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Sarah Thornton

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Sarah L. Thornton
Born1965 (age 58–59)
OccupationEthnographer and sociologist of culture
EducationBA in the History of Art; PhD in the Sociology of Culture
Alma materConcordia University, Montreal; Strathclyde University, Glasgow
Website
www.sarah-thornton.com

Sarah L. Thornton (born 1965) is a writer, ethnographer and sociologist of culture.[1] Thornton has authored four books and many articles about artists, the art market, bodies, people, culture, technology and design, the history of music technology, dance clubs, raves, cultural hierarchies, subcultures,[2] and ethnographic research methods.

Early life and education

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Thornton grew up in Canada.[3] Her education comprises a BA in the History of Art from Concordia University, Montreal, and a PhD in the Sociology of Culture from Strathclyde University, Glasgow.[4]

Career

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Thornton's academic posts have included a full-time lecturership at the University of Sussex, and a period as Visiting Research Fellow[5] at Goldsmiths, University of London.

She worked as a brand planner in a London advertising agency.[6] She was the chief writer about contemporary art for The Economist.[7] She has also written for publications including The Sunday Times Magazine,[8] The Art Newspaper,[9] Artforum.com,[10] The New Yorker,[11] The Telegraph,[12] The Guardian,[13] and The New Statesman.[14]

She wrote her most recent book[which?] during her time as a scholar-in-residence at the University of California, Berkeley.[15]

Tits Up: What Sex Workers, Milk Bankers, Plastic Surgeons, Bra Designers, and Witches Tell Us about Breasts

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In May 2024, Thornton published the book, Tits Up: What Sex Workers, Milk Bankers, Plastic Surgeons, Bra Designers, and Witches Tell Us about Breasts with publisher W.W. Norton & Company. Thornton told the Guardian: "Breasts are not evolutionary, or universally erotic. But the sexualisation of breasts causes many women a lot of stress, anxiety and dissatisfaction. That is a real shame, if not a serious political problem, and I think elevating the esteem of this body part that's so emblematic of womanhood is important."[16][17]

In The New York Times Book Review by Lucinda Rosenfeld states that Thornton's impassioned polemic makes a convincing case that "the derogatory way Western culture views breasts helps perpetuate the patriarchy."[18] The Library Journal review states: "Verdict: Required reading that expertly covers the ways in which social constructions, sexualization, and economic viability influence people's views of bodies, their own, and others."[19]

The book's content and anecdotal stories are interwoven within the San Francisco Bay Area from "the country's oldest continuously operating milk bank in San Jose; the plastic surgeons' offices in San Francisco where cosmetic breast surgeries are planned; the Gap headquarters where Old Navy bras are designed; the neo-pagan gathering in the redwoods near Mendocino where women worship the divine feminine."[20]

Club Cultures: Music, Media, and Subcultural Capital

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In Club Cultures: Music, Media, and Subcultural Capital (1995), Thornton examines the shift from live to recorded music for public dancing (from record shops to raves) and the resistance to recording technology's enculturation of the "authentic," valued cultural form. The book also analyzes the dynamics of "hipness," critiquing Pierre Bourdieu's theory of cultural capital with her own formulation of "subcultural capital." The study responds to earlier works such as Dick Hebdige's 1979 book Subculture: The Meaning of Style. It does not see media as a reflection of social groups, but as integral to their formation.[21]

Contrary to youth subcultural ideologies, "subcultures" do not germinate from a seed and grow by force of their own energy into mysterious 'movements' only to be belatedly digested by the media. Rather, media and other culture industries are there and effective right from the start. They are central to the process of subcultural formation.[21]

The book is described by Stuart Hall and Tony Jefferson as "theoretically innovative" and "conceptually adventurous".[22]

Seven Days in the Art World

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The New York Times' Karen Rosenberg said that Seven Days in the Art World (2008) "was reported and written in a heated market, but it is poised to endure as a work of sociology...[Thornton] pushes her well-chosen subjects to explore the questions 'What is an artist?' and 'What makes a work of art great?'"[23]

In the UK, Ben Lewis wrote in The Sunday Times that Seven Days was "a Robert Altmanesque panorama of...the most important cultural phenomenon of the last ten years".[24] While Peter Aspden argued in the Financial Times that "[Thornton] does well to resist the temptation to draw any glib, overarching conclusions. There is more than enough in her rigorous, precise reportage… for the reader to make his or her own connections."[25]

András Szántó reviewed Seven Days in the Art World: "Underneath [the book's] glossy surface lurks a sociologist's concern for institutional narratives as well as the ethnographer's conviction that entire social structures can be apprehended in seemingly frivolous patterns of speech or dress."[26]

