Reading the flesh

The nude male centrefold spread like a virus through the new women's magazines of the seventies. At the time, and since, the academic gaze has viewed the centrefold as little more than a joke, a failure for feminism and female sexuality. This article returns to the heyday of the centrefold and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Feminist media studies 2011-06, Vol.11 (2), p.215-229
Main Author: Masurier, Megan Le
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Australia
Feminism
Gender
Periodicals
Pornography
Sexuality
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Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The nude male centrefold spread like a virus through the new women's magazines of the seventies. At the time, and since, the academic gaze has viewed the centrefold as little more than a joke, a failure for feminism and female sexuality. This article returns to the heyday of the centrefold and listens to the responses of ordinary women in reader letters published in the new Australian women's magazine Cleo from 1972 until 1985. It argues that far from being a failure, these representations of the nude male became a practice of popular feminism, one of the early representations of popular feminist desire in mainstream women's magazines. Reprinted by permission of Routledge, Taylor and Francis Ltd.
ISSN:1468-0777
DOI:10.1080/14680777.2010.521628