Performing American masculinities : the 21st-century man in popular culture /

This overview of turn-of-the-millennium sexual identities examines the contradictions and instabilities inherent in latter-day American masculinity as evidenced in pop culture. Watson (history, African American studies, and gender studies, East Tennessee State Univ.) and Shaw (theater arts, Hartwick College) have assembled nine timely essays that cover a range of cultural touchstones and phenomena. The Geico cavemen in the insurance company's ads, Dr. McDreamy from Grey's Anatomy, the sitcom Seinfeld, O. J. Simpson, metrosexuals, and Barack Obama all receive extended and thoughtful critiques. The volume touches on age-old barometers of masculine identity--including film, advertising, capitalism, and presidential campaigns--but also highlights more typically 21st-century indicators and influences, for example, viral videos and reality television dating shows. By stressing masculinity's flexibility and ephemerality, the collection succeeds in puncturing what one author describes as "the inflated notions of sexuality and the 'true self.'. A fine contribution to contemporary gender criticism. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers. W. Edwards Longwood University