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Book review: American Visual Culture. By Mark Rawlinson. Oxford: Berg Publishers. 2009. xi—248 pp. 40 b/w illustrations. £17.99 Paperback. ISBN: 9781845202170

but also presents opportunities for visibilities and the contestations of heteronormativities. Tucker refuses to focus only on marginalization, examining empowerments that cannot be located in ‘oppression’ or be lost to hopelessness. Instead, this book inspires hope as well as understanding, demonstrating how heteronormativity can be usurped and homophobia challenged, such that queer men become visible. Yet, he illustrates that not only do queer men resist and transgress heteronormativities to create diverse visibilities, there are also possibilities because of the operation of oppressive regimes, for example the clampdown on gay bars in the De Waterkant area increased excitement in attending these events. In pointing to the dangers of gender violence for cross dressing coloured men, Tucker notes that whilst it is important to attend to the dangers and experiences of gendered violences against these men, these should not be used to dismiss or erase empowerment and the successes this group of men have attained in wider communities. This has implications in how we approach studies of sexualities, explore visibilities and empowerments, even where violence is present. This does not negate such violence, but neither does it allow it the predominance in discussions of (in this context) gender expressions. This book offers a rich engagement with urban spatialities, that refuses a reduction of sexual visibilities to ghettos and territories. It explores how identifications and enactments of queer male sexualities are spatially constituted and historically located. Finding that sexual expressions are not ubiquitous even within Cape Town is a challenge for urban investigations of sexualities, particularly those which are focused on closets and coming out. Such an investigation has clear implications for the study of other urbanities. For example, what would a similarly nuanced account of the sexual spatialities of other cities (within and beyond the Global North) reveal? How would this alter the focus of what we are looking at and for when foregrounding investigations of sexuality?