Getting Loose

Binkley Sam Binkley

Description

From "getting loose" to "letting it all hang out," the 1970s were filled with exhortations to free oneself from artificial restraints and to discover oneself in a more authentic and creative life. In the wake of the counterculture of the 1960s, anything that could be made to yield to a more impulsive vitality was reinvented in a looser way. Food became purer, clothing more revealing, sex more orgiastic, and home decor more rustic and authentic.Through a sociological analysis of the countercultural print culture of the 1970s, Sam Binkley investigates the dissemination of these self-loosening narratives and their widespread appeal to America's middle class. He describes the rise of a genre of lifestyle publishing that emerged from a network of small offbeat presses, mostly located on the West Coast. Amateurish and rough in production quality, these popular books and magazines blended Eastern mysticism, Freudian psychology, environmental ecology, and romantic American pastoralism as they offered "expert" advice-about how to be more in touch with the natural world, how to release oneself into trusting relationships with others, and how to delve deeper into the body's rhythms and natural sensuality. Binkley examines dozens of these publications, including the Whole Earth Catalog, Rainbook, the Catalog of Sexual Consciousness, Celery Wine, Domebook, and Getting Clear.Drawing on the thought of Pierre Bourdieu, Zygmunt Bauman, and others, Binkley explains how self-loosening narratives helped the middle class confront the modernity of the 1970s. As rapid social change and political upheaval eroded middle-class cultural authority, the looser life provided opportunities for self-reinvention through everyday lifestyle choice. He traces this ethos of self-realization through the "yuppie" 1980s to the 1990s and today, demonstrating that what originated as an emancipatory call to loosen up soon evolved into a culture of highly commercialized consumption and lifestyle branding.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• USA
• Popular culture
• Communication studies
• Social theory
• Cultural studies
• États-Unis

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 27 avril 2007
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822389514
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

©  Duke Universiy Press All rigs reserved Prined in e Unied Saes of America on acid-free paper ♾ Designed y eaer ensley Typese in Minion Pro y Tseng Informaion Sysems, Inc. Lirary of Congress Caaloging-in-Pulicaion Daa appear on e las prined page of is ook.

Porions of is manuscrip ave appeared as essays under e iles “he New Middle Classes and e Discourse of Caring: Toward a New Undersanding of Culural Inermediaries” (inHisoricizing Lifesyles: Popular Media, Consumpion and Tase Culures, edied y David ell and Joanne ol- lows [urlingon, Vermon: Asgae, ]); “he Seers of Menlo Park: he Discourse of eroic Consumpion in eWole Ear Caalog” (Journal of Consumer Culure, no.  []); “Every- ody’s Life Is Like a Spiral: Narraing Pos-Fordism in e Lifesyle Movemen of e ’s” (Cul- ural Sudies—Criical Meodologies, no.  []); “Cosmic Profi: Counerculural Commerce and e Prolem of Trus in American Markeing” (Consumpion, Markes, and Culure , no.  []); and in a PD disseraion iledConsuming Aquarius: Markes and e Moral Boundaries of e New Class(New Scool for Social Researc, ).

For my parents,

for Dörte,

and for Dave,

who never gave up

Lis of Illusraions

Acknowledgmens

Contents

Introduction:Mediaed Immediacy: Living in e Now

Part I: Middle Class in the Maelstrom

. Of Swingers and Organizaion Men: Loose Moderniies

. Expers Unound: Inimae Professionals and e Value of Lifesyle

. ook as Tool: Lifesyle Prin Culure and e Wes Coas Pulising oom

Part II: Caring Texts

. eing One: From Knowledge o Consciousness in e Spacesip Sociey

. Loving Eac Oer: From Pony o Real in e New Togeerness

. Leing I All ang Ou: From Mind o Muscle in e Relaxed ody

Conclusion:Morning in America: Pulling in e Slack Noes iliograpy Index

ix xi



  

  

   

List of Illustrations

.Communiy Marke Caalog .Book of e New Alcemiss(fron cover) .Book of e New Alcemiss(ack cover) .Wole Ear Caalog .Living on e Ear .he Tassajara Bread Book .Briarpac Review . Diagram fromUopian Eyes . uman perspecives in space and ime .Rainbook .he Las Wole Ear Caalog .Wole Ear Caalog(page spread) .Space Colonies .Caalog of Sexual Consciousness .Celery Wine .Domebook II(cover) .Domebook II(page spread) .San Francisco Bay Area People’s Yellow Pages .Briarpac Review .Our Bodies, Ourselves .Wellness .Geing Clear . Rolfing diagram .he Massage Book . Massage illusraion .New Games Book . ug ug

                          