Review by Choice Review
From the author of Masculinity in Crisis: Myths, Fantasies, and Realities (CH, Apr'95), this book is a perceptive and well-written exploration of males as creators and consumers of Western and horror films, pornography, rock and pop music, and sports. Horrocks (currently a British psychotherapist, previously a lecturer in linguistics and European structuralism) argues that many current theories about masculinity (e.g., feminist, Marxist, Lacanian psychology) are accurate but incomplete. He believes that white men are both oppressors and oppressed, and that much popular culture aimed at males is a hiding place where alienated, powerless, masochistic, and even suicidal male audiences can find freedom from the burdens of masculinity, while simultaneously celebrating it. Horrocks conveys insights penetrating enough to challenge and educate professionals in a writing style accessible to general readers. All levels.
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
