{"product_id":"buying-gay-how-physique-entrepreneurs-sparked-a-movement-columbia-studies-in-the-history-of-us-capitalism-9780231189101","title":"Buying Gay: How Physique Entrepreneurs Sparked a Movement (Columbia Studies in the History of U.S. Capitalism)","description":"\u003cp\u003eWinner of The John Boswell Prize from the American Historical Association Winner of Smithsonians Award for Scholarship in Postal History Named a best LGBT book of 2019 by both The Advocate and Attitude magazines Finalist for the American Publishers PROSE Award in U.S. History Finalist for the Hagley Prize in Business History Finalist for the Randy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction  In 1951  a new type of publication appeared on American newsstands--the physique magazine produced by and for gay men. For many in Cold War America  these magazines served as an initiation into an extensive world of photography studios  mail-order catalogs  pen-pal services  and book clubs targeting a gay market. In Buying Gay  David K. Johnson shows how this gay commercial network--long thought to be a result of the gay rights movement--was actually a crucial catalyst for the gay rights movement.  Each chapter offers a vivid  behind-the-scenes look at a physique entrepreneur and their battle with the U.S. Post Office  which considered their products obscene and engaged in a relentless campaign to shut them down. It reveals how Bob Mizer founded Physique Pictorial in Los Angeles as a direct response to postal authority intimidation. It uncovers the story of The Grecian Guild  founded by a gay couple who met at the University of Virginia  who offered their subscribers access to a gay fraternal order. It tells the story of a New York publishing executive who pioneered the notion of niche marketing of gay books. It tells the story of Elsie Carlton  a straight woman who ran one of the nations first gay mail-order book clubs.  Threatening all these physique entrepreneurs was Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield  who had members of the first gay pen pal service arrested and sent its founders to prison. It would take Lynn Womack  who consolidated the field into a physique publishing empire--including his own distribution network  printing plant  and legal library--to take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court and win one of the first and most important gay rights cases. Manual v. Day in 1962 paved the way for a vibrant gay print and commercial world that could help sustain a movement.  Combining LGBT studies and the history of capitalism for the first time  Buying Gay reconceives the history of the gay rights movement and shows how consumer culture helped create community and a site for resistance.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45665893613621,"sku":"ByrdShop_0231189109","price":46.98,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780231189101.jpg?v=1782413216","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/buying-gay-how-physique-entrepreneurs-sparked-a-movement-columbia-studies-in-the-history-of-us-capitalism-9780231189101","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}