Book Description
Through the examination of a range of literary and cinematic texts, from William Wyler's classic The Best Years of Our Lives to the novels of Henry James, Silverman offers a bold new look at masculinities which deviate from the social norm.
Book Description
From headlines to street corners, the message resounds: Black men are in crisis. Politicians, preachers, and pundits routinely cast blame on those already ostracized within African American communities. But the crisis of black masculinity does not rest with "at-risk" youth of the hip-hop generation or men "on the down low" alone. In this provocative new book, acclaimed cultural critic Mark Anthony Neal argues that the "Strong Black Man"-an ideal championed by generations of African American civic leaders-may be at the heart of problems facing black men today.
New Black Man puts forth a revolutionary model of black masculinity for the twenty-first century-one that moves beyond patriarchy to embrace feminism and combat homophobia. Neal begins by tracing the origins of the Strong Black Man, an empowering figure called forth by Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. Du Bois at a time when black men were resisting enslavement, economic exploitation, and violence. Despite the good intentions of its creation, he argues, this rigid model has been used too often as justification for the oppression and mistreatment of black women and children. Neal urges us to imagine instead a New Black Man whose strength resides in family, community, and diversity.
Part memoir, part manifesto, this book celebrates the black man of our times in all his vibrancy and virility. This impassioned tribute to a new face on the horizon of black America is not to be missed.
Customer Reviews:
The leading black intellectual of my generation.......2005-11-10
Hey Mark,
Michael Eric Dyson and Cornel West are Baby Boomers--you're the leading black intellectual of Generation X
Let's just say that New Black Man blew my mind. It's the first book in a long time that I actually looked forward to reading every night. As an evacuee, I don't have a TV so books are a big part of my entertainment these days. I had to force myself to read only one chapter a day so I wouldn't finish too fast (I broke down at the end and read the last two chapters in one sitting--I just couldn't put it down).
I think what you accomplished in this book is profound. In a witty, thought-provoking, self-revealing way you completely deconstructed the "strong black man" model of masculinity and replaced it with something far better to strive for. Any of us who grew up going to the barbershop were indoctrinated with the strong black man model. This was a positive image in some ways, but profoundly damaging in other ways that you delineated.
You allowed yourself to be remarkably vulnerable; the chapter on being a nurturing father touched me. The way you talk about your family makes me want to get married and have children right away. I didn't realize the many ways a child could profoundly change a parent's life for the better if he's humble. I'm a selfish mother@#$%$&^ and I'm always obsessing about my work and career, but I honestly feel challenged by your book to step back, take a closer look at the decisions I'm making and re-evaluate my priorities.
I'm really really glad you added that chapter (five I believe) which dealt with the complexity of being a male heterosexual feminist who maintains a deep aesthetic appreciation for our beautiful black sistahs. I've considered myself a feminist for the past few years and I've struggled with the tension between appreciation and objectification of black women. On the one hand I often chide rappers for their shameless objectification. But on the other hand I get much much pleasure seeing black women, in all their beauty and thickness, celebrated in their videos (especially with the fact that the media generally valorizes emaciated women of which I can't relate). How do I remain a feminist and still appreciate and celebrate my beautiful sistahs? This is a tension I'll struggle with for life and I'm so glad you didn't gloss over it with easy answers.
I'm going on a campaign to get every black man I know to read your book. My ex-girlfriend heard me raving about it and decided to read it herself so I'll be curious to get her female perspective. I have no objective criticisms to offer you. Your last book was a classic (Songs), and New Black Man will be one I'll never forget. As a fellow black scholar, you have inspired me to be more self-reflective in my work and my next book will demonstrate your influence. Thanks for writing books that are sharp, entertaining, chastising, prophetic, highly intellectual, and thought-provoking.
From the Publisher & a Critic (courtesy of Barnes & Noble).......2005-09-29
FROM THE PUBLISHER
"'In this book, acclaimed cultural critic Mark Anthony Neal argues that the ''Strong Black Man'' - an ideal championed by generations of African American civic leaders - may be at the heart of problems facing black men today. Despite the good intentions of its creation, he contends, this rigid model is used too often as justification for the oppression and mistreatment of black women and children. Neal urges us to imagine instead a ''New Black Man'' - a revolutionary model of black masculinity for the twenty-first century that moves beyond patriarchy to promote family, community, and diversity.' Part memoir, part manifesto, this book celebrates the black man of our times in all his vibrancy and virility. It is a tribute to a new face on the horizon of black America that is not to be missed."
