The Perfectible Body: The Western Ideal of Male Physical Development

What's most troubling about The Perfectible Body is that Dutton seems to think perfection comes in only one gender. An Australian professor of French, Dutton presents a readable and nuanced history of male body-building, from the ancient Greeks to today's pumped, steroid-enhanced, depilated, oiled and photographed trophies. His scholarship is thorough, and his grasp of the issues broad and complex, with a few true gems of insight. Though Dutton claims to take a balanced tone and to present no particular polemic, he nevertheless focuses his discussion of the ``developed body'' almost exclusively on the male body, slighting the female for ``obvious reasons.'' These unexplained ``reasons'' may not be so obvious to many readers, and the tone reflects a running dismissiveness of legitimate feminist concerns. Others will not recognize Dutton's version of Western art and history, one that is revisionist, oversimplified and on occasion simply wrong. Dutton's ideal is a conservative, masculine one that excludes women, ``cripples'' (a term he uses) and essentially anyone else who isn't a hairless, youthful, pretty gym-jock. (Apr.)