Margaret Mead Made Me Gay: Personal Essays, Public Ideas (Series Q) (Paperback)

~ Esther Newton (Author), Michèle AinaBarale (Series Editor), Michael Moon (Series Editor), Eve KosofskySedgwick (Series Editor), Bill Leap (Contributor) "The research for this book was traditional anthropological fieldwork, with certain qualifications imposed by time, resources, and the special constitution of the "community" under study..." (more)
Key Phrases: butch career, stage impersonators, street impersonators, New York, Cherry Grove, Arts Project (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Anthropologist Esther Newton, second-wave feminist, butch from birth, and author of the groundbreaking 1972 study of drag, Mother Camp, here presents 20 engaged and engaging essays and book excerpts from the past three decades, ranging from political arguments to memoirs. Early in her academic career, Newton took a stand against the dry, "objective" writing style then being promoted in her field (and many others) as the social sciences sought to ally themselves with the hard sciences. The resulting prose is a curious but flexible hybrid well suited to Newton's related subject matters--sexual politics (including gender identity); the intersections of feminism and the academy; and her own evolving position as a butch lesbian in the academy, the lesbian and gay world, and the culture at large. Although Newton's early work is important and influential, some of the most striking pieces in this collection date from the 1990s, including Newton's critical and historical exploration of theatre as "gay anti-church"; her essay "Dick(less) Tracy and the Homecoming Queen," in which she tracks the election of the first-ever lesbian homecoming queen of Cherry Grove in the summer of 1994; and "My Butch Body," a memoir of her childhood and troubled youth. --Regina Marler

From Publishers Weekly

The wonderful title of this collection refers to the moment when NewtonAa college student ashamed of her feelings for other womenAread Coming of Age in Samoa and realized that various cultures have differing ideas of what constitutes "normal" sexuality. It seems only fitting, then, that Newton (Cherry Grove, Fire Island), now a professor of anthropology at SUNY Purchase, would become a pioneering scholar in lesbian and gay studies. This collectionAan intellectual genealogy of Newton's work from the last 30 yearsAreveals the prescience and durability of her earliest writings. The selections from her influential 1972 study of drag culture, Mother Camp, make effortless statements about gender presentation as "performance" and "impersonation" that are now staples of contemporary queer theory. In the 1960s, however, she had little professional support from her colleagues ("My topic was widely viewed as an inappropriate dirty joke"). Her newer pieces prove just as stimulating and vital. "Theater: Gay Anti-Church" argues that for gay people, theater serves as an almost religious site of community, iconography and ritual. A chapter from her upcoming autobiography, My Butch Career, shares personal revelations and exposes the formation of young butch identity: "My child body was a strong and capable instrument somehow stuffed into the word 'girl.' " This collection will be deservedly popular among devotees of gay and lesbian studies and anthropology. 23 b&w photos.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: Duke University Press (December 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0822326124
• ISBN-13: 978-0822326120
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,142,785 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Her Own Best Informant, February 19, 2001

By	V. Holliday (Baton Rouge, Louisiana United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Esther Newton is an extremely gifted thinker and writer. She points up important issues for gender studies in a clear and compelling, and still quite groundbreaking, style. This book works very diligently and successfully at several levels: as a historical narrative of the trajectory of Newton's life and career; as a theoretical discourse which is situated specifically by her historical narrative; as a critique of and a profound contribution to her profession, anthropology; as a powerful argument for the inevitable relationship between theory and history; as a courageous and provocative piece of scholarship.

Many of these essays were written early in the second wave of feminism, so the issues they engage point up the degree to which Newton has been ahead of her time. That she narrativizes the essays as the historical life of an academic (herself) attests to the fact that she is still ahead of her time: everything-- political, academic, social, sexual--is lived. There are no categories which happen outside of the people who make them.

Because of Newton's autobiographical, comfortable style, it should be noted that the book, although clearly academic, is a fairly easy read.

3 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars More feminist banter, February 7, 2007

By	Nathan Lawrence Hopkins "Nate" (Morgantown, PA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Newton has no concept of reality. This collection is nothing but more feminist banter standing upon a foundation of pagan thought at a teenage comprehension level.

Whether you find yourself rooting with liberals or conservatives there is no level of scholarship to be found anywhere the truth has been subdued.