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
"Who or what is the 'New Black Man'? Neal (black popular culture, Duke Univ.; Songs in the Key of Black Life) argues that, to survive, contemporary black men must disassociate themselves from the figure of the 'Strong Black Man' as designed by W.E.B. Du Bois and Frederick Douglass and instead embrace that of the New Black Man, whose strength resides in community, family, and diversity. This new model derides sexism and homophobia, which Neal argues have sprung inadvertently from the models of the past. Far from being a dull polemic, Neal's new work is sharp, provocative, and often laugh-out-loud funny in the manner of Michael Eric Dyson and Ishmael Reed (caveat: Neal's language can be rough). Taken in conjunction with Phillip Brian Harper's Are We Not Men?: Masculine Anxiety and the Problems of African-American Identity, this book is a clarion call that should be read by the entire African American community. Highly recommended for all academic and public libraries."--Anthony J. Adam, Prairie View A&M Univ. Lib., TX Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Well, Alright! The Brotha is Fighting Sexism and Homophobia!.......2005-08-08
Dr. Neal asserts that the decades-old image of the "Strong Black Man" is often used to excuse misogyny and homophobia among black men. He goes on record in detailing how black male adults use the excuse of white racism in order to get away with abusing black women, black children, and black gays and lesbians. Thus, Dr. Neal posits that we need a "New Black Man": one who is committed to supporting black feminism, fighting anti-gay bigotry, and providing childcare for one's biological or adopted children.
This book really, really, really needs to be read alongside Patricia Hill-Collins "Black Sexual Politics." This book is original and refreshing, but there are many ways in which it is just a man saying "I second!" to what Dr. Hill-Collins already brought up. Both book name a lot of problems without providing many solutions, but that in no way denies that both are fierce reads. SNAP!
This book would be a great introduction to black feminism for men or women. It refers to many other texts on which progressive readers must get their hands. But then again, I thought some texts were missing. His ruminations on hip hop were almost exactly like the one in Rebecca Walker's "Daring to Be Bad" anthology. He talks of black fatherhood, but never mentions Earl Ofari Hutchison who has written two books on the topic. Still, he sometimes praises black women writers that I think are problematic. Julianne Malveaux has written things that I think are obnoxiously homophobic. I once saw a reading where Ntozake Shange was high and yelled out, "You can always a N*GGA to take you home!"
Throughout this book, Dr. Neal, a heterosexual brother, gives praise to his academic mentor Dr. Alexis De Veaux, a lesbian sister. I loved this unity across multiple identities. Due to "Will and Grace" and other cultural productions, it is often assumed that gay men and straight women can get along, but it's never brought up whether lesbians and straight men can do the same thing. This book answers that concerns; it almost reminds me of Steve Martin having lesbian friends in the film "L.A. Story."
The New York Times, approximately year ago, asked, "What counts for a gay book now that heterosexual writers are writing compelling and non-marginal gay characters and plots?" After years of writing from saints such as Audre Lorde, Essex Hemphill, Joseph Beam, Bev Smith, and many others, now black heterosexuals or blacks that do not posit their sexual identities are writing outstanding work championing gay rights. Besides this text, books by Dr. Guy-Sheftall and Dr. Abdel-Shehid have begun a new and exciting tradition. But to be honest, Dr. Neal spoke much more about sexism than homophobia and in no way do I feel that the straight black men that Dr. Neal critiques are somehow less homophobic than they are sexist. In the same way that he provides a laundry list a canonical black feminist writing, he or some other progressive scholar could write an equally lengthy list of phenomenal works by black lesbians and gay men. He gives catchy titles to all of his chapters but gives his gay chapter the borrowing, and possibly offensive title "Q***rs in a Barrel." He says he hopes his daughters will be able to state proudly whatever their sexual identities are, but he never says point blank, "I would be just as proud of my daughters if they were lesbian or bisexual as if they were heterosexual." If Matt Groening and Barack Obama have made such statements, why hasn't Dr. Neal?
Dr. Neal is very humble. He speaks of areas where he still struggles to address sexism or misogyny. He shies away from naming himself the "New Black Man." Dr. Dyson once called Cornel West "the humblest man in the world." That moniker could apply to Dr. Neal. His discussion on sleep apnea is important reading for heavyset brothers and other men who snore loudly at night.
