Constructing Masculinity

Author: Maurice Berger
Secondary Author: Brian Wallis
ISBN: 9780415910538

This text questions society's normative standards of the masculine and contemplates the extent to which men and women can transcend these stereotypes. It examines the ways in which representations of masculinity and maleness in the media and the arts produce, challenge and ultimately shape notions of the masculine. Masculinity in relationship to science and law, two dominant social institutions that play a vital role in constructing stereotypes and establishing gendered power relationships, is also considered. The study aims to take the reader beyond the status of masculinity itself, arguing that men must begin to rethink the very boundaries that shape and define what it means to be a man. Conversely, women must play an important role in this reevaluation, an idea suggested by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's admonition that when something is about masculinity, it isn't always about men.

Publisher: Psychology Press
Publish Date: 1995

Subjects: Art / Popular Culture, Social Science / Men's Studies

This book is available in the following Community Centers: Women's Center (Location: Men/Masculinities)