The Culture of Male Beauty in Britain : From the First Photographs to David Beckham

A heavily illustrated history of two centuries of male beauty in British culture. Spanning the decades from the rise of photography to the age of the selfie, this book traces the complex visual and consumer cultures that shaped masculine beauty in Britain, examining the realms of advertising, health, pornography, psychology, sport, and celebrity culture. Paul R. Deslandes chronicles the shifting standards of male beauty in British culture—from the rising cult of the athlete to changing views on hairlessness—while connecting discussions of youth, fitness, and beauty to growing concerns about race, empire, and degeneracy. From earlier beauty show contestants and youth-obsessed artists, the book moves through the decades into considerations of disfigured soldiers, physique models, body-conscious gay men, and celebrities such as David Beckham and David Gandy who populate the worlds of television and social media. Deslandes calls on historians to take beauty and gendered aesthetics seriously while recasting how we think about the place of physical appearance in historical study, the intersection of different forms of high and popular culture, and what has been at stake for men in “looking good.” "In The Culture of Male Beauty in Britain, Paul Deslandes offers the definitive account of how notions of male beauty changed in Britain over the past few centuries. With both fluid prose and 120 carefully selected images, Deslandes traces the sustained and culturally significant, masculine engagement with beauty culture in Britain from the nineteenth century to the present, including considerations of advertising, health, pornography, psychology, sport, and celebrity culture. Deslandes's account chronicles the ebb and flow of certain beauty standards in British male culture, illustrating the slow rise of the cult of youth, the growth of muscularity as both a masculine attribute and a marker of attractiveness, and the falling in and out of fashion of hirsuteness and hairlessness. Along the way, he links discussions of youth, fitness, and beauty to growing concerns about race and empire and fears about degeneracy. With respect to the postwar world, he also highlights the ways expressing what one found attractive became central to the development of modern sexual subjectivities, especially as distinctive gay and heterosexual identities coalesced in British culture. This book shows not only how notions of beauty changed, but also how the British came to understand themselves as a visual people and as sophisticated consumers of theatrical and cinematographic images, photographs, and advertisements"-- Provided by publisher A heavily illustrated history of two centuries of male beauty in British culture. Spanning the decades from the rise of photography to the age of the selfie, this book traces the complex visual and consumer cultures that shaped masculine beauty in Britain, examining the realms of advertising, health, pornography, psychology, sport, and celebrity culture. Paul R. Deslandes chronicles the shifting standards of male beauty in British culture - from the rising cult of the athlete to changing views on hairlessness - while connecting discussions of youth, fitness, and beauty to growing concerns about race, empire, and degeneracy Setting the Stage: The Foundations of Modern Male Beauty -- Physiognomists and Photographers -- Beauty Experts and Hairdressing Entrepreneurs -- Artists, Athletes, and Celebrities -- Poets, Soldiers, and Monuments -- Men on Display in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries -- Brylcreem Men, Cinema Idols, and Uniforms -- Teenagers, Bodybuilders, and Models -- Youthful Rebels, Gender-Benders, and Gay Men -- Insecure Men, Metrosexuals, and Spornosexuals