How Do We Look

In How Do We Look? Fatimah Tobing Rony draws on transnational images of Indonesian women as a way to theorize what she calls visual biopolitics—the ways visual representation determines which lives are made to matter more than others. Rony outlines the mechanisms of visual biopolitics by examining Paul Gauguin’s 1893 portrait of Annah la Javanaise—a trafficked thirteen-year-old girl found wandering the streets of Paris—as well as US ethnographic and documentary films. In each instance, the figure of the Indonesian woman is inextricably tied to discourses of primitivism, savagery, colonialism, exoticism, and genocide. Rony also focuses on acts of resistance to visual biopolitics in film, writing, and photography. These works, such as Rachmi Diyah Larasati’s The Dance that Makes You Vanish, Vincent Monnikendam’s Mother Dao (1995), and the collaborative films of Nia Dinata, challenge the naturalized methods of seeing that justify exploitation, dehumanization, and early death of people of color. By theorizing the mechanisms of visual biopolitics, Rony elucidates both its violence and its vulnerability.

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The history of art is about how we look. It is not only about the men and women who created the images that fill our world, from cheap trinkets to priceless masterpieces. We must consider the controversies, discussions, and debates around any such masterpieces. #2 Part One focuses on the art of the body, and how it has been portrayed around the world. It asks what those images were for and how they were viewed. #3 The idea that the female nude implies a predatory male gaze was not first thought up in the 1960s feminism. It was first seen in classical Greece, and some of the earliest intellectuals argued fiercely about the rights and wrongs of portraying gods in human form. #4 The concept of civilization is a process of exclusion as well as inclusion. It is difficult to define, but it is typically used to describe cultures that share certain values.

From prehistoric Mexico to modern Istanbul, Mary Beard looks beyond the familiar canon of Western imagery to explore the history of art, religion, and humanity. Conceived as a gorgeously illustrated accompaniment to “How Do We Look” and “The Eye of Faith,” the famed Civilisations shows on PBS, renowned classicist Mary Beard has created this elegant volume on how we have looked at art. Focusing in Part I on the Olmec heads of early Mesoamerica, the colossal statues of the pharaoh Amenhotep III, and the nudes of classical Greece, Beard explores the power, hierarchy, and gender politics of the art of the ancient world, and explains how it came to define the so-called civilized world. In Part II, Beard chronicles some of the most breathtaking religious imagery ever made—whether at Angkor Wat, Ravenna, Venice, or in the art of Jewish and Islamic calligraphers— to show how all religions, ancient and modern, have faced irreconcilable problems in trying to picture the divine. With this classic volume, Beard redefines the Western-and male-centric legacies of Ernst Gombrich and Kenneth Clark.

Drawing on examples from art, media, fashion, history and memoir, cultural critic Rosemarie Garland-Thomson tackles a basic human interaction which has remained curiously unexplored, the human stare. In the first book of its kind, Garland-Thomson defines staring, explores the factors that motivate it, and considers the targets and the effects of the stare. While borrowing from psychology and biology to help explain why the impulse to stare is so powerful, she also enlarges and complicates these formulations with examples from the realm of imaginative culture. Featuring over forty illustrations, Staring captures the stimulating combination of symbolic, material and emotional factors that make staring so irresistible while endeavoring to shift the usual response to staring, shame, into an engaged self-consideration. Elegant and provocative, this unique study advances new ways of thinking about visuality and the body that will appeal to readers who are interested in the overlap between the humanities and human behaviors.

It is my hope that through this book I can share with readers the excitement I feel in looking at sculpture all over the world. This is a general book on how to appreciate sculpture, not a lesson on any particular period or school or artist.

