Ina Zweiniger‐Bargielowska
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199280520
- eISBN:
- 9780191594878
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199280520.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter explores the reconstruction of the male body against the background of wartime casualties and revelations of extensive unfitness by the National Service Medical Boards. Men's military ...
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This chapter explores the reconstruction of the male body against the background of wartime casualties and revelations of extensive unfitness by the National Service Medical Boards. Men's military fitness was linked with their usefulness as workers and citizens and the healthy and beautiful A1 citizen was held up as an ideal. Apart from stunted unfit men, obese sedentary businessman represented an alternative countertype. They were urged to reduce to regain hegemonic masculinity. The iconic status of the fit male body became a powerful national symbol during the interwar years and the chapter discusses the relationship between fascism and the physical culture movement. There were competing conceptions of masculinity. Most physical culturalists eschewed the hyper‐masculine misogynist fascist man and they embraced greater companionship between the sexes. Men's dress reformers extolled the new female fashions as hygienic and attributed men's resistance to change their attire to vanity.Less
This chapter explores the reconstruction of the male body against the background of wartime casualties and revelations of extensive unfitness by the National Service Medical Boards. Men's military fitness was linked with their usefulness as workers and citizens and the healthy and beautiful A1 citizen was held up as an ideal. Apart from stunted unfit men, obese sedentary businessman represented an alternative countertype. They were urged to reduce to regain hegemonic masculinity. The iconic status of the fit male body became a powerful national symbol during the interwar years and the chapter discusses the relationship between fascism and the physical culture movement. There were competing conceptions of masculinity. Most physical culturalists eschewed the hyper‐masculine misogynist fascist man and they embraced greater companionship between the sexes. Men's dress reformers extolled the new female fashions as hygienic and attributed men's resistance to change their attire to vanity.
Nicole Vitellone
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719075681
- eISBN:
- 9781781700877
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719075681.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
Chapter 5 showed how theories of porn have inadvertently naturalised the male body and heterosexuality as primary and authentic. This chapter shows how, in the context of AIDS, sociologists and ...
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Chapter 5 showed how theories of porn have inadvertently naturalised the male body and heterosexuality as primary and authentic. This chapter shows how, in the context of AIDS, sociologists and social theorists have similarly produced a naturalisation of the male body and male heterosexuality in their interpretation of the condom in the context of AIDS.Less
Chapter 5 showed how theories of porn have inadvertently naturalised the male body and heterosexuality as primary and authentic. This chapter shows how, in the context of AIDS, sociologists and social theorists have similarly produced a naturalisation of the male body and male heterosexuality in their interpretation of the condom in the context of AIDS.
Elizabeth Boa
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198158196
- eISBN:
- 9780191673283
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198158196.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This study of Kafka centres on gender. The author's insights show how, in an age of reactionary hysteria, Kafka rejected patriarchy yet exploited women as literary raw material. Drawing on Kafka's ...
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This study of Kafka centres on gender. The author's insights show how, in an age of reactionary hysteria, Kafka rejected patriarchy yet exploited women as literary raw material. Drawing on Kafka's letters to his fiancée and to the Czech journalist Milena Jesenská, the author illuminates the transformation of details of everyday life into the strange yet uncannily familiar signs which are Kafka's stylistic hallmark. The book argues that gender cannot be isolated from other dimensions of identity, and relates Kafka's alienating images of the male body and fascinated disgust of female sexuality to the body-culture of the early twentieth century, and to interfusing militaristic, racist, gender, and class ideologies. This is the context also for the stereotypes of the New Woman, the massive Matriarch, the lower-class seductress, and the assimilating Jew. The book explores Kafka's exploitation yet subversion of such stereotypes through the brilliant literary devices which assure his place in the modernist canon.Less
This study of Kafka centres on gender. The author's insights show how, in an age of reactionary hysteria, Kafka rejected patriarchy yet exploited women as literary raw material. Drawing on Kafka's letters to his fiancée and to the Czech journalist Milena Jesenská, the author illuminates the transformation of details of everyday life into the strange yet uncannily familiar signs which are Kafka's stylistic hallmark. The book argues that gender cannot be isolated from other dimensions of identity, and relates Kafka's alienating images of the male body and fascinated disgust of female sexuality to the body-culture of the early twentieth century, and to interfusing militaristic, racist, gender, and class ideologies. This is the context also for the stereotypes of the New Woman, the massive Matriarch, the lower-class seductress, and the assimilating Jew. The book explores Kafka's exploitation yet subversion of such stereotypes through the brilliant literary devices which assure his place in the modernist canon.
