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From a very young age we are told not to stare, and one hallmark of maturation is the ability to resist (or at least hide) our staring behavior. And yet, rarely do we master the impulse. Despite the complicated role it plays in our development, and its unique brand of visual enticement, staring has not been considered before as a suitable object for socio-cultural analysis. What is it about certain kinds of people that makes it impossible to take our eyes off them? Why are some visual stimuli irresistible? Why does staring produce so much anxiety? Drawing on examples from art, media, fashion, history and memoir, Garland-Thomson defines staring, explores the factors that motivate it, and considers the targets and the effects of the stare. A bodily inventory then enumerates how stares actually operate in daily life. A section on "Bodies" focuses on the question of size and scale as key indicators of normalcy, while certain body parts show themselves to be disproportionately arresting, as passages on "Faces" "Hands" and "Breasts" reveal. A concluding chapter on "Beholding" considers the frisson at play between starer and staree and offers an alternative way of understanding visual communication between people. Featuring over forty illustrations, Staring captures the stimulating combination of symbolic, material and emotional factors that make staring so irresistible while endeavoring to shift the usual response to staring, shame, into an engaged self-consideration. Elegant and provocative, this book advances new ways of thinking about visuality and the body that will appeal to readers who are interested in the overlap between the humanities and human behaviors.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Part 1 About Staring
• 1 Why Do We Stare?
• Part 2 What Is Staring?
• 2 Staring: A Physical Response
• 3 Staring: A Cultural History
• 4 Staring: A Social Relationship
• 5 Staring: Knowledge Gathering
• Part 3 Don't Stare
• 6 Staring: Getting into Trouble
• 7 Staring: Bad Manners
• 8 Staring: Rules and Rebellion
• Part 4 Starers and Starees
• 9 Looking Away, Staring Back
• Part 5 Scenes of Staring
• 10 Staring at Faces
• 11 Staring at Hands
• 12 Staring at Bodies
• 13 Staring at Breasts
• 14 Beholding

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CHOICE Review

"It's not nice to stare!" Delivered by parents, moral authorities, and etiquette books, this admonition almost always refers to staring at other people. It excludes those who ask to be stared at--for example, performers, teachers, royalty, and the like. And it rarely refers to staring into the eyes of animals, especially some nonhuman primates, even though staring is likely to elicit aggressive or hostile behavior. Garland-Thomson (women's studies, Emory Univ.) explores the uses and abuses of human staring from the viewpoints of both the starer and the "staree" (i.e., the one being stared at). For the most part emphasizing contemporary Western culture, the author raises many interesting questions about staring. What characteristics or situations invite or demand staring? How does staring establish or modify social relationships? How can a staree respond effectively? Just less than half the book addresses the ways in which extremes of faces, hands, breasts, and bodies in general serve as targets of stares. The book offers many examples of how starer/staree interactions have served to promote understanding and compassion. The illustrations are useful. The writing style is clear and straightforward. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels. R. H. Cormack New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Rosemarie Garland-Thomson is Professor in the Department of Women's Studies at Emory University. She was named one of 2009's "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World" by UTNE Reader, and is co-editor of Re-Presenting Disability: Activism and Agency in the Museum (2010, Routledge).