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Zusatztext "Thank God for Benoit Denizet-Lewis's insatiable curiosity. It has resulted in a fascinating book. American Voyeur is about the big issues -- sex, identity, religion, death -- but is told through small, compelling corners of culture." -- A. J. Jacobs, author of The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment Informationen zum Autor Benoit Denizet-Lewis is a writer with The New York Times Magazine and an assistant professor of writing and publishing at Emerson College. He is the author of Travels With Casey , America Anonymous: Eight Addicts in Search of a Life , and has contributed to Sports Illustrated , The New Republic , Details , Slate , Salon , Out , and many others. Denizet-Lewis lives in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. Follow him @BenoitDLewis. Klappentext Collected articles by the groundbreaking "New York Times" journalist on the subjects of modern love! sex! and romance. Leseprobe American Voyeur About a Boy Who Isn’t At a California middle school, M. is a popular 13-year-old boy. Only a few of his teachers know what he’s precariously hiding: he’s a girl. STANDING IN A CIRCLE under the shade of a tall, skinny palm tree, five boys smile in unison as they recount a particularly absurd scene in the teenage comedy Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood. The boys—who’ve watched it countless times on video—agree that it’s a comedy classic, but they can’t seem to settle on its funniest scene. “Man, the whole movie is dope,” says the tallest of the five, who wears a heavy Starter jacket even though it’s seventy degrees outside. It’s a bright, sunny California morning, and this middle school recess is humming along lazily. Packs of twelve-year-olds in dark pants and white-collared shirts (the school uniform) meander about, looking for something, anything, to do. Next to the palm tree, three haughty girls with pocket mirrors gossip as they reapply their makeup. A hundred yards away, groups of loud, cocky boys play basketball on outdoor courts. And surveying it all are smiling faculty members with walkie-talkies who easily negotiate this sea of mostly Hispanic students. An openly gay male teacher leans against a table in the outdoor lunch area, the quietest spot in this expansive courtyard. When he isn’t teaching English or theater, he facilitates the school’s discreet weekly support group for gay, lesbian, and transgender students. Not far from him is one of the group’s regulars, a strikingly beautiful thirteen-year-old girl with piercing brown eyes and long black hair. This morning, as on most mornings, she’s being trailed by a group of fawning boys, who can’t seem to get enough of the bisexual eighth-grader in the tight white shirt, black pants, and rainbow-colored belt. If she is the darling of the school’s boys, one of her male counterparts stands under the palm tree with his friends, who are still talking about movies. A well-liked and attractive thirteen-year-old, he has short-cropped black hair, brown eyes, and a clear, soft complexion. His backpack is tied loosely around his thin frame, and his stylish, oversize gray sweater falls nearly to his knees. None of his friends know that he’s a member of the discreet school group for gay students. They have no reason to suspect it, either. He likes girls. He has a girlfriend (a high school girlfriend, no less), and there are countless other girls willing to date him should he ever want another. So although his friends assume he is one of them, the support group members presume—though they don’t know for sure, because he doesn’t say much during meetings—that he’s probably secretly...
