Le Masurier, M 2011, ‘Reading the Flesh’, Feminist Media Studies, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 215-229, viewed 16 May 2014, <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14680777.2010.521628>.
In this academic, peer reviewed article, subtitled ‘Popular feminism, the second wave and Cleo’s male centrefold’, Le Masurier examines the inversion of the male gaze and assumptions about women’s desire by analysing letters published in Cleo magazine in response to their 13 year series of nude male centrefolds during the 1970s and 1980s. She discusses problems of verifying authenticity in her methodology, and makes comparisons to academic feminist discourse on the issue at the time, most of which was skeptical or negative about the expression of female desire through the consumption of pornography. This view was contrary to the enthusiasm shown by Cleo readers for the male centrefolds, which sparked discussion about female desire and sexual liberation that Cleo encouraged through its middle-class version of popular feminism. Le Masurier makes assumptions that all Cleo’s readers were heterosexual women, ignoring the possible intersection in viewership of bisexual women or gay men and avoiding related complications. Included is a reference list that could help readers gain a more detailed background in feminist discourse.
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