Like Dr. Valdivia in "A Latina in Hollywood," this had a gushy chapter on parenting to which I couldn't relate. But if Cornel West and many others have written parenting books, it must be an important concern for many individuals out there.
This is a quick read. It may almost remind one of a series of magazine essays, rather than academic work. Many black folk without elite educations should be able to follow it.
This was very strong and refreshing cultural studies. I am definitely adding this book to my "Profeminist Men" amazon list.
Average customer rating:
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BodySpace: Destabilizing Geographies of Gender and Sexuality
Nancy Duncan
Manufacturer: Routledge
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New Frontiers of Space, Bodies and Gender
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The Production of Space
ASIN: 0415144426 |
Book Description
Exploring the idea of knowledge as embodied, engendered and embedded in place and space, gender and sexuality are re-examined through the methodological and conceptual lenses of cartography, fieldwork, resistance, transgression and the divisions between local/global and public/private space.
BodySpace brings together some of the best known geographers writing on gender and sexuality today to explore the role of space and place in the performance of gender and sexuality. The book takes a broad perspective on feminism as a theoretical critique, and aims to reassess notions of sexuality, citizenship, work, violence, "race" and disability in their geographical contexts.
Amazon.com
Susan Faludi, author of the feminist bestseller Backlash, has done it again with an exhaustive report on the betrayals felt by working men throughout the United States. American men are angry and discontented, she argues in Stiffed, because their sense of what it is to be a man has been destroyed by everything from corporate downsizing and the shrinking military of the post cold war era to the increase in local sports teams leaving town. Whether she's interviewing the teenage male members of Southern California's infamous Spur Posse (who collected "points" for every female they had sex with), Cleveland football fans shaken by the departure of the Browns football team, militia movement activists, or Sylvester Stallone, Faludi seems stuck on the idea that American men today are man-boys, unable to completely grow up because they never received the nurturing they needed, and now constantly disappointed by life. Yet while many of the men Faludi interviews have real problems--bad luck and sad, troubled lives--somehow Stiffed still seems a bit whiny. Faludi's "travels through a postwar male realm" are a fascinating slice of male American life "under siege" at the end of the 20th century, even if she does finally leave us like the men she talked to--still wondering just what went wrong. --Linda Killian
Book Description
One of the most talked-about books of last year, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Backlash now explores the collapse of traditional masculinity that has left men feeling betrayed. With Backlash in 1991, Susan Faludi broke new ground when she put her finger directly on the problem bedeviling women, and the light of recognition dawned on millions of her readers: what's making women miserable isn't something they're doing to themselves in the name of independence. It's something our society is doing to women. The book was nothing less than a landmark. Now in Stiffed, the author turns her attention to the masculinity crisis plaguing our culture at the end of the '90s, an era of massive layoffs, "Angry White Male" politics, and Million Man marches. As much as the culture wants to proclaim that men are made miserable--or brutal or violent or irresponsible--by their inner nature and their hormones, Faludi finds that even in the world they supposedly own and run, men are at the mercy of cultural forces that disfigure their lives and destroy their chance at happiness. As traditional masculinity continues to collapse, the once-valued male attributes of craft, loyalty, and social utility are no longer honored, much less rewarded. Faludi's journey through the modern masculine landscape takes her into the lives of individual men whose accounts reveal the heart of the male dilemma. Stiffed brings us into the world of industrial workers, sports fans, combat veterans, evangelical husbands, militiamen, astronauts, and troubled "bad" boys--whose sense that they've lost their skills, jobs, civic roles, wives, teams, and a secure future is only one symptom of a larger and historic betrayal.
Customer Reviews:
What DOES it mean to be a man?.......2007-07-20
I just read "Backlash" this spring and wished I'd picked it up 10 years ago. But in "Stiffed" Susan Faludi paints the story of my generation, and that of my parents, with a much broader brushstroke. Why would an avid feminist care about men's problems? Because the situation of women cannot be fully understood in isolation from male experience? I think yes!
As she painstakingly documents the values which got us enmeshed in Vietnam it becomes obvious they are the same values which have led us into a parallel entanglement in Iraq, and other things equally pernicious.
Would that every American could and would read this book.
Want to offer understanding to the men in your life?.......2007-05-29
Her argument made sense and represented the way corporations are undermining individuals. Women are not the only ones suffering from image-culture and low-paying jobs. This book ties together the experiences of the boy next door, celebrities, your father, your grandfather, and their brothers.
