No Less a Man: Masculist Art in a Feminist AgeBowling Green State University Popular Press, 1994 - 323 pages Robert B. Parker's detective Spenser. John Rambo, created by David Morrell and played on the silver screen by Sylvester Stallone. Bruce Springsteen. What do these three men have in common? All three, Doug Robinson claims, are central figures in a new form of popular men's art: art that explores what it means to be a man in a feminist age. Art that seeks an escape from patriarchal machismo through the surrender of defenses. Art that Robinson calls "masculist", concerned with men's liberation, allied to both the women's movement and the profeminist men's movement. Robinson develops a three-stage transformation myth out of Joseph Campbell's studies of hero mythology: the road of trails, on which repressive "normality" is tested and found lacking (Spenser); the descent into the belly of the whale, a symbolic death in which defensive rational ego-structures are surrendered (the Rambo of First Blood); and regeneration and return, the gradual restructuring or rebirth of masculinity in a potentially redemptive transformation (Springsteen). Through close readings of these three figures, Robinson argues that more is going on among American men than meets the casual eye - and that much of what is going on is reflected in the most popular of our art forms, detective novels, action movies, and rock music. Prodded not only by feminist critiques and the social changes they have wrought, but also by the very failures that make the traditional man's life unlivable, men are increasingly longing - and looking - for a new masculinity, one based in a man's, and a community's full humanity. |
Contents
Foreword by Sherrie Gradin | 5 |
Introduction | 11 |
Chapter | 39 |
Copyright | |
14 other sections not shown
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Common terms and phrases
academic album American anger begins Blood Born to Run Bruce Bruce Springsteen Catskill Eagle childhood course culture dark Dave Marsh David Morrell defensive dream emancipatory Emerson emotional emotionally everything explore fact father fear feel felt feminine feminism feminist Gatsby gender give guys hardboiled Hayden hero ideal ideological inner insecure inside killed kind liberal live look Lucky Town macho male manhood masculinity masculist men's liberation men's movement men's studies misogyny Morrell Morrell's Mortal Stakes mother movie myth Nebraska never normative pain Parker paternal patriarchal Paul popular protect pushed Rachel Wallace Rambo Rambo III reading repressed road scared seems self-control sense sexual social song Spenser Spenser novels Springsteen Stallone Stallone's Susan taboo talk Teasle tell therapeutic things traditional transformation Trautman trying utopian Vietnam violence voice vulnerability woman women words wounds writing
References to this book
Booze and the Private Eye: Alcohol in the Hard-Boiled Novel Rita Elizabeth Rippetoe Limited preview - 2015 |