Perversions: Deviant Readings

by Mandy Merck

In this series of provocative essays on culture, art, and film, critic Mandy Merck explores the paradoxes of sexual representation. Her chapters are readings of "perversions"--male and female homosexuality. At the same time, Merck's ideas are perversions--readings that pervert, or turn away, from our usual understandings.

Amon the unlikely subjects of Merck's critical eye are lesbian S/M, Simone de Beauvoir's litle-known study of Brigitte Bardot, the gay videoporn hit More of a Man, and the television production of Portrait of a Marriage. Her criticism is refreshingly original, resulting in ways of seeing that toe no party lines. Drawing their power from a resistance to easy conclusions, Mandy Merck's deviant and refreshing readings are always perverse.

Genres: LGBT

224 pages, Paperback

First published June 14, 1993