Styling Masculinity

Styling Masculinity

Author: Kristen Barber

Publisher: Rutgers University Press

Published: 2016-08-24

Total Pages: 149

ISBN-13: 0813572657

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The twenty-first century has seen the emergence of a new style of man: the metrosexual. Overwhelmingly straight, white, and wealthy, these impeccably coiffed urban professionals spend big money on everything from facials to pedicures, all part of a multi-billion-dollar male grooming industry. Yet as this innovative study reveals, even as the industry encourages men to invest more in their appearance, it still relies on women to do much of the work. Styling Masculinity investigates how men’s beauty salons have persuaded their clientele to regard them as masculine spaces. To answer this question, sociologist Kristen Barber goes inside Adonis and The Executive, two upscale men’s salons in Southern California. Conducting detailed observations and extensive interviews with both customers and employees, she shows how female salon workers not only perform the physical labor of snipping, tweezing, waxing, and exfoliating, but also perform the emotional labor of pampering their clients and pumping up their masculine egos. Letting salon employees tell their own stories, Barber not only documents occasions when these workers are objectified and demeaned, but also explores how their jobs allow for creativity and confer a degree of professional dignity. In the process, she traces the vast network of economic and social relations that undergird the burgeoning male beauty industry.


Some Styles of Masculinity

Some Styles of Masculinity

Author: Gregg Bordowitz

Publisher:

Published: 2021-09-24

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 9780997852455

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An intimate, urgent and riotous account of masculinity, whiteness, queerness and belief in America In winter 2018, Gregg Bordowitz performed a three-part lecture series at the New Museum as part of Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon. Each evening, he explored an avatar of masculinity that was formative to him as he came of age as an outer-borough child of Jewish immigrants, then as an artist-activist in Manhattan at the dawn of the AIDS crisis: the rock star, the rabbi and the comedian. He merged personal and political history, ribald humor and social criticism, performer and persona. Some Styles of Masculinity is a self-portrait and an essay on upheaval and plague, based on transcripts of the eponymous series, which Bordowitz has reimagined for the page. He asserts that gender can't be separated from ethnicity, sexuality, class or nationality, and he connects these aspects of himself through personal anecdotes as well as reflections on whiteness, diaspora, comedy and Jewish mysticism. Some Styles of Masculinity evokes David Antin's "talk poems," Maggie Nelson's "autotheory," David France's How to Survive a Plague and Wayne Koestenbaum's casually erudite criticism. This book is a winding, intimate, urgent, freewheeling account of thinking and enduring in difficult times. Gregg Bordowitz (born 1964) is the author of Glenn Ligon: Untitled (I Am a Man) (2018), General Idea: Imagevirus (Afterall Books, 2010) and The AIDS Crisis Is Ridiculous and Other Writings, 1986-2003 (2004). He was an early participant in ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), where he cofounded several video collectives.


Fashioning Masculinities

Fashioning Masculinities

Author: Claire Wilcox

Publisher: V & A Publishing

Published: 2022-03-03

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 9781838510114

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Unique exploration of how the cultural renaissance following independence evolved into today's dynamic African fashion revolution At a moment of unprecedented creativity in men's fashion and reflection on gender, this thought-provoking, richly illustrated book explores how designers, tailors, photographers, and artists--and their clients and sitters--have constructed and performed masculinity and unpicked it at its seams. Fashioning Masculinities first strips things back to consider the naked male body and the continued influence of the classical ideal: the Adonis--enthusiastically reconsidered by successive generations from 18th-century (Grand) tourists to Robert Mapplethorpe, Calvin Klein, and even Captain America. The book then transitions to explore the very opposite--"the peacock." For centuries men have used clothing to express status, wealth, and individuality. In this section, everything from richly embellished fabrics, shimmering textiles, voluminous cloaks, bulging codpieces, and highly polished armor to Stormzy's stab vest and Prince's boots is featured--the uniting factor being that they have all been worn with swagger and defiance. The final section surveys the suit: the three-piece tailored garment that has come to epitomize masculine attire. But for all its homogeneity, the suit has taken on myriad personas, from the historicizing cut of the Teddy Boys and the bold iconoclasm of Alexander McQueen to the creativity of Billy Porter's "Tuxedo" Oscars gown. Fashioning Masculinities challenges our preconceptions about menswear revealing the fascinating historical roots of the styles we see gracing the sidewalks, catwalks and red carpets of today.