Glamour's "Beauty Sleuth" reveals tricks of the trade to help you look fabulously high-end—in any economy. Andrea Pomerantz Lustig has spent twenty years as a beauty editor, and her contact list is packed with the names of the most exclusive stylists in the business.In How to Look Expensive, she combines her own experience with highly coveted secrets she's learned from the experts to help readers achieve buttery highlights, luminous skin, flawless makeup, and more, all on a budget. Delivering red-carpet looks without putting readers in the red, tips include: • How to get expensive-looking hair color at an inexpensive salon • Superluxe DIY skincare cocktails for less than $20 • The cheap cosmetic secrets of expensive makeup artists • Tips for princess-perfect skin on a pauper’s budget • “Work Your Beauty Budget” sections that help you make the most of every dollar With How to Look Expensive, every woman can afford to get gold-card gorgeous, and reap the self-confidence that comes with it.

In 2003, as the newly named editor in chief of Us Weekly magazine, Janice Min was busy documenting a seismic cultural shift: the making of the "Hollywood Mom." Think Angelina Jolie, Victoria Beckham, Halle Berry, and Beyoncé—stars who proudly displayed their pregnancies, shed the baby weight overnight, and helped turn the once-frumpy bump industry into seriously big business. In the blink of an eye, it seemed, "skinny jeans" had replaced "mom jeans." Bugaboos had become status symbols. Motherhood itself had become an exciting style statement. And then—just eight weeks after her big promotion—Janice discovered that she was pregnant, too. "I started ogling, with morbid fascination, the photographs that flooded my office—red-carpet and paparazzi shots of celebrities in bikinis and bandage dresses mere weeks after giving birth," she writes. "I'd stare at my own ever-expanding body. Then I'd stare at Heidi Klum (who gave birth one month before my due date and managed to bounce back before I'd even hit the delivery room). How did these women do it? I wondered." How to Look Hot in a Minivan was born. With her trademark self-deprecating style and tongue-in-cheek humor, Janice set out to debunk some of Hollywood's biggest mommy myths. Then she brought together the industry's biggest experts in fitness, fashion, beauty, and all-things-baby to divulge the secrets behind the stars' seemingly effortless postpartum style. Serving up practical, honest, and often surprising advice for new moms everywhere, Janice and her arsenal of experts reveal: • The 10 Wardrobe Essentials every chic mom should own • How to style red carpet-worthy hair, even on school days • The secrets to hiding a postnatal stomach pooch • The truth behind the C-tuck (Do celebrity moms sometimes slim down courtesy of a combination cesarean section-tummy tuck?) • Hollywood's Biggest Losers (What did it really take for stars like Kate Hudson, Milla Jovovich, and Poppy Montgomery to lose the baby weight?) In How to Look Hot in a Minivan, Min dispels the idea that looking great post-pregnancy is only for the rich, the pampered, and the lucky. With Min's guilt-free, stay-sane strategies, moms everywhere can look and feel like stars—whether their baby is six months or sixteen years.

We forget our passwords. We pay too much to go to the gym. We think we’d be happier if we lived in California (we wouldn’t), and we think we should stick with our first answer on tests (we shouldn’t). Why do we make mistakes? And could we do a little better? We human beings have design flaws. Our eyes play tricks on us, our stories change in the retelling, and most of us are fairly sure we’re way above average. In Why We Make Mistakes, journalist Joseph T. Hallinan sets out to explore the captivating science of human error—how we think, see, remember, and forget, and how this sets us up for wholly irresistible mistakes. In his quest to understand our imperfections, Hallinan delves into psychology, neuroscience, and economics, with forays into aviation, consumer behavior, geography, football, stock picking, and more. He discovers that some of the same qualities that make us efficient also make us error prone. We learn to move rapidly through the world, quickly recognizing patterns—but overlooking details. Which is why thirteen-year-old boys discover errors that NASA scientists miss—and why you can’t find the beer in your refrigerator. Why We Make Mistakes is enlivened by real-life stories—of weathermen whose predictions are uncannily accurate and a witness who sent an innocent man to jail—and offers valuable advice, such as how to remember where you’ve hidden something important. You’ll learn why multitasking is a bad idea, why men make errors women don’t, and why most people think San Diego is west of Reno (it’s not). Why We Make Mistakes will open your eyes to the reasons behind your mistakes—and have you vowing to do better the next time.