Cultural Studies: Images of Bliss & The Male Dancer

Abstract

[Extract] If it's a good bet to avoid judging a book by its cover, it's also probably best to avoid selecting books on the promise of their titles. I wanted to love both of these books, I really did. Murat Aydemir's Images of Bliss: Ejaculation, Masculinity and Meaning and Ramsay Burt's second edition release of his now classic The Male Dancer: Bodies, Spectacle and Sexuality are appealing to gender studies scholars and cultural studies enthusiasts on several counts. But their covers and their names are their most seductive features. Aydemir's Images of Bliss features a photographed stream of ejaculate coursing diagonally across the book's protective covering. Ramsay's reissued and updated The Male Dancer features two partnered male dancers shown in partial view, seductively poised at the spine of the book as if at the wings of a stage. As one partner gazes upon the other's muscular leg and follows him offstage, we as readers are invited to consider a phenomenon too long in the wings of cultural criticism: the male dancer and the spectacle of the male body. Unfortunately, the seductive promises of both of these books fail to deliver.