book, Bordo steps off the well-trodden paths of Tudoriana to expertly tease out the human being behind the competing mythologies.

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

Houghton, mifflin, harcourt

“Bordo’s sharp reading of Boleyniana and her clear affection for this proud, unusual woman make this an entertaining, provocative read.”—Boston Globe Part biography, part cultural history, The Creation of Anne Boleyn is a reconstruction of Boleyn’s life and an illuminating look at her very active afterlife in the popular imagination. With recent novels, movies, and television shows, Anne has been having a twenty-first-century moment, but Bordo shows how many generations of polemicists, biographers, novelists, and filmmakers have imagined and reimagined her: whore, martyr, cautionary tale, proto-“mean girl,” feminist icon, and everything in between. Drawing on scholarship and razor-sharp analysis, Bordo probes the complexities of one of history’s most intriguing women, teasing out what we actually know about Anne Boleyn and what we think we know about her. “Riveting . . . Bordo’s eloquent study not only recovers Anne Boleyn for our times but also demonstrates the ways in which legends grow out of the faintest wisps of historical fact.” —Book Page 
“Engrossing . . . Ms. Bordo offers a fascinating discussion.”—New York Times

Mariner Books

The months between the presidential election of 2016 and the summer of 2019 have been a wild ride, from the unexpected (and for many traumatic) results of the election to growing recognition of how profoundly the Trump presidency has changed our lives, from discoveries of corruption and foreign influence on our democratic institutions to fresh assaults on reproductive rights, the Brett Kavanaugh hearings and the #MeToo movement, Robert Mueller's long-awaited report and its aftermath, and the beginnings of the 2020 primary contest. Follow cultural historian and media critic Susan Bordo through those events as they happened, in a book whose format is uniquely designed to capture their immediacy. Combining full-length published pieces with spontaneous, unfiltered, never-before published posts, in a voice that is bracingly honest as well as critically penetrating, this collection goes beyond journalistic conventions to reveal the ways in which the political is indeed the personal. A sampling: "Reflections on Trump's Inauguration," was inspired by an exchange of looks between Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton; "To the Core" recalls both the Anita Hill hearings and Bordo's own experience with sexual harassment in the context of #MeToo; "Please Mr. Prosecutor Mueller" is a personal plea as well as an argument about the power of television; "My MSNBC Interview" finds the author perched on a high stool in a local TV studio, talking about her just-published book on the election, finding out what it feels like to be misunderstood on national television; "On Not Letting Comey Off the Hook" precedes a hard-hitting review of James Comey's book with a personal protest against the idealization of Comey that followed his anti-Trump appearances on television; "Imagine Bernie Sanders as a Woman" confronts the double-standards and double-binds faced not only by female politicians but by all women who are seen as "leaning in" too much, while "Two Elizabeths" explores how the Tudor queen and the presidential contender negotiate those challenges in their differing historical contexts. "Send the Children Out of the Room for This One" unflinchingly describes what it felt like to be the object of the Hillary-hate that was rampant among certain quarters of Sanders supporters. "The Little King" compares Donald Trump's combination of thin skin and authoritarian bullying to the imperious and volatile Henry VIII (who at least had the excuse of actually being King.) A section on Reproductive Rights takes on "fetal heartbeat" bills, not through familiar debates about the personhood of the fetus, but by arguing that such bills on are an assault on the personhood of the pregnant woman. Throughout this diverse collection, the role of the mainstream media, both in the election of 2016 and continuing to the present, is highlighted and taken to task, not only for its negative influence--e.g. on perpetuating and sometimes creating overblown "scandals," false equivalences, and gendered double-standards--but its failure to take responsibility for that role. The media analysis is not all grim, however: The more light-hearted approach of "If George Orwell Could Critique Broadcast News" will entertain the reader with familiar examples of the clich&#65533;s of pundit-speak. Susan Bordo, Professor Emerita at the University of Kentucky, is the author of numerous books in cultural history, media studies, and gender studies, most recently The Destruction of Hillary Clinton (2017) and The Creation of Anne Boleyn (2013.)

Imagine Bernie Sanders as a Woman: And Other Writings on Politics and Media 2016-2019

History

Historical Study & Educational Resources

Outskirts Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bordo, Susan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Bordo, Susan

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bordo, Susan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and Private

The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private

Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body

Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body

Twilight Zones: The Hidden Life of Cultural Images from Plato to O.J.

Twilight Zones: The Hidden Life of Cultural Images from Plato to O.J.

Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body, Tenth Anniversary Edition

The Creation of Anne Boleyn: A New Look at England’s Most Notorious Queen

The Creation of Anne Boleyn: A New Look at England’s Most Notorious Queen

Imagine Bernie Sanders as a Woman: And Other Writings on Politics and Media 2016-2019