{"title":"Manuel Betancourt","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"male-gazed-book-manuel-betancourt-9781646221462","title":"The Male Gazed","description":"\u003cb\u003eFeaturing deep dives into thirst traps, drag queens, Antonio Banderas, and telenovelas--all in the service of helping us reframe how we talk about (desiring) men--this insightful memoir-in-essays is as much a coming of age as a coming out book\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Manuel Betancourt has long lustfully coveted masculinity--in part because he so lacked it. As a child in Bogotá, Colombia, he grew up with the social pressure to appear strong, manly, and, ultimately, straight. And yet in the films and television he avidly watched, Betancourt saw glimmers of different possibilities. 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Looking back over decades' worth of pop culture's attempts to codify and reframe what men can be, wear, do, and desire, this book establishes that to gaze at men is still a subversive act.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Written in the spirit of Hanif Abdurraqib and Olivia Laing, \u003ci\u003eThe Male Gazed\u003c\/i\u003e mingles personal anecdotes with cultural criticism to offer an exploration of intimacy, homoeroticism, and the danger of internalizing too many toxic ideas about masculinity as a gay man.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49521741234449,"sku":"GOR013623082","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50034381717777,"sku":"CIN164622146XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50040571494673,"sku":"CIN164622146XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/164622146X.jpg?v=1751441790"},{"product_id":"hello-stranger-book-manuel-betancourt-9781646222292","title":"Hello Stranger","description":"\u003cb\u003eWitty and winkingly playful, Manuel Betancourt's \u003ci\u003eHello Stranger\u003c\/i\u003e explores modern queer romance and the expansive possibilities of ephemeral intimacies\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e\"Hello stranger.\" As an opening line, you really can't ask for better.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eHello Stranger\u003c\/i\u003e is a book about chance encounters--at a bar, through social media, in a bathhouse--and what a stranger can reveal about who we are and who we could still yet be. A stranger, after all, is a site of endless possibilities.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e As Manuel Betancourt looks back on his past relationships, he turns to characters and narratives that helped him question notions of what monogamy and coupledom (and relationships and marriage) can and should look like. From films like \u003ci\u003eBefore Sunrise\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eCruising\u003c\/i\u003e to the poetry of Frank O'Hara and the musicals of Stephen Sondheim, Betancourt uses pop culture to make sense of the alluring prospect of forging intimacies with strangers--even, or especially, the strangers within ourselves.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e At once a personal excavation and a broad cultural critique, Betancourt grapples with everything from online sexting and real-life cruising to divorces and throuples. \u003ci\u003eHello Stranger\u003c\/i\u003e examines the intimacies we crave, value, and oftentimes destroy with rote familiarity.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50943690309905,"sku":"CIN1646222296G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51043679469841,"sku":"NIN9781646222292","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53192497365265,"sku":"CIN1646222296VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1646222296.jpg?v=1750896554"},{"product_id":"male-gazed-book-manuel-betancourt-9781646222223","title":"The Male Gazed","description":"\u003cb\u003eFeaturing deep dives into thirst traps, drag queens, Antonio Banderas, and telenovelas--all in the service of helping us reframe how we talk about (desiring) men--this insightful memoir-in-essays is as much a coming of age as a coming out book\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Manuel Betancourt has long lustfully coveted masculinity--in part because he so lacked it. As a child in Bogotá, Colombia, he grew up with the social pressure to appear strong, manly, and, ultimately, straight. And yet in the films and television he avidly watched, Betancourt saw glimmers of different possibilities. From the stars of telenovelas and the princes of Disney films to pop sensation Ricky Martin and teen heartthrobs in shows like \u003ci\u003eSaved By the Bell\u003c\/i\u003e, he continually found himself asking: Do I want him or do I want to be him?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe Male Gazed\u003c\/i\u003e grapples with the thrall of masculinity, examining its frailty and its attendant anxieties even as it focuses on its erotic potential. Masculinity, Betancourt suggests, isn't suddenly ripe for deconstruction--or even outright destruction--amid so much talk about its inherent toxicity. Looking back over decades' worth of pop culture's attempts to codify and reframe what men can be, wear, do, and desire, this book establishes that to gaze at men is still a subversive act.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Written in the spirit of Hanif Abdurraqib and Olivia Laing, \u003ci\u003eThe Male Gazed\u003c\/i\u003e mingles personal anecdotes with cultural criticism to offer an exploration of intimacy, homoeroticism, and the danger of internalizing too many toxic ideas about masculinity as a gay man.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51043926081809,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51043929653521,"sku":"NIN9781646222223","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1646222229.jpg?v=1751024245"},{"product_id":"judy-garland-s-judy-at-carnegie-hall-book-manuel-betancourt-9781501355103","title":"Judy Garland's Judy at Carnegie Hall","description":"On the night of Sunday, April 23, 1961 Judy Garland made history. That’s no hyperbole. Surrounded by a throng of ecstatic fans (3,165 to be exact), the legendary performer delivered a concert in Carnegie Hall the live recording of which became, upon release, an unlikely pop cultural phenomenon. Judy at Carnegie Hall, the two-disc set that captured all 25 numbers she performed that night, went on to spend more than 70 weeks on the Billboard charts, win four Grammy Awards--including Album of the Year (making it the first live music album and the first album by a female performer to win the category)--and become, in the process, the fastest-selling two-disc set in history.   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