Depictions of cross generational relationships have always been present in popular cinema. While such relationships have historically operated within the framework of heteronormativity, and have usually explored cross generational romance in the context of older men/younger women, contemporary depictions have expanded to focus also on taboo configurations of love between older women and younger men and cross generational LGBT coupledom. Contemporary depictions have sought to complicate not only heteronormativity in cross generational relationships, but also to navigate the differences between socially acceptable love and transgressive desire. This collection focuses on the changing values and attitudes of cross generational relationships and addresses the often divisive relationship between the discourses of youth and ageing in popular culture.

* An accessible text giving an overview of contemporary depictions of transgender men and women in film * Structured around film genres including the costume drama, the musical and the action film * films discussed are contemporary, popular, films from Anglophonic, Asian, European and Latin American cinema

* An accessible text giving an overview of contemporary depictions of transgender men and women in film * Structured around film genres including the costume drama, the musical and the action film * films discussed are contemporary, popular, films from Anglophonic, Asian, European and Latin American cinema

In recent years the 'body' has become one of the most popular areas of study in the arts, humanities and social sciences. Bodybuilding, in particular, continues to be of interest to scholars of gender, media, film, cultural studies and sociology. However, there is surprisingly little scholarship available on contemporary bodybuilding. Critical Readings in Bodybuilding is the first collection to address the contemporary practice of bodybuilding, especially the way in which the activity has become increasingly more extreme and to consider much neglected debates of gender, eroticism, and sexuality related to the activity. Featuring the leading scholars of bodybuilding and the body as well as emerging voices, this volume will be a key addition to the fields of Sociology, Sport Studies, and Cultural Studies.

"In recent years the body has become one of the most popular areas of study in the arts, humanities and social sciences. Bodybuilding, in particular, continues to be of interest to scholars of gender, media, film, cultural studies and sociology. However, there is surprisingly little scholarship available on contemporary bodybuilding. Critical Readings in Bodybuilding is the first collection to address the contemporary practice of bodybuilding, especially the way in which the activity has become increasingly more extreme and to consider much neglected debates of gender, eroticism, and sexuality related to the activity. Featuring the leading scholars of bodybuilding and the body as well as emerging voices, this volume will be a key addition to the fields of Sociology, Sport Studies, and Cultural Studies"--

In recent years the body has become one of the most popular areas of study in the arts, social sciences and humanities. Transgressive Bodies offers an examination of a variety of non-normative bodies and how they are represented in film, media and popular culture. Examining the non-normative body in a cultural studies context, this book reconsiders the concept of the transgressive body , establishing its status as a culturally mutable term, arguing that popular cultural representations create the transgressive or freak body and then proceed to either contain its threat or (s)exploit it. Through studies of extreme bodybuilding, obesity, disability and transsexed bodies, it examines the implications of such transgressive bodies for gender politics and sexuality. Transgressive Bodies engages with contemporary cultural debates, always relating these to concrete studies of media and cultural representations. This book will therefore appeal to scholars across a range of disciplines, including media and film studies, cultural studies, gender studies, sociology, sports studies and cultural theory.

Consideration of the body as a subject for study has increased in recent years with new technologies, forms of modification, debates about obesity and issues of age being brought into focus by the media. Drawing on contemporary culture, Body Studies: The Basics introduces readers to the key concerns and debates surrounding the study of the sociological body, cutting across disciplines to cover topics which include:

• Nature vs. Culture: how we build and transform our bodies
• Conformity and resistance in bodily practice
• Issues of body image beauty, diet, exercise and age
• Sporting bodies and the pursuit of ideals
• Enfreakment, disability and monstrosity
• Cyborgs and virtual online bodies

With further reading signposted throughout, this accessible book is essential reading for anyone studying the body through the lens of sociology, cultural studies, sports studies, media studies and gender studies; and all those with an interest in how the physical body can be a social construct."

Depictions of cross generational relationships have always been present in popular cinema. While such relationships have historically operated within the framework of heteronormativity, and have usually explored cross generational romance in the context of older men/younger women, contemporary depictions have expanded to focus also on taboo configurations of love between older women and younger men and cross generational LGBT coupledom. Contemporary depictions have sought to complicate not only heteronormativity in cross generational relationships, but also to navigate the differences between socially acceptable love and transgressive desire. This collection focuses on the changing values and attitudes of cross generational relationships and addresses the often divisive relationship between the discourses of youth and ageing in popular culture.

In recent years the body has become one of the most popular areas of study in the arts, social sciences and humanities. Transgressive Bodies offers an examination of a variety of non-normative bodies and how they are represented in film, media and popular culture. Examining the non-normative body in a cultural studies context, this book reconsiders the concept of the transgressive body , establishing its status as a culturally mutable term, arguing that popular cultural representations create the transgressive or freak body and then proceed to either contain its threat or (s)exploit it. Through studies of extreme bodybuilding, obesity, disability and transsexed bodies, it examines the implications of such transgressive bodies for gender politics and sexuality. Transgressive Bodies engages with contemporary cultural debates, always relating these to concrete studies of media and cultural representations. This book will therefore appeal to scholars across a range of disciplines, including media and film studies, cultural studies, gender studies, sociology, sports studies and cultural theory.

