Maglina Lubovich teaches in the departments of English and Women's Studies at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. She holds a Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Steven Davis is currently completing his dissertation on pulp magazines in the literature department at Indiana University, Bloomington, where he specializes in twentieth-century American literature and gender studies. €ŒThis eclectic anthology brings much-needed attention to the social construction of male beauty. Its novel and wide-ranging essays will be of interest to scholars of gender studies, visual culture and gay and lesbian studies.€¥ €"Martin Berger, Professor of History of Art and Visual Culture at the University of California at Santa Cruz, author of Man Made: Thomas Eakins and the Construction of Gilded Age Manhood (2000) €ŒWhile the impact of the myths and ideals of beauty on the lives of women has attracted prolific scholarship, men's association with the discourses, representations and practices of beauty has gone relatively unexplored.

Davis and Lubovich address this critical omission in an anthology that dexterously reveals the connections between beauty and the multifaceted field of masculine identities and cultures. Always perceptive and absorbing, the essays deal with a wonderfully rich range of topics. Together, they provide an invaluable insight into the way notions of €~beauty' influence and inform patriarchal culture and definitions of masculinity.€¥ €"Bill Osgerby, Professor of Media, Culture, and Communications at London Metropolitan University, author of Playboys and Paradise: Masculinity, Youth and Leisure-Style in Modern America (2001).