As Long as It’s Pink: The Sexual Politics of Taste
From the Publisher. In this book Penny Sparke argues that “taste” has been a quality assigned to women while “design” is a man-made construction that has taken aesthetic authority away from women. She uses familiar objects of our everyday environments—furniture, cars and domestic appliances and interiors—to look at how taste has become a gendered issue in our culture. Ever since the industrial revolution, the cluttered interior has been associated with femininity while the minimal forms of modernist architecture have acted as markers of a masculine aesthetic. This in turn has succeeded in trivializing and marginalizing women’s material culture. Ranging across histories of domesticity, feminine consumption and home-making, as well as modern design and broader cultural theories, Penny Sparke offers a rethinking of the history of our modern material culture.
This is a fantastic book for anyone who doubts the infallibility of modernism, or who harbors a secret admiration for pop and kitsch. I am sure it is too one-sided to make for a good textbook in design schools, but I enjoyed it, learned from it, and really respect Sparke for writing it.
I am eternally indebted to Alec Bernstein from Designworks USA for turning me on to this masterpiece, along with three others on my list—An Essay on Typography, The Nude, and Poetics of Music in the Form of Six Lessons. He’s a smart guy.
Library Availability provided by WorldCat
- University of Kansas
- Lawrence, KS 66045 United States
- 114 miles
- map
- libr info
- University of Oklahoma
- Norman, OK 73019 United States
- 194 miles
- map
- libr info
- Cameron University
- Lawton, OK 73505 United States
- 247 miles
- map
- libr info
- Iowa State University
- Ames, IA 50011 United States
- 329 miles
- map
- libr info
- University of North Texas Library
- Denton, TX 76203 United States
- 330 miles
- map
- libr info
- Southern Methodist University, Central University Libraries
- Dallas, TX 75205 United States
- 356 miles
- map
- libr info
- Dallas County Community College District
- Mesquite, TX 75150 United States
- 358 miles
- map
- libr info
- Washington University in St. Louis
- St. Louis, MO 63130 United States
- 364 miles
- map
- libr info
Announcements
Furthermore Grants in Publishing for Illustrated Books, Including Architecture and Design
Provides support for book projects to 501(c)3 organizations for writing, research, editing, design, indexing, photography, illustration, and printing and binding.
A Program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund
Deadlines for applications: March 1 and September 1
Details at www.furthermore.org
New Book Release: Platform 6, Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Platform 6 presents a sampling of the work produced at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) during the past academic year. This work is indicative of the School’s commitment, as a global leader in the field, to exploring and articulating transformative ideas through the power of design.
Rosetta S. Elkin, Editor
Published by Actar
Details
New Book Release, March 31, 2014: Manuals 1: Design & Identity Guidelines
The first comprehensive study of corporate identity design manuals, featuring examples from the 1960s to early 1980s—the golden era of identity design.
Texts by Adrian Shaughnessy, et al.
Published by Unit Editions
Buy/pre-order and details
New Book Release, April 21, 2014: Drawing and Reinventing Landscape, AD Primer
Explores notions of representation in the discipline of landscape architecture at large and across time.
Diana Balmori
Published by John Wiley & Sons
Buy/pre-order and details
New Book Release (U.S.), May 20, 2014: The Duchamp Dictionary
More than 200 alphabetical illustrated entries on the most interesting and important artworks, relationships, people, and ideas in influential artist Marcel Duchamp’s life, including chess puns, the fourth dimension, love, genius, ready-mades such as Bicycle Wheel and Fountain, Peggy Guggenheim, Max Ernst, Man Ray, and Arturo Schwarz.
Thomas Girst
Published by Thames & Hudson (distributed in the U.S., by W. W. Norton)
Buy/pre-order and details
New Book Release (U.S.), May 1, 2014: Shape of Sound
Architect Victoria Meyers analyzes the shape of sound; architecture and sound; form; materiality; windows; the urban soundscape, its politics, aesthetics and social character; reflection; virtuality; sound art; and silence.
Victoria Meyers
Published by Artifice Books on Architecture
Buy/pre-order and details
Featured Book Fair Title
Popular NowWeekMonth
- Book List of the Week: Fiona Raby
- 12 Books on Love, Design, and Designers
- Thomas Girst’s Book List: Art and Cars
- 21 Books on Frank Lloyd Wright
- Book List of the Week: Anthony Dunne
Recent Articles
Best-Selling Design Books at Hennessey + Ingalls
Browse by Discipline
Community Book Lists
Add your favorite design books to our
Community Book Lists
CreativeMornings Community Booklist No. 4: Rebelling and Creativity CreativeMornings Community Booklist No. 3: ChildhoodCreativeMornings Community Booklist No. 2: Make The Best Books for Freelance DesignersCreativeMornings Community Booklist No. 1: BraveryFavorite Design Books of 2013Favorite Design Books of All Time More...Calendar
New York
