This interdisciplinary study analyses the ways in which signs of masculinity have been performed across a wide variety of contexts and genres -- including literature, classical ballet, sports, rock music, films and computer games -- from the early nineteenth century to the present day.

The muscle-bound male body is a perennial feature of classically-inflected action cinema. This book reassesses these films as a cinematic form, focusing on the depiction of heroic masculinity. In particular, Hercules in his many incarnations has greatly influenced popular cultural interpretations of manliness and the exaggerated male form.

Masculinity is not a monolithic phenomenon, but a historically discontinuous one-a fabrication as it were, of given cultural circumstances. Because of its opacity and instability, masculinity, like more recognizable systems of oppression, resists discernibility. In Macho Ethics: Masculinity and Self-Representation in Latino-Caribbean Narrative, Jason Cortes seeks to reveal the inner workings of masculinity in the narrative prose of four major Caribbean authors: the Cuban Severo Sarduy; the Dominican American Junot Diaz; and the Puerto Ricans Luis Rafael Sanchez and Edgardo Rodriguez Julia. By exploring the relationship between ethics and authority, the legacies of colonial violence, the figure of the dictator, the macho, and the dandy, the logic of the Archive, the presence of Oscar Wilde, and notions of trauma and mourning, Macho Ethics fills a gap surrounding issues of power and masculinity within the Caribbean context, and draws attention to what frequently remains invisible and unspoken.

This book looks at a wide range of fiction and film texts, from the 1950s to the present, in order to analyse the ways in which masculinity has been represented in popular culture in Britain and the United States. It covers numerous genres, including spy fiction, science fiction, the Western and police thrillers. Each chapter focuses on key forms of masculinity found in each genre, such as the 'double agent', the 'rogue cop' and the 'citizen-soldier'. Brian Baker takes a broad, contextual approach, placing a detailed discussion of key texts and issues concerning masculinity in their historical and cultural context. Written in a clear, accessible way, it explores the changing representation of men over the last fifty years.

London may have Savile Row and Paris its luxury houses, but nowhere can compete with the essence of Italy's nonchalant elegance: sprezzatura. This book presents the most in-depth look at the designers, tailors and artisans who for generations have defined the very notion of Italian style. From such fabled names as Rubinacci and Kiton to highly sought-after global brands like Zegna, more than fifty iconic Italian menswear houses are featured for their individual style and commitment to upholding the values of quality and timelessness. Featuring lavish photographs, with close-ups of subtle, exquisite details, most taken specially for this publication, The Italian Gentleman explores the world behind the finished garments - the ateliers and hidden shops where legends are born. Including iconic brands alongside fabric mills, shirting, accessories and shoemaking, this timely publication is a tribute to true Italian style with today's modern man in mind.

Charles Berg (1892-1957) trained medically at St Thomas's Hospital, but before he could qualify the First World War broke out. He served in several medical positions throughout the war, having been released to obtain his medical qualification. After the war he started his career in general practice, but more interested in the causation of illness, went on to train firstly as a psychiatrist, then as a psychoanalyst, working at the Tavistock Clinic for seventeen years. During his time there under the founder Crichton-Miller he learnt to treat patients from the point of view of psychotherapy and eventually opened his own psychiatric and analytical practice. Out of print for many years, the Collected Works of Charles Berg is a great opportunity to revisit some of his finest works including his 'Sort of Autobiography'. This set will be a useful resource for those interested in the history of psychology, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, queer studies and beyond.

This book explores how masculinities and fatherhood are transmitted across family generations of white British, Irish and Polish fathers. Providing unique insights into men's lives, migration, employment, father-son relationships and intergenerational transmission, it offers a rich methodological story of how intergenerational research is done.

This book analyses the life histories of Jamaican men involved in the UK drugs trade, including wholesalers, street dealers, specialist cooks, cutters, and growers. Employing a life history approach, their autobiographical accounts are examined to provide an in-depth and unique insight of their journeys into drugs and crime.

Men's biological clocks may not be ticking loudly, but what about the social clock? Are there benefits to being in-step with social norms for the timing of parenthood? In a clear and accessible style, this book examines the advantages and disadvantages of early, on-time, and delayed first fatherhood. The book includes a foreword by Ross D. Parke.

This ground-breaking book explores the experiences of gay men and their understanding of what it meant to be gay in the 20th Century: from when homosexuality was illegal through the less repressed but no less difficult eras of gay liberation and the HIV-AIDS epidemic.

Inverting the traditional focus of ethnic studies on blackness as the object of scrutiny, this book explores dominant forms of white masculinity as seen by African American authors placed alongside certain white writers. Author analyzes texts by Herman Melville, Ernest Hemingway, Martha Gellhorn, Frederick Douglass, and James Baldwin.