Were the Astronauts Who Went to the Moon "Stiffed?".......2006-01-06
Susan Faludi won justified praise for her massively researched, deeply interpretive, and broadly insightful "Backlash: The Undeclared War against American Women" (Crown, 1992). This book is an attempt to continue this story by focusing on men, but while interesting it is a much less satisfying work. Faludi offers an analysis that is both sweeping and penetrating, if not quite as original as her work in "Backlash." Moreover, she probably could have done just as well in arguing her thesis of male anger at marginalization in a post-industrial and post-modern society with a more disciplined and slimmer volume. Overall, however, "Stiffed" is an interesting book that should spark sharp discussion.
At sum, Faludi makes the case, sometimes strained but always relentlessly argued, that fundamental shifts to a stable and traditional society in the 1960s and 1970s transformed the male world in ways that required totally new mindsets. Particularly, she sees the move from a culture that valued loyalty, collegial relations, and skill in a vocation to what she calls an "ornamental culture" focused on image and celebrity. The emphasis of flash over substance has been found in all sectors of modern America's society, Faludi insists, and it continues to dominate our public discourse.
Since there are many fascinating reviews available of "Stiffed," I want to focus attention on the section of the book I found most useful. I have been working on a study of "Project Apollo in American Myth and Memory" and Susan Faludi's chapter, "Man in a Can," has proven quite useful in igniting thoughts on the place of the astronauts in the Moon landings. In this chapter Faludi concentrates on telling the story of the deep depression, alcoholism, "nervous breakdown," and divorce of Buzz Aldrin after his return to Earth following the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. No single person was more important than Aldrin in helping the United States reach the Moon, whose work on orbital rendezvous made possible the Gemini and Apollo missions. But Aldrin had a delicate psyche. He could never accomplish enough to satisfy his father and his failure to become the first person on the surface of the Moon signaled a fundamental failure, something he was spring-loaded to adopt anyway because of years of conditioning by his father. Aldrin tells that story in his confessional and courageous memoir, "Return to Earth" (Random House, 1973).
Susan Faludi mines Aldrin's book, as well as others, for evidence of a devolution of the importance of individual skill and the emergence of an "ornamental culture" at NASA in which the astronauts were little more than props for a larger publicity campaign. She asserts, quite rightly, that "The astronaut served as an emblem in many matters preoccupying cold-war America: beating the Russians, demonstrating national mastery, wedding technology to progress, proving the point of man over machine. But paramount among his symbolic roles, he was to be a masculine avatar for a strange and distinctly new realm on earth." She argues that the astronaut was "a first-draft response to disturbing questions about manhood in an ornamental age" (p. 452). Rather than being valued for their capabilities in pushing back the final frontier, Faludi comments, the astronauts were charged with the opening of a new entertainment frontier. She draws direct linkages between Aldrin and his fellow astronauts with earlier western entertainments such as Wild Bill Hickok's Wild West Show. "But the astronauts heralded a time," she emphasizes, "when the sideshow would as never before supplant the main event" (p. 452).
All of this was totally understandable to Faludi. She adds: "NASA needed the pleasing faces, the frenzy of celebrity, to seduce the government, the media, and the public into accepting the huge expense of the aerospace program" (p. 461). Aldrin reacted to this "ornamental culture" drastically, but Faludi believes that many other astronauts recoiled from this approach. They just responded in different ways.
Were the astronauts simply "ornamental?" Clearly, they were celebrities, but their celebrity status seems to have been predicated on their exciting and important work. An interesting question: Were the astronauts "famous for simply being famous?" Were they famous for "real" feats, or "perceived" feats? Did the public really understand (or care) about the feats that were achieved? Or were they famous because somebody told the public they were famous? I believe astronauts can be likened to sports and entertainment idols. Like them, to remain a hero they had to attain great feats. This begs the question, how effective was NASA in scripting the perception of the public?
I question if Faludi is correct in her analysis, at least in the context of the Apollo astronauts, but her discussion provides an interesting perspective on masculinity in recent America and highlights some, but not all, of the issues at play among men in this post-modern society.
This book is about me and every man I know.......2005-11-18
As one who studies labor history as a passion I found this book incredibly enjoyable. I found common ground with all the characters, and the book filled many gaps of knowledge about each of the issues the author touched upon, which made headline news from sports, religion, to the Vietnam war during my lifetime. I would say with great conviction that this book is probably one of the most important books anyone could read for a better understanding of the times and challenges we live in today. I highly recommend this book!!!
