Running scared : masculinity and the representation of the male body /

The central concern of this book is the sexual representation of masculinity--particularly of the penis--in a variety of media: mainstream, pornographic, and art films; popular music; 19th-century "marriage manuals"; penis-size jokes. Toward that end, Lehman (Univ. of Arizona) has constructed ten essentially unrelated chapters analyzing the depiction of manhood (literal and figurative), although he refuses to hypothesize a theory and acknowledges instead that he hopes to make "insightful readings." But there is an operative theory here: that men are "running scared" because of the disparity between the patriarchal ideal of phallic power and the problematic realities of actual men. Lehman's refusal to articulate this as a theory allows him to select evidence: indeed, the choices of texts to examine often seem idiosyncratic in a book that purports to be about popular culture; oddly absent, for example, is any examination of images of masculinity in advertising. But the writing is generally lucid, the illustrations are helpful, and the analyses are insightful. Taken on its own terms, the book is a valuable addition to advanced undergraduate and graduate collections on popular culture and film studies, since the disparate media examined and the tight focus on representation of the male body make this a unique contribution. T. Gleeson; Neumann College