Download or read book The Erotic in Sports written by Allen Guttmann and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Erotic in Sports, Allen Guttmann illuminates a topic commonly hidden in the shadows, drawing upon literature, art, modern mass media, and traditional historical sources to describe and comment upon its importance across nearly three millennia of Western history. Investigating aesthetic ideals that romanticize the lithe, agile fencer at one historical moment and the massively muscled football player at another, surveying ancient legends and products of pop culture, Guttmann's groundbreaking work uncovers a vast array of evidence that cultures across the ages have celebrated, glorified, censured, and denied the erotic aspects of sports.