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| Hylas and the Nymphs and sexual awakening | Hylas and the Nymphs and sexual awakening |
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| Re the dispute over Hylas and the Nymphs (Letters, 6 February), I want to simply record that, as a young gay man growing up in 50s and 60s Manchester – and queer art historian to-be – Hylas was one of my lifelines to an imaginary world of desire found in images of men. As I knew the myths inside out, the nymphs were thus nothing more than an excuse for Hylas himself, a companion to Waterhouse’s Narcissus, not far away at the Walker – and a precursor to seeing Caravaggios. | Re the dispute over Hylas and the Nymphs (Letters, 6 February), I want to simply record that, as a young gay man growing up in 50s and 60s Manchester – and queer art historian to-be – Hylas was one of my lifelines to an imaginary world of desire found in images of men. As I knew the myths inside out, the nymphs were thus nothing more than an excuse for Hylas himself, a companion to Waterhouse’s Narcissus, not far away at the Walker – and a precursor to seeing Caravaggios. |
| These and an illustration of Draper’s Icarus in an Edwardian book of Greek Myths (oddly missing from the Queer show at Tate Britain) formed an initial iconography of my own becoming, along with all kinds of other, oddly assorted images: soldiers under tropical skies in the National Geographic or South Pacific, male muscle magazines glimpsed in a bookshop near the cathedral and so on. But all of them being parts of a preparation for life. | These and an illustration of Draper’s Icarus in an Edwardian book of Greek Myths (oddly missing from the Queer show at Tate Britain) formed an initial iconography of my own becoming, along with all kinds of other, oddly assorted images: soldiers under tropical skies in the National Geographic or South Pacific, male muscle magazines glimpsed in a bookshop near the cathedral and so on. But all of them being parts of a preparation for life. |
| Forty years after Laura Mulvey’s critique of the male gaze, which was an attempt to understand pleasure, not to outlaw it, this rather trivial gesture can only be understood as politically shallow. But more than that, as an insult to someone who has lived at a tangent to the heteronormative discourses of which, indeed, it is a fragment.Adrian RifkinVisiting professor, Central Saint Martins, London; emeritus professor of art writing, Goldsmiths, London | Forty years after Laura Mulvey’s critique of the male gaze, which was an attempt to understand pleasure, not to outlaw it, this rather trivial gesture can only be understood as politically shallow. But more than that, as an insult to someone who has lived at a tangent to the heteronormative discourses of which, indeed, it is a fragment.Adrian RifkinVisiting professor, Central Saint Martins, London; emeritus professor of art writing, Goldsmiths, London |
| • I was dismayed at Manchester City Art gallery’s decision to remove the JW Waterhouse painting, Hylas and the Nymphs from public view. When I first saw reproductions of this as a young woman I loved it. It was the early 1970s and the water nymphs looked like me. The long hair, the breasts, the lovely young skin. I felt the excitement of my attractiveness and the possible power of my sexuality, like the water nymphs wanting to lure Hylas into the water with them. There needs to be a conversation, discussion and openness not the banning of paintings. Mary PesterWissett, Suffolk | • I was dismayed at Manchester City Art gallery’s decision to remove the JW Waterhouse painting, Hylas and the Nymphs from public view. When I first saw reproductions of this as a young woman I loved it. It was the early 1970s and the water nymphs looked like me. The long hair, the breasts, the lovely young skin. I felt the excitement of my attractiveness and the possible power of my sexuality, like the water nymphs wanting to lure Hylas into the water with them. There needs to be a conversation, discussion and openness not the banning of paintings. Mary PesterWissett, Suffolk |
| • Paedophilia is love of children, ie prepubescent young people. The nymphs in this painting are young but clearly not prepubescent. They’re probably young teens – a bit like a lot of models in our magazines. Helen Clutton Dorchester, Dorset | • Paedophilia is love of children, ie prepubescent young people. The nymphs in this painting are young but clearly not prepubescent. They’re probably young teens – a bit like a lot of models in our magazines. Helen Clutton Dorchester, Dorset |
| • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com | • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com |
| • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters | • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters |
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