33 Artists in 3 Acts

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Thornton's book 33 Artists in 3 Acts (2014) looks at the lives and work of figures "from all over the art ecosystem, from the market-driven mogul (Jeff Koons) to the profoundly intellectual performance artist (UCLA professor Andrea Fraser) to the impish prankster (Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan.)"[27] The central question guiding the book is: What defines an artist in the 21st century? Thornton received "a range of answers that will startle even art-world insiders."[28] Jackie Wullshlager of the Financial Times opined that Thornton is "skillfully nuanced" and "elevates gossip to sociology, writing with verve, insight and authenticity."[29]

33 Artists in 3 Acts received praise for its academic approach and "attention to detail and illustration of subtleties that bring her interviewees to life.... [Thornton's] flair for creating clear structures offer readers manageable points of access... without ever compromising on quality or content, or sounding pretentious."[30]

Journalism

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At The Economist, Thornton penned investigative and analytical articles about the inner workings of the contemporary art market. Topics included the value of art, the role of museum validation and branding, and the impact of gender on auction prices.[31][32][33][34] In 2010, she wrote an article about the Damien Hirst auction, "Beautiful Inside My Head Forever", which took place on the evening that Lehman Brothers went bankrupt in 2008. The article explained how the auction was so successful.[35]

Thornton's later articles have focused on the tech world of Silicon Valley. For Cultured Magazine, she has published profiles of tech leaders including Mike Krieger (Instagram co-founder),[36] Evan Williams (Twitter co-founder),[37] and Ivy Ross (Head of Design for Google Hardware).[38]

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On 26 July 2011, Thornton won a historic libel and malicious falsehood victory against Lynn Barber and The Daily Telegraph.[39] All three of the Telegraph′s attempts to appeal were denied.[40]

Personal life

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Thornton lived in London, for 26 years. She now lives with her wife and three kids in San Francisco, California.[3]

Publications

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Non-fiction

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  • Thornton, Sarah (1995). Club Cultures: Music, Media, and Subcultural Capital. Wesleyan. ISBN 978-0819562975.
  • Thornton, Sarah (2008). Seven Days in the Art World. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0393337129.
  • Thornton, Sarah (2014). 33 Artists in 3 Acts. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0393351675.
  • Thornton, Sarah (2024). Tits Up: What Sex Workers, Milk Bankers, Plastic Surgeons, Bra Designers, and Witches Tell Us about Breasts. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 9780393881028.

Edited books

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Book chapters

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Also as: Thornton, Sarah L.; McRobbie, Angela (December 1995). "Rethinking 'moral panic' for multi-mediated social worlds". British Journal of Sociology. 46 (4): 559–574. doi:10.2307/591571. JSTOR 591571.