"Masculinity and Film Performance" is a lively and engaging study of the complex relationship between masculinity and performance on and off screen, focusing on the performance of "male angst" in American film and popular culture during the 1990s and 2000s. Building on theories of film acting, masculinity, performance, and cultural studies, this book establishes a framework for studying screen masculinity and provides close analysis of a range of performers and performance styles. It also examines the specific social, cultural, historical and political contexts that have shaped and affected the performance of masculinity on screen, such as the aging of the baby boom and the launch of Viagra onto the marketplace, the "Iron John" and "Wild Man" phenomenon, and the racially marked fatherhood crisis. Drawing from an array of illuminating film and actor case studies, Donna Peberdy offers a significant contribution to the emerging field of screen performance studies.

What does it mean to be a man in our biomedical day and age? Through ethnographic explorations of the everyday lives of Danish sperm donors, Being a Sperm Donor explores how masculinity and sexuality are reconfigured in a time in which the norms and logics of (reproductive) biomedicine have become ordinary. It investigates men's moral reasoning regarding donation, their handling of transgressive experiences at the sperm bank, and their negotiations of gender, sexuality, intimacy, and relatedness, showing how the socio-cultural and political dimensions of (reproductive) biomedicine become intertwined with men's intimate sense of self.

Drawing on hundreds of interviews with 15-22 year old straight and gay male athletes in both the United States and the United Kingdom, this book explores how jocks have redefined heterosexuality, and no longer fear being thought gay for behaviors that constrained men of the previous generation.

While masculinity has been an increasingly visible field of study within several disciplines (sociology, literary studies, cultural studies, film and tv) over the last two decades, it is surprising that analysis of contemporary representations of the first part of the century has yet to emerge. Professor Brian Baker, evolving from his previous work Masculinities in Fiction and Film: Representing Men in Popular Genres 1945-2000, intervenes to rectify the scholarship in the field to produce a wide-ranging, readable text that deals with films and other texts produced since the year 2000. Focusing on representations of masculinity in cinema, popular fiction and television from the period 2000-2010, he argues that dominant forms of masculinity in Britain and the United States have become increasingly informed by anxiety, trauma and loss, and this has resulted in both narratives that reflect that trauma and others which attempt to return to a more complete and heroic form of masculinity. While focusing on a range of popular genres, such as Bond films, war movies, science fiction and the Gothic, the work places close analyses of individual films and texts in their cultural and historical contexts, arguing for the importance of these popular fictions in diagnosing how contemporary Britain and the United States understand themselves and their changing role in the world through the representation of men, fully recognising the issues of race/ethnicity, class, sexuality, and age. Baker draws upon current work in mobility studies and in the study of masculinities to produce the first book-length comparative study of masculinity in popular culture of the first decade of the twenty-first century.

For the first time in over 30 years, a new ethnographic study emerges on the Bugkalot tribe, more widely known as the Ilongot of the northern Philippines. Exploring the notion of masculinity among the Bugkalot, Cutting Cosmos is not only an experimental, anthropological study of the paradoxes around which Bugkalot society revolves, but also a reflection on anthropological theory and writing. Focusing on the transgressive acts through which masculinity is performed, this book explores the idea of the cosmic cut, the ritual act that enables the Bugkalot man to momentarily hold still the chaotic flows of his world.

This volume provides intimate anthropological accounts of Muslim men's everyday lives in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and diasporic communities in the West. Amid increasing political turmoil and economic precarity, Muslim men around the world are enacting nurturing roles as husbands, sons, fathers, and community members, thereby challenging broader systems of patriarchy and oppression. By focusing on the ways in which Muslim men care for those they love, this volume challenges stereotypes and showcases Muslim men's humanity.

Life is many things, but it is definitely not a flow chart. We prove it every day. We deeply long for change, but formulas and seminars don't get it done. The good news is, God is at work across the life span, encouraging us and empowering us to overcome the hurdles of our past, the challenges of our present and the fears of our future. The Transformation of a Man's Heart is a book of stories: twelve men write from their hearts about their own journey toward transformation. Gary Chapman, author of The Five Love Languages, shares his journey toward experiencing a transformed marriage with his wife. Ross Campbell, Christian psychiatrist and author of How to Really Love Your Child, discusses his heart's transformation in growing as a father with his children. Gordon Dalbey pioneered the men's movement in his Healing the Masculine Soul. Here he shares how our past must be transformed in order to experience all God has for us as men. James Houston, mentor and friend to many Christian leaders throughout the world, considers how his own journey toward transformation reflects the call God places on every man's heart. These and other leading men in their fields come alongside you in The Transformation of a Man's Heart, telling you their stories and pointing you toward the God who in the beginning wrote every man a happy ending. "This book is full of stories. Some will make you think. Others will make you cry. Still others will make you kneel. All will make you want to be a better man." (From the foreword by Ken Gire, author ofThe Divine Embrace.)