Diane Railton and Paul Watson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748633227
- eISBN:
- 9780748671021
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748633227.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This chapter examines the very different status and function of the body in the construction of masculinity. It is suggested that it is precisely the absence of the sexualised male body that not only ...
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This chapter examines the very different status and function of the body in the construction of masculinity. It is suggested that it is precisely the absence of the sexualised male body that not only comes to define masculine subjectivity in music video but is also an important process through which hegemonic masculinity maintains its power. The representation of black masculinity in D'Angelo's untitled (‘How Does It Feel?’) is simultaneously typical and atypical of the way in which tropes of raced and sexed identity are inscribed on the black male body. The presence of masculinity is predicated on the absence or deletion of the male body. Quite ironically, the rewritten and re-authored marginal black masculinity of untitled is perhaps more aesthetically complex and politically important than hegemonic masculinity's continual reiteration of its own past successes.Less
This chapter examines the very different status and function of the body in the construction of masculinity. It is suggested that it is precisely the absence of the sexualised male body that not only comes to define masculine subjectivity in music video but is also an important process through which hegemonic masculinity maintains its power. The representation of black masculinity in D'Angelo's untitled (‘How Does It Feel?’) is simultaneously typical and atypical of the way in which tropes of raced and sexed identity are inscribed on the black male body. The presence of masculinity is predicated on the absence or deletion of the male body. Quite ironically, the rewritten and re-authored marginal black masculinity of untitled is perhaps more aesthetically complex and politically important than hegemonic masculinity's continual reiteration of its own past successes.
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804768993
- eISBN:
- 9780804773430
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804768993.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Confessions are, to a large extent, soul work that is read and inscribed into the body, mirrored in it, and practiced through performances of the flesh. The male body is a common theme in male ...
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Confessions are, to a large extent, soul work that is read and inscribed into the body, mirrored in it, and practiced through performances of the flesh. The male body is a common theme in male confessiography, such as in Tom Driver's soft, white, and “useless flesh” of his thighs; in Michel Leiris's “auburn hair” and “incipient baldness”; and in James Broughton's androgynous breast and “neglected backside.” Intimate exchanges of bodily fluids are mentioned in the confessions of St. Augustine, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Carl Jung. This chapter explores the personal dimension of the male body in gay men's confessional writings, supplanting the heterosexual anxiety around masculinity with a sexual and eroticized male body that is to be befriended rather than rendered non-absent. It examines scholarly texts with strong confessional moments authored by contemporary American gay men such as Scott Haldeman and Donald Boisvert. In discussing gay hagiolatry, the chapter looks at Haldeman's theological essays on the intimate male body and Boisvert's defense of the gay eroticization of Jesus Christ.Less
Confessions are, to a large extent, soul work that is read and inscribed into the body, mirrored in it, and practiced through performances of the flesh. The male body is a common theme in male confessiography, such as in Tom Driver's soft, white, and “useless flesh” of his thighs; in Michel Leiris's “auburn hair” and “incipient baldness”; and in James Broughton's androgynous breast and “neglected backside.” Intimate exchanges of bodily fluids are mentioned in the confessions of St. Augustine, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Carl Jung. This chapter explores the personal dimension of the male body in gay men's confessional writings, supplanting the heterosexual anxiety around masculinity with a sexual and eroticized male body that is to be befriended rather than rendered non-absent. It examines scholarly texts with strong confessional moments authored by contemporary American gay men such as Scott Haldeman and Donald Boisvert. In discussing gay hagiolatry, the chapter looks at Haldeman's theological essays on the intimate male body and Boisvert's defense of the gay eroticization of Jesus Christ.
Kent L. Brintnall
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226074696
- eISBN:
- 9780226074719
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226074719.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Images of suffering male bodies permeate Western culture, from Francis Bacon's paintings and Robert Mapplethorpe's photographs to the battered heroes of action movies. Drawing on perspectives from a ...