An analysis of masculine angst and masculine decadence.......2005-03-23
In this book, Faludi tries to explain the breakdown of men. As a feminist and the author of Backlash, where she critiqued the power-maintaining reactions of men to the feminist movement, she sets out to identify how and why men go wrong and ends up investigating the world of masculine pain, angst, decadence and vulnerability. In this book, men come out as weak, flawed, but also heroic.
This book analyzes the disintegration of the American man and discuses it in the context of Post-War American history. Faludi points out how unemployment, loss of meaning, breakdown of the family system, the culture of competition and corporatism, Vietnam war, the fashion system, ghetto cultures, etc., systematically contributed to the loss of meaning among American men.
Although this book only proclaims to be an anaysis of American Post-War men, much of what it analyzes and describes holds true even in a global context. Vietnam may be a very American wound, but corporatization, consumerism, the culture of ornamentalism, cosmetics, industrial crises, rising unemployment levels etc., make men anywhere in the world today feel more 'hemmed in', than they were a few decades ago.
Faludi's basic argument is similar to that of Robert Bly's 'Iron John' and sees the increasing distanciation of fathers from family affairs (due to migration for work), as the reason why most sons have a checquered road to manhood.
Her inquiries also show how modern culture tries to deprive men of their softer, maternal affections (positive feminity or 'maternal masculinity' which can enrich men if they adapt it to temper their negative masculinity) and forces the empty ornamental display of self (dressing up, grooming up, dandying up etc. or ornamental masculinity which borrows from weaknesses of women rather their strengths) as the 'model' of masculinity to adopt, after emptying men of their core values.
Men, Faludi says, cannot fight the enemy because they cannot name the enemy unlike women who are clear that they want to blame men for their predicament.
As a diagnosis of the male predicament in today's culture this book is incisive and thoroughly insightful.
Average customer rating:
- Required Reading for Caribbeanists and Feminists
- Caribbean masculinities
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Interrogating Caribbean Masculinities: Theoretical and Empirical Analyses
Manufacturer: University Press of the West Indies
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Gendered Realities: Essays in Caribbean Feminist Thought
ASIN: 9766401381 |
Customer Reviews:
Required Reading for Caribbeanists and Feminists.......2005-09-25
This fascinating and provocative gendered analysis of Caribbean politics and society is a welcome addition to the literature. It is theoretically well-grounded and a fine example of interdisciplinary social analysis. Highly recommended
Caribbean masculinities.......2005-02-04
This book results from a conference sponsored by the Gender Studies Program at the University of the West Indies. Most of the authors are faculty members of that system. The book tries to flesh out what gender studies in and of the Caribbean would look like. It divides into four sections: cultural theory, education, history, and literature.
I had some concerns that this would just be a repeat of Rafael Ramirez's text "Caribbean Masculinities." Though Dr. Ramirez provides a prologue, only one chapter exists in both books. Still, other chapter are included or part of book length works (Parry's and Crichlow's chapters, for example). The contributors are both male and female. With the exception of one person, all of them either work in or come from the Caribbean.
Though Jamaica does receive the most attention, the contributors try to be diverse in their coverage of the Caribbean landscape. A chapter on Dominicans illustrates lingual diversity. However, there is no chapter about Haitians, Caribbean Francophones are not mentioned in this book. There is a chapter on an ethnic group in Belize. I suppose the editors think of the Caribbean as any nation that touches about the Mexican Gulf.
I thought the section on education and history were the strongest. The theory section in the beginning would be informative for readers who know little about gender studies. However, it may bore those who know a lot on the topic. By far, the worst section is the literature section. Perhaps that is why it is placed last. It is uneven: the penultimate chapter is 80 pages while the ultimate chapter, not a conclusion I might add, was only 17. It was the real yawner section of the book.
This book tries hard not to equate the Caribbean solely with people of African descent. Still, its discussion of East Indians in the region is scant. What is amazing is how so many topics that concern African Americans seems to concern Caribbean nations. Preparation for the changing economy, the superior educational performance of girls and women compared to boys and men, the effect of "gansta" personas on musicians and their male audiences, and much more must be controversies both within and outside of American borders. One thing that annoyed me is that one writer quotes bell hooks as not having a "z" in the word "socializing." Hello, bell hooks is American and writes in American English. The two writing styles are not so different that one should edit out the specifics. Worse, they do not even admit that they are doing it. It's practically like a misquote and misrepresentation. Both Black Americanists and pan-Africanists should find this text useful.
