More Details

Summary:

In 1951, a new type of publication appeared on newsstands - the physique magazine produced by and for gay men. For many men growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, these magazines and their images and illustrations of nearly naked men, as well as articles, letters from readers, and advertisements, served as an initiation into gay culture. The publishers behind them were part of a wider world of "physique entrepreneurs" men as well as women who ran photography studios, mail-order catalogues, pen-pal services, book clubs, and niche advertising for gay audiences. While such businesses have often been seen as peripheral to the gay political movement, in Buying Gay David K. Johnson shows how gay commerce was not a byproduct of the gay-rights movement but an important catalyst for it. Offering a vivid look into the lives of physique entrepreneurs and their customers, and presenting a wealth of illustrations, Johnson explores the connection - and tension - between the market and the movement. With circulation rates many times higher than the openly political "homophile" magazines, physique magazines were the largest gay media outlets of their time. This network of producers and consumers helped foster a gay community and upend censorships laws, paving the way for open expression. Physique entrepreneurs were at the center of legal struggles, especially against the U.S. Post Office, including the court victory that allowed full frontal male nudity and open homoeroticism. Buying Gay reconceives the history of the gay movement and shows how consumer culture helped create community and a site for resistance.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction
• Emerging from the muscle magazines: Bob Mizer's Athletic Model Guild
• Selling gay books: Donald Webster Cory's "business with a conscience"
• The Grecian Guild: imagining a gay past, and future
• "I want a pen pal!:" Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield and the Adonis Male Club
• Defending a naked boy: Lynn Womack at the Supreme Court
• Consolidating the market: DSI of Minneapolis
• The physique legacy.

Author/Creator:

Johnson, David K. , author

Languages:

English

Language Notes:

Item content: English

Main Work:

Buying gay: how physique entrepreneurs sparked a movement [by Johnson, D.K.]

Other Related Resources:

Online version: Buying gay [by Johnson, D.K.] (New York : Columbia University Press, [2019] — ISBN 9780231548175; LCCN 2018037924)

Related Series:

Columbia studies in the history of U.S. capitalism

Subjects:

Gay men — United States — History

Gay erotica — United States — History

Bodybuilding — United States — Periodicals — History

Gay consumers — United States — History

Gay business enterprises — United States — History

Gay rights — United States — History

Gay men.

Gay erotica

Bodybuilding

Periodicals

Gay consumers

Gay business enterprises

Gay rights

United States

Genres:

History

General Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 243-291) and index.
Description based on print version record.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Digital Characteristics:

text file

Call Numbers:

HQ76.3.U5 J583 2019eb

ISBNs:

9780231548175 (electronic bk.)
0231548176 (electronic bk.)
9780231189101 [Invalid]
0231189109 [Invalid]

OCLC Numbers:

1048659018

Other Control Numbers:

EBC5552927 (source: MiAaPQ)
[Unknown Type]: ybp15896069