Performing American Masculinities The 21st-Century Man in Popular Culture [Paperback]

This collection highlights the fluidity of masculinity in American popular culture at the turn of the new millennium and beyond by examining possibilities for male identity formation. Each chapter mines American popular culturetheatre, film, literature, music, advertising, internet content, television, photography, and current eventsto pose questions about the process of gender creation and the contestation of masculinities as constantly changing political forms. The first section explores masculinities within late capitalism and includes studies of Seinfeld, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and reality television. The second section addresses identity when masculinity intersects with race, religion, disability, and sexuality, including chapters on Barack Obama, the O.J. trial, and popular movies.

Into this [cultural studies] minefield, 'Performing American Masculinities' steps and, given its expansive scope of inquiry (ranging from Seinfeld [NBC, 19891998] to Obama), attempts to cover a lot of ground. An admirable . . . ambition to map representational through-lines across textual forms and to address both fictional performances and real embodiments of American masculinity . . . .Fall 2013With a judicious balance between gender theory and pop-cultural readings, Performing American Masculinities offers a diverse and exciting collection suited to a variety of disciplines and projects. The text provides a cogent introduction to masculinities and a specialized focus that marks the potential of masculinity studies through popular culture. RICKI LAKE SHOW

Elwood Watson is Professor of History, African American Studies, and Gender Studies at East Tennessee State University. He is author of Outsiders Within: Black Women in the Legal Academy after Brown v. Board.

Marc E. Shaw is Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts at Hartwick College. His recent publications include contribulÃ4