On the cover and at the beginning of each chapter, there is a drawing of a skeleton in a man's suit. I think he's a skeleton and not a living man in order to erase racial specificity. However, the skeleton brings up issues of voodoo. Thus, readers will still code him as black. Further, this voodoo/zombie image is somewhat a stereotypical image of Caribbean men. I am not sure why they use it. I doubt that it's helpful to their project.
Book Description
In Chicano/a popular culture, nothing signifies the working class, highly-layered, textured, and metaphoric sensibility known as "rasquache aesthetic" more than black velvet art. The essays in this volume examine that aesthetic by looking at icons, heroes, cultural myths, popular rituals, and border issues as they are expressed in a variety of ways. The contributors dialectically engage methods of popular cultural studies with discourses of gender, sexuality, identity politics, representation, and cultural production. In addition to a hagiography of "locas santas," the book includes studies of the sexual politics of early Chicana activists in the Chicano youth movement, the representation of Latina bodies in popular magazines, the stereotypical renderings of recipe books and calendar art, the ritual performance of Mexican femaleness in the quinceantilde;era, and mediums through which Chicano masculinity is measured.
Book Description
Essaysdiscuss masculinity and violence, research on differences between men's and women's brains, as well as impotence, sexual ambiguity, and whether black men have a moral duty to marry black women.
Book Description
The Masculine Masquerade explores often-ignored issues of masculinity in the visual arts as well as models and concepts of masculinity in literature, film, and the mass media. Drawing on the work of feminist and gay studies and the work being done in areas of psychology, sociology, and gender studies, the essays analyze the conventional and limited definition of masculinity as a social and cultural construct. They seek to expand that definition to include multiple masculinities and factors such as race, class, ethnicity, and object choice.
Helaine Posner, Curator, MIT List Visual Arts Center, examines masculinity in the contemporary visual arts, including the works of Matthew Barney, Mary Kelly, Lyle Ashton Harris, Clegg & Guttmann, Keith Piper, and Donald Moffett. Andrew Perchuk, independent curator and critic, focuses on the art of the immediate postwar period to investigate T. J. Clark's notion that the terminology surrounding the New York School was expressed in the language of sexual difference, with severe consequences for artists whose work could not be inserted into this narrative.
Steven Cohan, Associate Professor of English, Syracuse University, looks at postwar film in The Spy in the Gray Flannel Suit:Gender Performance and the Representation of Masculinity in North by Northwest. Harry Brod, Department of Philosophy, University of Delaware, traces the history of masculinity as masquerade, from classic conceptions of masquerade as distinctly feminine to contemporary theories of gender as performative. bell hooks, Professor of English, City College, investigates the historical definition of black male sex roles and the commodification of blackness through close readings of the films of Eddie Murphy and Spike Lee, among others. Simon Watney, writer, activist, and critic, considers the current and changing impact of AIDS on the gay male community in "Lifelike": Imagining the Bodies of People with AIDS. Finally, Glenn Ligon employs stereotypic images of black men constructed for white pleasure, drawn from 1970s pornographic magazines, and explores the possibility of recovering and transforming these images into non-racist expressions of pleasure and desire.
Distributed for the MIT List Visual Arts Center
Customer Reviews:
Razor sharp & entertaining analysis.......1996-01-06
Perchuk and Posner ought to be rewarded for this study.
Perchuk's writing, especially, was well worth the price of
admission. Their analysis of today post-feminist, post-modern
gender values is more than just informative and dead-on
target - it sparkles with humor and irony and sizzles with
deflatory realism
Average customer rating:
- Better than I thought it was going to be
|
Roman Shakespeare: Warriors, Wounds, and Women (Feminist Readings of Shakespeare)
Coppélia Kahn
Manufacturer: Routledge
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ASIN: 0415054516 |
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In the first full-length study of Shakespeare's Roman plays, Copp'elia Kahn brings to these texts a startling, critical perspective which interrogates the gender ideologies lurking behind 'Roman virtue'. Plays featured include: * Titus Andronicus * Julius Caesar * Antony and Cleopatra * Coriolanus * Cymbeline Setting the Roman works in the dual context of the popular theatre and Renaissance humanism, the author identifies new sources which she analyzes from a historicized feminist perspective. Roman Shakespeare is written in an accessible style and will appeal to scholars and students of Shakespeare and those interested in feminist theory, as well as Classicists.