Alain Delon

Alain Delon

Author: Nick Rees-Roberts

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2015-08-27

Total Pages: 219

ISBN-13: 162356445X

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Few European male actors have been as iconic and influential for generations of filmgoers as Alain Delon. Emblematic of a modern, European masculinity, Delon's appeal spanned cultures and continents. From his breakthrough as the first on-screen Tom Ripley in Purple Noon in 1960, through two legendary performances in Rocco and His Brothers and The Leopard in the early 1960s, to his roles in some of Jean-Pierre Melville's most celebrated films noirs, Delon came to embody the flair and stylishness of the European thriller as one of France's most recognizable film stars. This collection examines the star's career, image and persona. Not only focusing on his spectacular early performances, the book also considers less well documented aspects of Delon's long career such as his time in Hollywood, his work as director, producer and screenwriter, his musical collaborations, his TV appearances, and his enduring role as a fashion icon in the 21st century. Whether the object of reverence or ridicule, of desire or disdain, Delon remains a unique figure who continues to court controversy and fascination more than five decades after he first achieved international fame.


Fashion and Masculinities in Popular Culture

Fashion and Masculinities in Popular Culture

Author: Adam Geczy

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-09-20

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 1317217594

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Popular culture in the latter half of the twentieth century precipitated a decisive change in style and body image. Postwar film, television, radio shows, pulp fiction and comics placed heroic types firmly within public consciousness. This book concentrates on these heroic male types as they have evolved from the postwar era and their relationship to fashion to the present day. As well as demonstrating the role of male icons in contemporary society, this book’s originality also lies in showing the many gender slippages that these icons help to effect or expose. It is by exploring the somewhat inviolate types accorded to contemporary masculinity that we see the very fragility of a stable or rounded male identity.


Masculine Style

Masculine Style

Author: Daniel Worden

Publisher:

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13:

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"In Masculine Style: The American West and Literary Modernism, Daniel Worden argues for the importance of 'cowboy masculinity, ' as dramatized in late nineteenth-century dime novels, to the writings of Willa Cather, Ernest Hemingway, Nat Love, Theodore Roosevelt, John Steinbeck, and Owen Wister. Masculine Style presents a groundbreaking account of masculine self-fashioning in American literature and positions the American West as central to modernism."--Page 4 of cover.


Fashion and Masculinity in Renaissance Florence

Fashion and Masculinity in Renaissance Florence

Author: Elizabeth Currie

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2016-07-28

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 1474249779

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Dress became a testing ground for masculine ideals in Renaissance Italy. With the establishment of the ducal regime in Florence in 1530, there was increasing debate about how to be a nobleman. Was fashionable clothing a sign of magnificence or a source of mockery? Was the graceful courtier virile or effeminate? How could a man dress for court without bankrupting himself? This book explores the whole story of clothing, from the tailor's workshop to spectacular court festivities, to show how the male nobility in one of Italy's main textile production centers used their appearances to project social, sexual, and professional identities. Sixteenth-century male fashion is often associated with swagger and ostentation but this book shows that Florentine clothing reflected manhood at a much deeper level, communicating a very Italian spectrum of male virtues and vices, from honor, courage, and restraint to luxury and excess. Situating dress at the heart of identity formation, Currie traces these codes through an array of sources, including unpublished archival records, surviving garments, portraiture, poetry, and personal correspondence between the Medici and their courtiers. Addressing important themes such as gender, politics, and consumption, Fashion and Masculinity in Renaissance Florence sheds fresh light on the sartorial culture of the Florentine court and Italy as a whole.