References

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  1. ^ 'Website of Sarah Thornton'. Retrieved 28 June 2009
  2. ^ Thornton, Sarah (1997). "VIAF ID". Virtual International Authority File. Retrieved 15 August 2018.
  3. ^ a b Saner, Emine (15 May 2024). "'Breasts are a serious political problem': one woman's quest to reclaim her chest". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 16 May 2024.
  4. ^ McGlone, Jackie (30 September 2008). "Sarah Thornton – Swimming in shark infested waters". The Scotsman. Retrieved 28 June 2009.
  5. ^ "Sarah Thornton | Writer and Sociologist of Culture". sarah-thornton.com. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
  6. ^ Thornton, Sarah (19 November 1999). "Advertisements are good for you". Times Higher Education   Business & management. Retrieved 23 November 2014.
  7. ^ "Books by Economist writers in 2009: What we wrote". The Economist. Retrieved 23 November 2014. Seven Days in the Art World. By Sarah Thornton. Norton; 287 pages; $15.95. Granta; £8.99 How artists become collectable and who rules the art world, by our chief writer on contemporary art.
  8. ^ Thornton, Sarah (4 October 2009). "Selling art by the shedload". The Sunday Times Magazine. Times Newspapers Limited. pp. 48–53. Archived from the original on 15 June 2011. Retrieved 23 November 2014. His pickled sharks and pill cabinets made him rich and famous. Now he's shelved them and reinvented himself as a serious painter. And it seems Damien Hirst has struck oil all over again.
  9. ^ Thornton, Sarah (23 October 2008). "In and out of love with Damien Hirst". The Art Newspaper. No. 195. Retrieved 23 November 2014. Making sense of spots, sharks, pills, fish and butterflies.
  10. ^ Thornton, Sarah (5 November 2006). "Love and money". Artforum. Archived from the original on 20 July 2014. Retrieved 23 November 2014.
  11. ^ Thornton, Sarah (19 March 2007). "Letter from London: reality art show". The New Yorker. Retrieved 28 June 2009. The national obsession with the Turner Prize.
  12. ^ Thornton, Sarah (3 October 2008). "Is art the new gold?". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 8 October 2008. Retrieved 28 June 2009.
  13. ^ Thornton, Sarah (5 February 2012). "The art of recession-dodging". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 November 2014.
  14. ^ Thornton, Sarah (23 October 2008). "Bye-bye to bling for billionaires". New Statesman. Retrieved 28 June 2009. Art sales have been inflated by super-rich collectors who didn't know what to do with their money.
  15. ^ "Sarah Thornton — Tits Up: What Sex Workers, Milk Bankers, Plastic Surgeons, Bra Designers, and Witches Tell Us about Breasts - with Claire Shipman— at the Wharf | Politics and Prose Bookstore". www.politics-prose.com. Retrieved 16 May 2024.
  16. ^ Saner, Emine (15 May 2024). "'Breasts are a serious political problem': one woman's quest to reclaim her chest". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 20 May 2024.
  17. ^ Marple, Mieke (16 May 2024). "Naked truths: 'Tits Up,' by Sarah Thornton". ZYZZYVA. Retrieved 16 May 2024.
  18. ^ Rosenfeld, Lucinda (6 May 2024). "'Tits Up' Aims to Show Breasts a Respect Long Overdue". New York Times.
  19. ^ Bowles, Emily. "Tits Up: What Sex Workers, Milk Bankers, Plastic Surgeons, Bra Designers, and Witches Tell Us About Breasts". Library Journal. Retrieved 20 May 2024.
  20. ^ "'Tits Up' author Sarah Thornton and her uplifting quest to reclaim the breast". The San Francisco Standard. 4 May 2024. Retrieved 13 July 2024.
  21. ^ a b Thornton, Sarah (1995). Club cultures: music, media and subcultural capital. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. p. 117. ISBN 9780745614434.
  22. ^ Hall, Stuart; Jefferson, Tony (2006) [1975], "Introduction", in Hall, Stuart; Jefferson, Tony (eds.), Resistance through rituals: youth subcultures in post-war Britain (2nd ed.), New York City Oxford, UK: Routledge, pp. xix–xx, OCLC 489757261 ISBN 9781134346530.
  23. ^ Rosenberg, Karen (28 November 2008). "Words worth a thousand paintings". The New York Times  Holiday Gift Guide. Retrieved 23 November 2014.
  24. ^ Lewis, Ben (5 October 2008). "Seven days in the art world by Sarah Thornton (book review)". The Sunday Times. Times Newspapers Limited. Archived from the original on 15 June 2011. Retrieved 23 November 2014.
  25. ^ Aspden, Peter (8 November 2008). "Smoke and mirrors (book review)". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 11 December 2022. Retrieved 23 November 2014.
  26. ^ Szántó, András (29 October 2008). "Message in a bottle (book review)". ArtWorld Salon. Retrieved 28 June 2009.
  27. ^ "'33 Artists' paints behind-the-scene picture of the art world". Los Angeles Times. 20 November 2014. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  28. ^ Baker, By Kenneth. "Sarah Thornton: The Art World Inside Out". Sfgate. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  29. ^ Wullschlager, Jackie (3 October 2014). "The meaning of contemporary art". Financial Times. ISSN 0307-1766. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  30. ^ "Sarah Thornton, the Pulse Taker – Canadian Art". Canadian Art. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  31. ^ "Bubbly Basel". The Economist. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  32. ^ "No man's land". The Economist. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  33. ^ "The name game". The Economist. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  34. ^ "Going public". The Economist. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  35. ^ "Hands up for Hirst". The Economist. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  36. ^ "Cultured Magazine – February/March 2016". cultureddigital.com. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  37. ^ "Twitter Co-Founder Evan Williams Makes Room for a Bigger Conversation with Medium | Cultured Magazine". Cultured Magazine. 20 February 2018. Retrieved 15 August 2018.
  38. ^ "Google Hardware Engineer Ivy Ross Discusses Intuition and Beauty". Cultured Magazine. 23 June 2017. Retrieved 15 August 2018.
  39. ^ Media Lawyer, PA (26 July 2011). "Telegraph in £65k payout over 'spiteful' Barber review". Press Gazette. Progressive Media International. Retrieved 23 November 2014.
  40. ^ Media Lawyer, PA (24 February 2012). "Telegraph refused appeal over Lynn Barber review libel". Press Gazette. Progressive Media International. Archived from the original on 23 October 2014. Retrieved 23 November 2014.
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