Customer Reviews:
Better than I thought it was going to be.......2001-05-24
While writing my Master's thesis, this book kept coming up in my research. I decided to buy it because I couldn't track it down in any library... I am so happy that I did. Although I purchased this book for a very specific purpose, it has greatly expanded my conception of feminist readings of Shakespeare. Kahn does a wonderful job of performing close readings of Shakespeare's Roman works (Titus Andronicus, Rape of Lucrece, Julius Caesar, Corilianus, Cymbeline) and couples such reading with historical and feminst interpretations... all of which are valid and thorough. I am not a huge fan of most feminist readings of Shakespeare, however Kahn has a compelling theory that I found easily acceptable and actually embraced. Kahn has a keen eye for language and detail, and she also manages to communicate her complex theories into lucid writing. I highly recommend this book for all who are interested in Shakespeare's Roman works.
Book Description
Since its original publication in 1989, Refusing to be a Man has been acclaimed as a classic and widely cited in gender studies literature. In 13 eloquent essays, Stoltenberg articulate the first fully argued liberation theory for men that will also liberate women. He argues that male sexual identity is entirely a political and ethical construction whose advantages grow out of injustice. His thesis is, however, ultimately one of hope - that precisely because masculinity is so constructed, it is possible to refuse it, to act against it and to change. A new introduction by the author discusses the roots of his work in the American civil rights and radical feminist movements and distinguishes it from the anti feminist philosophies underlying the recent tide of reactionary mens movements.
Customer Reviews:
Brave and Refreshing .......2006-03-12
John Stoltenberg is a brave man. He shines a light into the murky waters of mens' unconscious fears and desires exposing the fragility of masculinity and the injustice that underpins it.
There is a black and white argument to this book which will discomfort many men; but I believe there are some fundamental truths, many of which form so much part of the fabric of our society, we can no longer see them critically.
At least (most) men.
I don't believe Stoltenberg is trying to deny or repress sexuality, quite the reverse, he is trying to expose the ways in which it is only mens' view of sexuality that is expressed through pornography and the media, and he is critical of it.
For it depicts a type of sexuality which is about domination and subordination and does not uphold any principles of justice or ethics;
'It is now assumed that by giving eroticised domination and subordination free expression, is the fullest flowering of sexual freedom'. Why should this be the norm?
If you are of the persuasion that men are 'naturally' this way, then you will despise this book.
But if you believe that sexuality is more of a spectrum, then you will take this book for what it is; an opportunity for men to critically look at their role in propagating a type of sexual injustice that objectifies and demeans women whilst stereotyping and patronising men.
This book is NOT about demonising men, this book is about highlighting, debating and freeing us from the above.
It is above all about the potential to change an outmoded, unjust, narrow and frankly dysfunctional perspective of sexuality, which does little to foster positive and healthy sexual attitudes between the sexes- if of course that should be of any interest to men!
A Paen to Self-Loathing.......2005-04-18
Does John Stoltenberg really believe what he writes? Reading him is like listening to the outer rationalizations of a mind tortured by sexual fear and denial. Stoltenberg belives men should completely distence themselves from all their gender-determined behavior, like, one supposes, Star Trek's Vulcans. The implication is that we should all effectively castrate ourselves, become drones to service females as required.
But it is no more possible for a man to renounce his gender and remain a man than it is for a woman to renounce hers, or for a human to renounce emotion and remain a functioning organism. Our shared emotions, as well as our gender specific drives, are what enable us to function as human beings in the world and to interact with other human beings.
Stoltenberg is known primarily as the husband of the late Andrea Dworkin, herself a bizarre collection of androgenistic and Victorian beliefs who found herself celebrated by the most extreme elements of radical feminism and, oddly enough, extreme social conservatives, with whom she agreed on matters of censorship, pornography and in general anything that denied and repressed sexuality. She preached a world without sexuality, and in the end, I suppose, without humanity. It is probably unfair to judge someone by their appearance, but Dworkin's whose denial of sexuality had more than a few wondering if much of her politics was not bound up in rationalizations.
