Masculinities in the Making: From the Local to the Global [Hardcover]

In Masculinities in the Making, James W. Messerschmidt unravels the mysteries surrounding the question of how masculinities are actually made. One of the most respected scholars on the subject of masculinities, Messerschmidt brings together three seemingly disparate groupswimps, genderqueers, and U.S. presidentsto examine what insight each has to offer our understanding of masculinities. The book is unique in its coverage, including a revised structured action theory; an intersectional analysis of sex, gender, and sexuality; and an examination of the differences among masculinities from the local to the global. Messerschmidt provides a fresh, accessible, and provocative argument that significantly advances our knowledge on masculinities.James W. Messerschmidt is professor of sociology and chair of the criminology department at the University of Southern Maine, where he also teaches in the women's and gender studies program. He is the author or coauthor of a number of books, including Masculinities and Crime and Gender, Heterosexuality, and Youth Violence.

A leading figure in the interdisciplinary field of men's and masculinity studies, Messerschmidt takes a novel approach in theorizing on masculinity: he looks at its social construction over the life course. In chapters devoted to interviews with what he labels wimps and genderqueers and content analysis of presidential speeches by Barack Obama and George Bush, the author offers a poignant illustration of the relationship between personal life history and sex, gender, and sexuality construction. Messerschmidt has a long history with this topic, and he draws heavily on his own previously published work, with the result that in places the book seems like a unique form of meta-analysis. That said, he does so with an eye aimed squarely on developing a revised structured action theory, one paying particular attention to the intersection of gender, sex, and sexuality in masculinitys construction. Perhaps MeslC-