Producing Masculinity


Book Description

Thoughtful, witty, and illuminating, in this book Michele White explores the ways normative masculinity is associated with computers and the Internet and is a commonly enacted online gender practice. Through close readings and a series of case studies that range from wedding forums to men’s makeup video tutorials, White considers the ways masculinities are structured through people’s collaborations and contestations over the establishment of empowered positions, including debates about such key terms and positions as “the nice guy,” “nerd,” “bro,” and “groom.” She asserts that cultural notions of masculinity are reliant on figurations of women and femininity, and explores cultural conceptions of masculinity and the association of normative white heterosexual masculinity with men and women. A counterpart to her earlier book, Producing Women, White has crafted an excellent primer for scholars of gender, media, and Internet studies.




Embodying Latino Masculinities


Book Description

Through explorations of six cases taken from various Latino ethnic groups, this book advances our understanding about meanings of Latino manhood and masculinities. The studies range from theatre and literature to men's activism and sports, showing how masculinities are embodied and performed.




Manhood in the Making


Book Description

Offers a cross-cultural study of manhood as an achieved status, and looks at two androgynous cultures that are exceptions to the manhood archetype




Creating Masculinity in Los Angeles's Little Manila


Book Description

In this new work, Linda España-Maram analyzes the politics of popular culture in the lives of Filipino laborers in Los Angeles's Little Manila, from the 1920s to the 1940s. The Filipinos' participation in leisure activities, including the thrills of Chinatown's gambling dens, boxing matches, and the sensual pleasures of dancing with white women in taxi dance halls sent legislators, reformers, and police forces scurrying to contain public displays of Filipino virility. But as España-Maram argues, Filipino workers, by flaunting "improper" behavior, established niches of autonomy where they could defy racist attitudes and shape an immigrant identity based on youth, ethnicity, and notions of heterosexual masculinity within the confines of a working class. España-Maram takes this history one step further by examining the relationships among Filipinos and other Angelenos of color, including the Chinese, Mexican Americans, and African Americans. Drawing on oral histories and previously untapped archival records, España-Maram provides an innovative and engaging perspective on Filipino immigrant experiences.




Making Technology Masculine


Book Description

A pioneering study of the relations between gender and technology.




Seduction


Book Description

Within the so-called seduction community, the ability to meet and attract women is understood as a skill which heterosexual men can cultivate through practical training and personal development. Though it has been an object of media speculation – and frequent sensationalism – for over a decade, this cultural formation remains poorly understood. In the first book-length study of the industry, Rachel O’Neill takes us into the world of seduction seminars, training events, instructional guidebooks and video tutorials. Pushing past established understandings of ‘pickup artists’ as pathetic, pathological or perverse, she examines what makes seduction so compelling for those drawn to participate in this sphere. Seduction vividly portrays how the twin rationalities of neoliberalism and postfeminism are reorganising contemporary intimate life, as labour-intensive and profit-orientated modes of sociality consume other forms of being and relating. It is essential reading for students and scholars of gender, sexuality, sociology and cultural studies, as well as anyone who wants to understand the seduction industry’s overarching logics and internal workings.




Producing Knowledge, Reproducing Gender


Book Description

This fresh collection of essays examines the continued significance of gender as a marker of inequality in the lives of women across diverse contexts in Irish society. It is a cliche to say that we live in a knowledge society, but exactly whose knowledge sets the economic, political, social, and cultural parameters in any given society?Contributors tackle this question by taking the reader on a gender knowledge journey through the contemporary workplace, the state and civil society and into the education and wider cultural domains. The essays demonstrate the persistence of power differentials, the resilience of gender stereotypes and the ongoing reproduction of specific kinds of gender exclusions. Ideas about gender (often outdated and ill conceived) continue to maintain existing power imbalances in tech work, finance, education, and media. Those ideas also frame public policy debates about sex work, homelessness, women's activism and reproductive rights. Finally, a gender knowledge perspective reveals the downstream impact of gender and others forms of difference and inequality in relation to the teaching profession, game culture, book reviewing and access to archival materials on historical abuse. Producing Knowledge, Reproducing Gender: power, production and practice in Ireland will appeal to those interested in gender studies, political sociology and the sociology of knowledge.




Man Enough


Book Description

A GRIPPING, FEARLESS EXPLORATION OF MASCULINITY The effects of traditionally defined masculinity have become one of the most prevalent social issues of our time. In this engaging and provocative new book, beloved actor, director, and social activist Justin Baldoni reflects on his own struggles with masculinity. With insight and honesty, he explores a range of difficult, sometimes uncomfortable topics including strength and vulnerability, relationships and marriage, body image, sex and sexuality, racial justice, gender equality, and fatherhood. Writing from experience, Justin invites us to move beyond the scripts we’ve learned since childhood and the roles we are expected to play. He challenges men to be brave enough to be vulnerable, to be strong enough to be sensitive, to be confident enough to listen. Encouraging men to dig deep within themselves, Justin helps us reimagine what it means to be man enough and in the process what it means to be human.




Playing with the Guys


Book Description

A lot of work has been done talking about what masculinity is and what it does within video games, but less has been given to considering how and why this happens, and the processes involved. This book considers the array of daily relationships involved in producing masculinity and how those actions and relationships translate to video games. Moreover, it examines the ways the actual play of the games maps onto the stories to create contradictory moments that show that, while toxic masculinity certainly exists, it is far from inevitable. Topics covered include the nature of masculine apprenticeship and nurturing, labor, fatherhood, the scapegoating of women, and reckoning with mortality, among many others.




‘Manufactured’ Masculinity


Book Description

'Manufactured' Masculinity should be considered essential reading for scholars in the humanities and social sciences at every level and in all parts of the academic world. It weaves together brilliantly the elements of the 'manufacture' of masculinity in the period world-famous 'public' school system for the privileged which serviced the largest empire, the world has ever known, at the zenith of its control and which has had a significant influence in the formation of the modern world. This authoritative study of the making of British imperial masculinity shines light on the period of Muscular Christianity, Social Darwinism and Militarism as meshed ideological instruments of both power and persuasion. This magisterial study reveals the extraordinary and paramount influence of games fields as the 'machine tools' in an 'industrial process' with the schools as 'workshops' containing 'cultural conveyor-belts' for the production of robust, committed and confident servants of empire, and templates for imperial reproduction in imperial possessions. Mainly on efficient 'production belt' playing fields of the privileged minds were moulded, attitudes were constructed and bodies shaped - for imperial manhood. Earlier 'manliness' was metamorphosized, morality was redefined and militarism at the high point of imperial grandeur was an adjunct. Professor Mangan outlines this unique process of cultural conditioning with a unique range of evidence and analysis. This book was published as a special double issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.