Margaret Mead Made Me Gay: Personal Essays, Public Ideas

Margaret Mead Made Me Gay is the intellectual autobiography of cultural anthropologist Esther Newton, a pioneer in gay and lesbian studies. Chronicling the development of her ideas from the excitement of early feminism in the 1960s to friendly critiques of queer theory in the 1990s, this collection covers a range of topics such as why we need more precise sexual vocabularies, why there have been fewer women doing drag than men, and how academia can make itself more hospitable to queers. It brings together such classics as "The Mythic Mannish Lesbian" and "Dick(less) Tracy and the Homecoming Queen" with entirely new work such as "Theater: Gay Anti-Church."
Newton's provocative essays detail a queer academic career while offering a behind-the-scenes view of academic homophobia. In four sections that correspond to major periods and interests in her life-"Drag and Camp," "Lesbian-Feminism," "Butch," and "Queer Anthropology"-the volume reflects her successful struggle to create a body of work that uses cultural anthropology to better understand gender oppression, early feminism, theatricality and performance, and the sexual and erotic dimensions of fieldwork. Combining personal, theoretical, and ethnographic perspectives, Margaret Mead Made Me Gay also includes photographs from Newton's personal and professional life.
With wise and revealing discussions of the complex relations between experience and philosophy, the personal and the political, and identities and practices, Margaret Mead Made Me Gay is important for anyone interested in the birth and growth of gay and lesbian studies.

Author: Esther Newton
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: 11/22/2000
Pages: 360
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.27lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.13w x 1.02d
ISBN: 9780822326120
Award: Lambda Literary Awards - Nominee

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 11/06/2000 pg. 77
Library Journal 12/01/2000 pg. 166
Choice 05/01/2001 pg. 1666
Women's Review of Books 09/01/2001 pg. 23
Lambda Book Report 05/01/2002 pg. 30
Library Journal 12/20/2000

About the Author

Esther Newton is Professor of Anthropology and Kempner Distinguished Professor at State University of New York at Purchase. She is the author of several books, including Mother Camp, a groundbreaking study of American drag queens, and Cherry Grove, Fire Island: Sixty Years in America's First Gay and Lesbian Town. Among other distinctions, she was Scholarly Advisor for the documentary film Paris Is Burning, a founding member of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center, and member of the Advisory Group for Stonewall History Project.