The Matter of Images: Essays on Representation - Tapa dura

How we are seen determines in part how we are treated; how we treat others is based on how we see them; such seeing comes from representation. "Images" searches through the resonances of the term "representation" analyzing images in terms of why they matter, what they are made of and the material realities to which they refer. While retaining a sharp sense of the social functioning of images, Richard Dyer insists on the complexity and contradiction of even the most stereotypical examples, and on the political importance of their understanding. His analyses move from considerations of the strongly negative representation of "out" groups - especially women and gay men - asserting that poverty, harassment and discrimination is shored up and instituted by representation, to representations of dominant groups in society - men, heterosexuals, whites. Dyer's discussion encompasses the eclectic texts of contemporary culture: royalty, queens and dykes, politically correct labels, film noir, representations of Empire, and contemporary films such as "Night of the Living Dead".