Margaret Mead Made Me Gay

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.

• Foreword: The Butch Anthropologist Out in the Field / Judith Halberstam ixForeword: On Being Different: An Appreciation / William L. Leap xixAcknowledgments xxiiiIntroduction 1Part I: Drag and Camp From the Appendix to Mother Camp, Field Methods (1972) 11Role Models (1972) 14Preface to the Phoenix Edition of Mother Camp (1979) 30Theater: Gay Anti-Church-More Notes on Camp (1992/1999) 34Dick(less) Tracy and the Homecoming Queen: Lesbian Power and Representation in Gay Male Cherry Grove (1996) 63Part II: Lesbian-Feminism High School Crack-up (1973) 93Marginal Woman/Marginal Academic (1973) 103The Personal is Political: Consciousness Raising and Personal Change in the Women's Liberation Movement (Shirley Walton, 1971) 113Excerpt from Womanfriends (with Shirley Walton, 1976) 142Will the Real Lesbian Community Please Stand Up? (1982/1998) 155Part III: Butch The Misunderstanding: Toward a More Precise Sexual Vocabulary (with Shirley Walton, 1984) 167The Mythic Mannish Lesbian: Radclyffe Hall and the New Woman(1984) 176Beyond Freud, Ken, and Barbie (1986) 189My Butch Career: A Memoir (1996) 195Part IV: Queer Anthropology DMS: The Outsider's Insider (1995) 215Too Queer for College: Notes on Homophobia (1987) 219An Open Letter to "Manda Cesara" (1980) 225Of Yams, Grinders, and Gays: The Anthropology of Homosexuality (1988) 229Lesbian and Gay Issues in Anthropology: Some Remarks to the Chairs of Anthropology Departments (1993) 238My Best Informant’s Dress: The Erotic Equation in Fieldwork (1992) 243Notes 259Bibliography 293Index 311

“Esther Newton is, quite simply, a pioneering figure in researching contemporary queer populations, as well as one of the most important voices in post WWII anthropology. We are very fortunate to finally have her essays assembled into an accessible collection. This anthology is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in late twentieth-century anthropology, feminism, gay and lesbian studies, gender and sexuality, and the social science of everyday life.”-Gayle Rubin “Esther Newton’s work . . . has changed anthropology, feminist studies, and queer studies in remarkable ways. . . . Newton’s methodological innovation has less to do with crafting new empirical tools and more to do with a creative and inspired mode of listening and participating in the cultures she studies.”-from the Foreword by Judith Halberstam “I was looking for any way out, some Mad Hatter to lead me down a rabbit hole into a world where I didn't have to carry a clutch purse and want to be dominated by some guy with a crew cut and no neck...So that when I read Coming of Age in Samoa, my senior year in college, I was, to put it mildly, receptive."”-from the Introduction by Esther Newton “This is a wonderful collection. Newton is a powerful intellectual whose reflections on her own work not only illuminate her life but also the relation between the academy and the social movements of the last thirty years.”-Elizabeth L. Kennedy, author of Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community “[Margaret Mead Made Me Gay] is honest, moving on the personal level and provocative on the academic level.” - Toni McNaron (Women's Review of Books) “[A] collection of highly readable, aways provocative essays.” - Michael Schwartz (Gay & Lesbian Review) “[G]roundbreaking. . . . Newton has contributed a brilliant collection that will enrich and promote the field of gender studies.” - B. Medicine (Choice) “This butch can write! Ranging from the witty and playful to the most seriously analytical, her prose is always precise, rich, felicitous, never marred by postmodern neologisms or other jargon. . . . Not only anthropologists, but historians, sociologists, and psychologists, all thos who value gay studies, will find much to delight and to ponder in this stimulating volume.” - Jeffrey M. Dickemann (CLGH Newsletter) “This collection of essays by cultural anthropologist Esther Newton can be considered an intellectual autobiography. . . . Always thought provoking and interesting, Newton never descends into the dryness of academic writing like many others, which makes it accessible to everyone.” (Lambda Book Report) “A welcome collection of Esther Newton’s research and personal essays . . . . This volume is both provocative and accessible enough to be used successfully in undergraduate courses on field methods, women’s movements, and gay and lesbian studies. It may also be a stimulating resource in a graduate course on professional socialization in anthropology or sociology. This book can serve as a compelling example of the epistemological complexities of feminist memoir projects. . . . Overall this book will be of benefit to anyone who is interested in queer and/or feminist ethnography . . . .” - Jane Ward (Gender & Society) “This collection-an intellectual genealogy of Newton’s work from the last 30 years-reveals the prescience and durability of her earliest writings. . . . Her newer pieces prove just as stimulating and vital.” (Publishers Weekly)