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Images of suffering male bodies permeate Western culture, from Francis Bacon's paintings and Robert Mapplethorpe's photographs to the battered heroes of action movies. Drawing on perspectives from a range of disciplines—including religious studies, gender and queer studies, psychoanalysis, art history, and film theory—this book explores the complex, ambiguous meanings of the enduring figure of the male-body-in-pain. Acknowledging that representations of men confronting violence and pain can reinforce ideas of manly tenacity, it also argues that they reveal the vulnerability of men's bodies and open them up to eroticization. Locating the roots of our cultural fascination with male pain in the crucifixion, the book analyzes the way narratives of Christ's death and resurrection both support and subvert cultural fantasies of masculine power and privilege. Through readings of works by Georges Bataille, Kaja Silverman, and more, it delineates the redemptive power of representations of male suffering and violence.Less
Images of suffering male bodies permeate Western culture, from Francis Bacon's paintings and Robert Mapplethorpe's photographs to the battered heroes of action movies. Drawing on perspectives from a range of disciplines—including religious studies, gender and queer studies, psychoanalysis, art history, and film theory—this book explores the complex, ambiguous meanings of the enduring figure of the male-body-in-pain. Acknowledging that representations of men confronting violence and pain can reinforce ideas of manly tenacity, it also argues that they reveal the vulnerability of men's bodies and open them up to eroticization. Locating the roots of our cultural fascination with male pain in the crucifixion, the book analyzes the way narratives of Christ's death and resurrection both support and subvert cultural fantasies of masculine power and privilege. Through readings of works by Georges Bataille, Kaja Silverman, and more, it delineates the redemptive power of representations of male suffering and violence.
Chad A. Barbour
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781496806840
- eISBN:
- 9781496806888
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496806840.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Native American Studies
Chapter one examines the existence of the Indian male body as an object of admiration and repulsion. On one hand, the Indian male body is glamorized as a specimen of Classical beauty, an ideal of ...
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Chapter one examines the existence of the Indian male body as an object of admiration and repulsion. On one hand, the Indian male body is glamorized as a specimen of Classical beauty, an ideal of physical and aesthetic form. On the
other hand, that Indian body possesses the potential for danger and physical
harm. Examples such as Tecumseh, Uncas, and Francis Parkman's descriptions of Native men demonstrate this contradictory balance of admiration and repulsion, a dynamic that both embodies and disembodies the Indian male figure. This chapter shows how American art and literature in the nineteenth century attempts to neutralize the perceived threat of the Indian male body through artistic objectification of that body, an objectification that aims to construct an ideal for white manhood.Less
Chapter one examines the existence of the Indian male body as an object of admiration and repulsion. On one hand, the Indian male body is glamorized as a specimen of Classical beauty, an ideal of physical and aesthetic form. On the
other hand, that Indian body possesses the potential for danger and physical
harm. Examples such as Tecumseh, Uncas, and Francis Parkman's descriptions of Native men demonstrate this contradictory balance of admiration and repulsion, a dynamic that both embodies and disembodies the Indian male figure. This chapter shows how American art and literature in the nineteenth century attempts to neutralize the perceived threat of the Indian male body through artistic objectification of that body, an objectification that aims to construct an ideal for white manhood.
Mary Orr
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198159698
- eISBN:
- 9780191673672
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198159698.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
In this chapter, Trois Contes (TC) uncovers the contradictions of the interpersonal within political, legal, or religious frames. It undertakes a new reading which investigates the morality of TC not ...
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In this chapter, Trois Contes (TC) uncovers the contradictions of the interpersonal within political, legal, or religious frames. It undertakes a new reading which investigates the morality of TC not through the religious or ethical, but through its anthropological strata. It looks at the three male body-parts which signify ‘life’ in order to investigate the public conscience of man, not his subconscious.Less
In this chapter, Trois Contes (TC) uncovers the contradictions of the interpersonal within political, legal, or religious frames. It undertakes a new reading which investigates the morality of TC not through the religious or ethical, but through its anthropological strata. It looks at the three male body-parts which signify ‘life’ in order to investigate the public conscience of man, not his subconscious.
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804768993
- eISBN:
- 9780804773430
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804768993.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Confessiography includes a narrative background about already-lived experiences against which the male confessant wishes to be judged and forgiven. Confessional texts come with an implicit moral ...
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Confessiography includes a narrative background about already-lived experiences against which the male confessant wishes to be judged and forgiven. Confessional texts come with an implicit moral expectation that a sympathetic reader would willingly accept. Given such implied morality, the confessant's subjectivity and moral agency come into focus. This chapter argues that the issue of moral agency is intricately linked to the representation of the male body and that moral agency is hidden by the non-absence (that is, textual disappearance) of the male body in male confessiographies. It examines the texts of two very different men, St. Augustine and Calel Perechodnik, and looks at common themes in their confessions. These themes range from choice and control to morality and faith, guilt and forgiveness, hope and despair, human failure and the (im)possibility of redemption, and their relationships to God and their loved ones including their parents, spouses, and children.Less
Confessiography includes a narrative background about already-lived experiences against which the male confessant wishes to be judged and forgiven. Confessional texts come with an implicit moral expectation that a sympathetic reader would willingly accept. Given such implied morality, the confessant's subjectivity and moral agency come into focus. This chapter argues that the issue of moral agency is intricately linked to the representation of the male body and that moral agency is hidden by the non-absence (that is, textual disappearance) of the male body in male confessiographies. It examines the texts of two very different men, St. Augustine and Calel Perechodnik, and looks at common themes in their confessions. These themes range from choice and control to morality and faith, guilt and forgiveness, hope and despair, human failure and the (im)possibility of redemption, and their relationships to God and their loved ones including their parents, spouses, and children.
