AustLit

'Traditionally, although "women have always written about men," men's bodies have been dealt with circumspectly, if at all. Hence, facial features and general size and comportment are often described and used as aspects of characterisation, but men's bodies are rarely depicted and explored in any particular or extensive way. Peter Brooks ties the customary scarcity of men's bodies in women's fiction to gendered divisions within visual culture, asserting, "vision is a typically male prerogative, and its object of fascination the woman's body, in a cultural model so persuasive that many women novelists don't reverse its vectors." Recently, however - and along with the increasing visibility of men's bodies in popular culture - there has emerged a growing tendency for women writers (and artists) to depict men's bodies. This chapter explores a significant example of this paradigm shift occurring in contemporary fiction by Australian women, focusing on three representative texts: Last of the Sane Days (1999) by Fiona Capp, The Architect (2000) by Jillian Watkinson, and Miranda (1998) by Wendy Scarfe.' (Author's introduction 185)