The Appearance of Power

The Appearance of Power

Author: Tanner Guzy

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2017-11-15

Total Pages: 150

ISBN-13: 9781979138406

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Power has an appearance and appearance has power. Ideally those two would line up together and the world would be full of good, masculine men who dress and look like good masculine men. But all too often, reality is something different. There are good men and strong leaders out there who dress and look like children or bums. There are awful, lazy men in the world who dress in a way that hides their vices from those around them and makes them appear better than they truly are. In an attempt to correct for these disparities, our current culture tries to rob both appearance of its power and power of its appearance - to say that the way a person dresses or looks doesn't - or at least shouldn't matter. We're given platitudes like, "don't judge a book by its cover" and there's a often a cultural rush to prove ourselves as non-judgmental as we can. But a man's appearance has been an integral part of humanity since before the dawn of civilization. As human beings we use mental shortcuts when assessing our surroundings and the people within them. It is inefficient and dangerous to treat every object, scenario, and person as a blank slate or an unknown. And, because it is our tendency to judge according to visual stimuli, we use physicality, body language, grooming, and clothing to quickly and effectively communicate who we are and how we want other people to perceive us. Some men dress to appear more physically threatening, others to convey status and power within social spheres, some attempt to fit in and not draw attention to themselves, and others will use their clothing to show their disdain for the social norms around them. Regardless of what your intentions are, your clothing says something about you. And no, this doesn't just apply to you, but to every man who has ever interacted with another human being. From the ancient shaman, to the Wall Street banker, the Pope to the gutter punk, all men use clothing and appearance to tell the world who we are. Which means it's worthwhile for you to understand how to use this tool effectively. The purpose of this book is to outline the underlying principles of how clothing affects men and masculinity. Understanding and applying those principles will take you far beyond looking like you've been dressed by an image consultant, in one of his five variations of acceptable clothing, and into the realm of being well-dressed all the time.


You Throw Like a Girl

You Throw Like a Girl

Author: Don McPherson

Publisher: Akashic Books

Published: 2019-09-03

Total Pages: 156

ISBN-13: 1617757861

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The former NFL quarterback examines the roots of masculinity gone awry and how it promotes violence against women. In You Throw Like a Girl, former Syracuse University quarterback and NFL veteran Don McPherson examines how the narrow definition of masculinity adversely impacts women and creates many “blind spots” that hinder the healthy development of men. Dissecting the strict set of beliefs and behaviors that underpin our understanding of masculinity, he contends that we don’t raise boys to be men, we raise them not to be women. Using examples from his own life, including his storied football career, McPherson passionately argues that viewing violence against women as a “women’s issue” not just ignores men’s culpability but conflates the toxicity of men’s violence with being male. In You Throw Like a Girl, McPherson leads us beyond the blind spots and toward solutions, analyzing how we can engage men in a sustained dialogue, with a new set of terms that are aspirational and more accurately representative of the emotional wholeness of men. “One of the most important books ever written by a former elite male athlete.” —Jackson Katz, author of The Macho Paradox “An essential exploration of what’s holding men and sports back—and how to overcome it.” —The Washington Post “Don McPherson is a quarterback for a wider community.” —Newsday “A crucial read for anyone interested in learning more about how sports culture informs limited definitions of masculinity, and how such definitions are destructive for boys and men, and dangerous to girls and women.” —The Undefeated (A Can’t Miss Book of 2019)


Dandies and Desert Saints

Dandies and Desert Saints

Author: James Eli Adams

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2018-07-05

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 1501720430

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A Choice "Outstanding Academic Book for 1996"While drawing on work in feminism, queer theory, and cultural history, Dandies and Desert Saints challenges scholars to rethink simplistic notions of Victorian manhood. James Eli Adams examines masculine identity in Victorian literature from Thomas Carlyle through Oscar Wilde, analyzing authors who identify the age's ideal of manhood as the power of self-discipline. What distinguishes Adams's book from others in the recent explosion of interest in masculinity is his refusal to approach masculinity primarily in terms of "patriarchy" or "phallogocentrism" or within the binary of homosexualities and heterosexualities.