Since at least the early 1970s, when Claire Johnston observed that despite 'the enormous emphasis placed on woman as spectacle in the cinema ... woman as woman is largely absent', the relationship of cinema to the construction of gender identities and gendered pleasures has been a central concern within Film Studies. Bringing together the political concerns of second-wave feminism and the dizzying developments in theorizing about representation, culture, and society, early work-as exemplified by Johnston's writing-changed radically the nature of Film Studies and the issues which it would address. Later scholars attended to concerns about sexuality, drawing on queer theory; and race and ethnicity, often influenced by postcolonialism. Most recently, Global Cinema Studies has sought to refocus these concerns yet again, whilst 'postfeminism' has questioned many of the assumptions on which Film Studies work on gender has rested. Film and Gender is a new title in Routledge's Major Works series, Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies. It meets the need for an authoritative reference work to enable users to navigate and make sense of the subject's large literature, its history, and its continuing centrality within Film Studies. Compiled by Sue Thornham, whose work includes Passionate Detachments: An Introduction to Feminist Film Theory (1997) and Feminist Film Theory: A Reader (1999), and Niall Richardson, author of The Queer Cinema of Derek Jarman (2009) and Transgressive Bodies: Representations in Film and Popular Culture (2010), this eagerly awaited collection brings together in four volumes the foundational and the very best and most provocative scholarship on film and gender. Film and Gender includes a full index and comprehensive introductions, newly written by the editors, which place the collected material in its historical and intellectual context. It is an essential work of reference and is destined to be valued by scholars and advanced students as a vital research tool.

Consideration of the body as a subject for study has increased in recent years with new technologies, forms of modification, debates about obesity and issues of age being brought into focus by the media. Drawing on contemporary culture, Body Studies: The Basics introduces readers to the key concerns and debates surrounding the study of the sociological body, cutting across disciplines to cover topics which include:

• Nature vs. Culture: how we build and transform our bodies
• Conformity and resistance in bodily practice
• Issues of body image beauty, diet, exercise and age
• Sporting bodies and the pursuit of ideals
• Enfreakment, disability and monstrosity
• Cyborgs and virtual online bodies

With further reading signposted throughout, this accessible book is essential reading for anyone studying the body through the lens of sociology, cultural studies, sports studies, media studies and gender studies; and all those with an interest in how the physical body can be a social construct."

What can queer theory, media studies and feminism bring to our understanding of cinema's Lavender Ladies? Addressing the groundswell of scholarly interest in age and its representation, Ageing Femininity on Film explores character tropes for old women in recent film. Alongside a proliferation of negative stereotypes, like the grotesque hag or the dotty old fool, this book illuminates gentility as a key alternative. Across classics of British and American cinema since the 1980s, including Driving Miss Daisy and The Queen, ageing females are empowered by genteel manners. They are amateur sleuths, retired political figures, and everyday women who refuse to be ignored. Studying examples beyond the "politics of pity," this important book unpacks the multi-faceted relationship between gentility and feminine strength.

This lively and engaging text introduces students to the key contemporary issues in the study of gender and the media. Integrating cultural theory with text-based criticism, Gender in the Media analyses recent debates in feminist cultural theory, masculinity studies and queer theory, before applying these cultural paradigms to critical readings in relevant media contexts. Richardson and Wearing address a wide range of new media texts and topics, covering television dramas, make-over shows, life-style magazines, internet dating and more. Critical, current and far-reaching, this book is invaluable for all students of media and gender studies, as well as for anyone interested in gender representation in different media forms.

Derek Jarman has been called the 'godfather' of the early 1990s cinematic movement now known as 'Queer Cinema'. 'Queer' rejects labels, challenges fixed ideas of gender and sexual identity and refuses the status of a tolerated minority, and queer imagery dominates Jarman's cinema. Yet there has been little attention given to this rich vein in his work.This is the first book to view Jarman's uniquely personal - and pleasurable - cinema through the analytical prism of 'queer'. Niall Richardson takes up queer theory and its debates, as well as the tension between theory and activism, to apply these issues to Jarman's cinema in critical readings of his films, with special attention given to "Caravaggio", "Edward II" and "Blue". Richardson enters the debates about queer sexuality and particularly the dynamics of sadomasochism in sexual relations. He considers alternative regimes of gender and sexuality, desire and its relationship to the body, and the political impact of such images. Although Jarman's films have often been praised for being allegories of political resistance, this book argues convincingly that the 'queer' status of his cinema is as much indebted to the representation of alternative paradigms of gender and sexuality as it is to his portrayal of tendentious political battles.

Derek Jarman has been called the 'godfather' of the early 1990s cinematic movement now known as 'Queer Cinema'. 'Queer' rejects labels, challenges fixed ideas of gender and sexual identity and refuses the status of a tolerated minority, and queer imagery dominates Jarman's cinema. Yet there has been little attention given to this rich vein in his work.This is the first book to view Jarman's uniquely personal - and pleasurable - cinema through the analytical prism of 'queer'. Niall Richardson takes up queer theory and its debates, as well as the tension between theory and activism, to apply these issues to Jarman's cinema in critical readings of his films, with special attention given to "Caravaggio", "Edward II" and "Blue". Richardson enters the debates about queer sexuality and particularly the dynamics of sadomasochism in sexual relations. He considers alternative regimes of gender and sexuality, desire and its relationship to the body, and the political impact of such images. Although Jarman's films have often been praised for being allegories of political resistance, this book argues convincingly that the 'queer' status of his cinema is as much indebted to the representation of alternative paradigms of gender and sexuality as it is to his portrayal of tendentious political battles.