Reading Stoltenberg one gets the impression that his writings on sexuality and gender derive largely from Dworkin's influence, but that his beliefs are the product of a fear of sexuality that originated long before he met his partner. As a psychologist (though admittedly not a clinical one) reading Stoltenberg made me wonder what kind of early childhood or adolescent traumas were visited upon him that made him alternately so hateful and fearful of sex? He and Dworkin certainly seem like the poster children for unhappy childhoods and sexual dysfunction.
As a serious work on male sexuality this book is essentially worthless. But as an insight into a mind beset by sexual fear and loathing, it just might be worth something.
I am a human being. Do not label, spindle or mutilate........2004-07-10
Albert Camus once wrote, "One can't get along without domineering or being served... The lowest man in the social scale still has his wife or child. If he's unmarried, a dog. The essential thing, after all, is being able to get angry with someone who has no right to talk back". I have read no pithier summary of the hierarchical, fractal nature of oppression. Those more optimistic than Camus seek ways to "get along" without domineering.
Stoltenberg appears to see the world through a polarising filter. Good or worthwhile acts by men disappear; evil or destructive acts by women disappear. (Try this exercise: when did you last read something humane a man wrote? Forget it, it doesn't exist. When were you last taunted by a female? Perhaps, if never else, in high school? Forget it, it didn't exist...) This leaves him carrying the monstrous, useless deadweight of masculinity, which he hopes to refuse - if "being a man" means choosing to get along by being domineering, why, then he will do something else.
The first thing you are told in assertiveness training is to make your criticism focussed, precise, and constructive - it's more likely to be effective put that way:
DO say, "Stoltenberg seems to assume that men all want penetrative sex exclusively, women want sexuality but NOT penetrative sex, and when I see a naked woman (in pornography, for instance) numerous horrifying intentions pop into my head. In my experience these statements are mostly wrong, or at least unhelpful, and I wouldn't want my 12-year-old son touching Stoltenberg (or Dworkin, or the Marquis de Sade) with a ten-foot pole".
DON'T say, "Stoltenberg is part of a clique of men-bashing, hatred-driven feminists who should rot and incinerate in hell". If you want people to behave like reasonable human beings, give them the option...
This is not a book to live by. Everyone needs to be able to see when those around them are being stupid, dangerous, or destructive - or compassionate, or brave, or ingenious, or whatever. Seeing the world in sharp, Manichean, black and white stops that from happening. That Stoltenberg believes he has switched sides from bad to good is scant consolation.
The essential thing is looking for ways to live without having to get angry with someone who has no right to talk back. Camus and Stoltenberg both feel like part of the problem.
A Courageous Manifesto for Change.......2003-12-21
John Stoltenberg is a courageous man. In his book, Refusing to be a Man: Essays on Sex and Justice (1989/2000), Stoltenberg takes a critical look at male sexual identity. He understands it as a social construction deeply rooted in patriarchy, pornography, and violence, and supported by the perpetual power of male privilege reflected in the cracked mirror of rapist ethics. There are not many men holding themselves and those of their sex-class accountable for the millennia of atrocities against women ... or to the atrocities from last night ... or from this afternoon. This series of thirteen essays is the result of Stoltenberg's observations, feelings, and questions about what it means to be a man who's identity seems violently polarized against everyone and everything that doesn't measure up to being a real-man. He believes that only in understanding the relationship between eroticism, ethics, and gender identity will men be able to take responsibility for their actions, their choice of actions, the effects of those actions, and do so without asserting some mythical right based on their genitals. Moreover, he doesn't place himself outside this inquiry, and in several of his essays relates his own conflicted emotions about being a member of the male community, constantly struggling for consciousness in an unconscious world. This questioning and examination - holding himself accountable - makes his realizations more striking for the reader. John Berger (author of Ways of Seeing) of wrote, "We only see what we look at. To look is an act of choice.". Stoltenberg is a courageous man because he not only looks, but he chooses to act. This book is his manifesto for change. It continues to resonate after fourteen years.
how to be ashamed of your masculinity.......2000-06-24
Stoltenberg is the classic 'soft male' Bly speaks of so wisely. This book panders to women's fears and disempowers everyone by fostering shame for men's natural passions and joys. For millennia traditional arrangements between men and women were essential for survival - now, thanks to men's inventiveness, they're not. It is sad that Stoltenberg's construction of masculinity is so myopic that he sees only evil.
The other reviews that talk about the feminist straw woman of radical teachings should sit in on a few university classes where students are shamed just for having a penis. The hostility of academic feminism, idealized by Stoltenberg, is very real and helps neither women nor men.
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