Masculinities and culture

Description

"Masculinities and Culture explores how 'masculinities', or ways of 'being a man', are anchored in time and place; the products of socio-historical and cultural circumstances. It examines the emergence of a masculinity fit for Empire in the mid to late nineteenth century and, by way of contrast, the more recent media-driven, commercial New Man and New Lad masculinity. The author considers some of the media discourses shaping masculinities today, and the formation of specific masculinities in specific settings (such as prisons, hospitals and schools) which both define, and in turn are defined by, strongly held conceptions of acceptable masculine behaviour. He concludes by reviewing a range of ways in which masculinities might by researched, from fieldwork and auto/biographical and life history approaches through to semiotics and the use of both film and literary texts. This lively text provides a comprehensive introduction to contemporary debates concerning masculinities as gendered construction, along with the means of researching and theorizing them."--BOOK JACKET.  Read more... What Is Masculinity? --Introduction: 'masculinity' or 'masculinities'? --Questioning masculinity --Masculinity under the microscope --Shaping and enacting masculinity --Experiencing masculinity --Hegemonic masculinity --Masculinity in history --Masculinity, class and work --Researching masculinities: a word of caution --Masculinities and the Imperial Imaginary --Introduction: masculinity in the Age of Empire --'Fit for Empire': Imperial masculinity --'Masculine imaginings' --Ballantyne: boy heroes en route to manhood --Rider Haggard: masculinity-in-action --'Rotting from within': fears of degeneracy --Sport, Muscular Christianity and masculinity --Physical culture and 're-masculinization' --Imperial man's damaged masculinity --The demise of Imperial man --Contemporary echoes of Imperial masculinity --Understanding Masculinities --Introduction: critical work on masculinity --Socialization into masculinity --Masculinity in other times --Masculinity in other places --The mediation of masculinity: 'cinematic man' --'The pathological silencing of women': 1950s masculinity --Masculinities and the Notion of 'Crisis' --Introduction: 'Crisis! What crisis?' --The 'evidence' for 'men-in-crisis' --Defending 'male honour' --The loss of masculine 'rights' --Men, masculinity and the changing labour market --Is the 'crisis' new? --Does the 'crisis' actually exist? --Conclusion: a 'crisis' in need of research --The Commercialization of Masculinities: from the 'New Man' to the 'New Lad'.