Watson, Elwood: Performing American Masculinities

This collection highlights the fluidity of masculinity through a study of American popular culture at the turn of the millennium and beyond, examining possibilities for identity formation for men in the U.S. Each chapter mines American popular culture-theatre, film, literature, music, advertising, internet content, television, photography, and current events-to posit 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 and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy; the second section addresses identity when masculinity intersects with race, religion, dis/ability, and sexuality, including chapters on Obama, the O.J. trial, reality television, and Spielberg's Amistad.