20 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE AUGUST 20, 1993
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GUESS WHO'S COMING TO TOWN?
Raymond Luczak, editor of EYES OF DESIRE:
A Deaf Gay & Lesbian Reader
(Alyson, $9.95) will read from the first collection
of work on deaf gay and lesbian culture, including
essays, interviews, poems, short stories, and
photographs. The event will be interpreted for
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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2nd 8 to 9:30 PM
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BOOKS
Photographic images framed by politics
The Homoerotic Photograph: Male Images from Durieu/Delacroix to Mapplethorpe
By Allen Ellenzweig Foreword by George Stambolian Columbia University Press, 252 p. $44.95 Reviewed by Timothy Robson
This beautiful book, part of Columbia University Press's series "Between MenBetween Women: Lesbian and Gay Studies" (which also includes Lillian Faderman's acclaimed Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in TwentiethCentury America) traces the history of male homoeroticism through photography.
In his foreword, the late George Stambolian (editor of the first four Men on Men anthologies) points out that the word homoerotic did not come into common use until the Jesse Helms-Robert MapplethorpeNational Endowment for the Arts controversy in 1989. Ellenzweig is less concerned with the aesthetic elements of these images (since, as he says, only people can experience the homoerotic), than with the cultural
and political attitudes which surround the creation and dissemination of the works. Ellenzweig presents a persuasive argument that the politics of a particular time influence the representations an artist can make.
The work is arranged as a historical survey, beginning with the nineteenth-century French photographer Eugene Durieu, who worked under the direction of painter Eugene Delacroix. Later photographers whose works are represented include the Americans Thomas Eakins, George Platt Lynes, Herbert List, and, finally, Arthur Tress and Robert Mapplethorpe. Ellenzweig invests in each of the photographers whose works are examined a unifying element, whether the classical male-bonding ideals of Eakins, the loss and regret of World War II expressed by Minor White, or Mapplethorpe's extravagant post-Stonewall S&M fantasies.
This book, which contains 127 black and white photos, is certain to become the standard work on the history of male photography. It should be in all libraries, and would make an excellent gift for anyone interested in photography or the cultural attitudes toward male homoeroticism.
Variations on the theme
of long term
Lesbian and Gay Marriage: Private Commitments Public Ceremonies edited by Suzanne Sherman Temple University Press 288 p. $34.95 (cloth); $16.95 (paper)
Reviewed by Timothy Robson
The topic of marriage (or domestic partnership) of same-sex couples has been debated with growing fervor in the last few years as an increasing number of private and public employers offer to such couples benefits formerly available only to the heterosexually married.
The central segments of Lesbian and Gay Marriage are a series of interviews with gay and lesbian couples, some of whom have made private commitments to each other, spurning "marriage" ceremonies, others of whom have held public services which in many instances replicate the trappings of traditional weddings. The interviews are preceded by two articles about same-sex marriage, pro and con (both reprinted from other sources), and followed by several short essays by officiators at same-sex weddings or commitment ceremonies.
The people interviewed by the editor include such well-known activists as Dell Martin and Phyllis Lyon and Harry Hay and John Burnside, as well as others unknown to
commitment
the gay world at large. The editor does not state her own opinions, although the very publication of this book appears to be her affirmation of the quality and strength of same-sex relationships. The interviews confirm that same-sex couples have just as much diversity as society in general, from the gay couple who celebrated a drag wedding to an interracial couple with children.
This book offers anecdotal evidence of the divergence of opinion on the subject of gay and lesbian marriage, although the inclusion only of relatively long-term couples and the exclusion of persons who oppose couplehood or couples who have consciously chosen honest "open" relationships skews the outlook of the book. With the exception of one of the opening essays (by Paula Ettelbrick) the message seems clear: the model to emulate is that of a long-term commitment to one other person. This book is variations on one theme and is perhaps useful in the current debate about domestic partnership.
The definitive book which explores and analyzes the full range of successful lesbian and gay relationships remains to be written. As Ettelbrick reminds us, "We must not fool ourselves into believing that marriage will make it acceptable to be gay or lesbian. We will be liberated only when we are respected and accepted for our differences and the diversity we provide to this society."
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