It's been some time since we've heard from GERMAINE GREER. Her latest title is a coffee-table art book, THE BEAUTIFUL BOY. Conventional wisdom has it that in visual culture the female body is viewed as the primary object of desire. Greer argues that until the 19th century, the image of the female body was not drawn from life but constructed on aesthetic principles. The elevation of the female nude as the subject for the artist's gaze has overwhelmed appreciation of the short-lived beauty of the young male. Part of Greer's mission in this book is to establish women's pleasure in the male image. She writes: "Part of the purpose of this book is to advance women's reclamation of their capacity for and right to visual pleasure...That healthy appetite should now be refined by taste. If we but lift our eyes to the beautiful images of young men that stand all about us, there is a world of complex and civilized pleasure to be had."
Greer includes over two hundred images drawn from the whole history of Western art, depicting the male as boy toy, virgin soldier, naked martyr, winged genius, angel, seducer, narcissist and worshipper. THE BEAUTIFUL BOY is a hardcover from Rizzoli, $45.00
