Manhood in America: A Cultural HistoryOxford University Press, 2006 - 322 pages For more than three decades, the women's movement and its scholars have exhaustively studied women's complex history, roles, and struggles. In Manhood in America, Second Edition, author Michael S. Kimmel--a leading authority in gender studies--argues that it is time for men to rediscover their own evolution. Drawing on a myriad of sources, including advice books, magazine columns, political pamphlets, and popular novels and films, he demonstrates that American men have been eternally frustrated by their efforts to keep up with constantly changing standards. Kimmel contends that men must follow the lead of the women's movement; it is only by mining their past for its best qualities and worst excesses that men will free themselves from the constraints of the masculine ideal. Condensed and revised in this second edition, Manhood in America features updated chapters and examples that extend its coverage through the Bush administration. Touching on issues of masculinity as they pertain to current events, the book discusses such timely topics as post-9/11 politics, "self-made" masculinities (including those of Internet entrepreneurs), presidential campaigns, and gender politics. It also covers contemporary debates about fatherlessness, the biology of male aggression, and pop psychologists like John Gray and Dr. Laura. Outlining the various ways in which manhood has been constructed and portrayed in America, this engaging history is ideal as a main text for courses on masculinity or as a supplementary text for courses in gender studies and cultural history. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 21
Page 47
... male penis envy " in American litera- ture.74 Ahab's inevitable failure is ... bond . To Melville those bonds were impossible if one adopted the competitive ... bonding and homosocial intimacies but eschewed the fantasies of escape from ...
... male penis envy " in American litera- ture.74 Ahab's inevitable failure is ... bond . To Melville those bonds were impossible if one adopted the competitive ... bonding and homosocial intimacies but eschewed the fantasies of escape from ...
Page 205
... male bonding , corrupts allegiance to the hierarchy , and diminishes the desire of men to compete for anything but the attentions of women . " In his best - selling Vietnam memoir , Philip Caputo suggested that male intimacy was ...
... male bonding , corrupts allegiance to the hierarchy , and diminishes the desire of men to compete for anything but the attentions of women . " In his best - selling Vietnam memoir , Philip Caputo suggested that male intimacy was ...
Page 211
... Male bonding , we are told , was certainly not a good thing for women - and it may not be a very good thing for men either , promoting excesses of violence and brutality , groupthink imperatives that obliterate individual responsibility ...
... Male bonding , we are told , was certainly not a good thing for women - and it may not be a very good thing for men either , promoting excesses of violence and brutality , groupthink imperatives that obliterate individual responsibility ...
Contents
The Birth of the SelfMade Man | 11 |
SelfControl and Fantasies of Escape | 30 |
Captains of Industry White Collars and | 57 |
Copyright | |
8 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
adolescent American history American manhood argued Barbara Ehrenreich baseball become behavior Bernarr Macfadden Billy Sunday Boston boys celebrated Chicago cited City Civil claimed coeducation cowboy cultural cultural feminization decades domestic dominant economic effeminacy effeminate efforts emasculated Eminem emotional equality fantasy Fatal Riot father fear feel female feminine feminism feminist film fraternal frontier gender Genteel Patriarch George girls guys hero Heroic Artisan homophobia homosexuality homosocial immigrants increasingly industrial Jesus John labor liberation lives magazine man's manly masculinist masculinity men's men's rights metrosexual middle-class moral mother Muscular Christianity nation nineteenth century novel organization Owen Wister parents percent Playboy political popular race rape role Roosevelt Self-Made sexual sissy social society sons sphere success Theodore Roosevelt traditional transformed turn urban virility virtue Warren Farrell William wimp woman women workers working-class workplace writes wrote York young