Offering a new perspective on male prostitution, In the Company of Men employs qualitative methodology to present a real-world view of the issues, both obvious and obscure, surrounding the world's "second-oldest profession." In the Company of Men: Inside the Lives of Male Prostitutes is the only book to document male prostitution from the perspective of a group of men working for a single male escort agency. The in-depth account goes behind the scenes to shed light on the very hidden world of Internet male escorts, their customers, and the niche they inhabit in modern American society. At the same time, it has much to tell us about post-modern identity, culture, and sexuality-and the transformative influence of the Internet on sexual behavior and male prostitution. Through numerous interviews, the book examines the sometimes-dichotomous relationship between the image men convey and the lengths to which they go in order to meet their most private needs. Readers travel down a cyber Sunset Boulevard to see what attracts young men to work as escorts, how an escort agency serves economic and personal goals, and how a community can evolve among the men involved. Field observations from more than 200 contact hours at the agency and with the escorts First-hand accounts and stories from interviews and interactions with men working as male escorts and with managers at their agency

Zakariyya Tamir is Syria's foremost writer of short stories, and his works are widely read across the Arab world. In this, the first English language monograph on Tamir's entire oeuvre, Alessandro Columbu examines Tamir's literary development in the context of changing political contexts, from his beginnings as a short story writer on local magazines in the late 1950s until the Syrian revolution of 2011. Thus, the movements from independence and Western-inspired modernisation to the rise of nationalism and socialism; war, defeat, occupation in the 1960s; the emergence of authoritarianism and the cult of personality of Hafiz al-Assad in the 1970s are charted in the context of Tamir's works. Therein, the significance of masculinity and patriarchy and its changing nature in relation to nationalism and authoritarianism are revealed as Tamir's foremost vehicles for social and political critique. The role of female sexuality and its disrupting/empowering nature vis-a-vis patriarchal institutions is also explored, as is the question of literary commitment and the relationship between authors and the authoritarian regime of Syria; homosexuality and representations of unconventional sexualities in general.

A Sky Without Eagles is the first printed collection of The Way of Men author Jack Donovan's essays and speeches. Beginning with his viral hit, "Violence is Golden," A Sky Without Eagles assembles Donovan's best standalone commentary from 2010 through 2014. In his straightforward but disarmingly sincere style, Donovan channels the widespread disillusionment and frustration of men in the increasingly restrictive developed world. A Sky Without Eagles covers race realism, criticizes feminism's degenerative influence on masculinity, and in the title speech, laments the lack of virtue and nobility in American leadership. Donovan wrote three new essays for A Sky Without Eagles. The first, "Train For Honor," deals with his search for meaning in strength training."CROM " sums up Donovan's agnostic take on what kind of religion men need today. This collection concludes with "The Brotherhood" -- Donovan's imagining of a better, manlier and more spiritually unified tribe of men. "With this collection, Jack Donovan clearly demonstrates his deep and prescient understanding of a very particular type of man: at once revolutionary and traditional - an outsider amongst outsiders. But Donovan goes further than mere understanding, for in his use of physiological warfare against epistemological enslavement, he offers each of us an escape route from the promise of a deracinated and emasculated future." Mark Dyal, Ph.D., author of Ultras Contra Modernity: Romans in Revolt (Arktos, 2014). "Jack Donovan writes what most men think." Mike Smock, Pulse Firearms Training. "Knowing the truth means little if you lack the courage to express it in a world built on lies. Expressing it means little either if you lack the skill to capture and convince an audience. The essays in A Sky Without Eagles teem with ancient truths and new insights delivered with courage, humor, and compelling logic. Truth + courage + style = the latest Jack Donovan book." Greg Johnson, author of New Right vs.Old Right "I loved reading "Violence is Golden." It was provocative and inspiring. I enjoyed it so much that I shared it online and was stunned by how much controversy it created. (I'm sure that those that "violently" opposed the views of Mr. Donovan, missed the irony of their anger). Embracing violence doesn't mean you must be violent ... as a self-defense consultant, it means you must understand violence so that you can do your best to intercept it. In a real fight, when you are the target, it's not who's right that matters, its who's left." Tony Blauer, Blauer Tactical Systems