Irina Aristarkhova
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231159296
- eISBN:
- 9780231504089
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231159296.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
The topic of male pregnancy, which at first glance seems irrelevant and is generally known as plain impossible, is currently being regarded as merely another biomedical breakthrough. Research on male ...
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The topic of male pregnancy, which at first glance seems irrelevant and is generally known as plain impossible, is currently being regarded as merely another biomedical breakthrough. Research on male pregnancy is gaining momentum particularly due to Thomas Beatie, a transgender man who kept his uterus and became successfully pregnant. This chapter delves into the potential of male pregnancy to raise questions regarding the male body and its hospitality, specifically the question of whether male pregnancy is just another case of a desire for ectogenesis, or that there is something more to it that could be useful for the analysis of the matrix and hospitality. The chapter looks at the increasing number of biomedical practices addressing the definition of masculinity as distinguished from birthing, mothering, and femininity.Less
The topic of male pregnancy, which at first glance seems irrelevant and is generally known as plain impossible, is currently being regarded as merely another biomedical breakthrough. Research on male pregnancy is gaining momentum particularly due to Thomas Beatie, a transgender man who kept his uterus and became successfully pregnant. This chapter delves into the potential of male pregnancy to raise questions regarding the male body and its hospitality, specifically the question of whether male pregnancy is just another case of a desire for ectogenesis, or that there is something more to it that could be useful for the analysis of the matrix and hospitality. The chapter looks at the increasing number of biomedical practices addressing the definition of masculinity as distinguished from birthing, mothering, and femininity.
Stephen Amico
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252038273
- eISBN:
- 9780252096143
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252038273.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
This chapter explores how male homosexuality is suggested via the presentation of the sexualized male body as object of the gaze—an objectifying gaze placing the male in the position of the ...
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This chapter explores how male homosexuality is suggested via the presentation of the sexualized male body as object of the gaze—an objectifying gaze placing the male in the position of the “feminine.” It looks at the efflorescence of images of male physical beauty in the musical discourses of numerous singers and bands in the first two decades of the twenty-first century in Russia and how these images were conflated with homosexuality or homoeroticism. To this end, the chapter examines instances of the male body's foregrounding in the work of Andrei Danilko, the groups Hi-Fi and Smash!!, and singer Dima Bilan (focusing on his appearances at the Eurovision Song Contest). It highlights not only the variable of the body's visibility (and, concomitantly, questions of power), but also the interrelated and phenomenologically inflected dynamics of intentionality, proximity, and orientation. It shows that visible male bodies, invoking the possibility of the homosexual, provide a sight/site for Russian gay men and also serve the goluboi.Less
This chapter explores how male homosexuality is suggested via the presentation of the sexualized male body as object of the gaze—an objectifying gaze placing the male in the position of the “feminine.” It looks at the efflorescence of images of male physical beauty in the musical discourses of numerous singers and bands in the first two decades of the twenty-first century in Russia and how these images were conflated with homosexuality or homoeroticism. To this end, the chapter examines instances of the male body's foregrounding in the work of Andrei Danilko, the groups Hi-Fi and Smash!!, and singer Dima Bilan (focusing on his appearances at the Eurovision Song Contest). It highlights not only the variable of the body's visibility (and, concomitantly, questions of power), but also the interrelated and phenomenologically inflected dynamics of intentionality, proximity, and orientation. It shows that visible male bodies, invoking the possibility of the homosexual, provide a sight/site for Russian gay men and also serve the goluboi.
Melanie Tebbutt
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719066139
- eISBN:
- 9781781704097
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719066139.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Social History
Chapter 3 compares and contrasts anxieties and concerns which surrounded the clothed and unclothed male body. Male bodies had a powerful cultural resonance after the war, in rehabilitative ...
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Chapter 3 compares and contrasts anxieties and concerns which surrounded the clothed and unclothed male body. Male bodies had a powerful cultural resonance after the war, in rehabilitative initiatives and emerging consumer industries. By the 1930s, the physical power of the masses, from the Bolshevik Revolution to images of crowds at play, was informing a national iconography of controlled and disciplined youth, very visible in newsreel footage from the 1930s of the Scouts, BB, boys' clubs, and totalitarian youth movements in Germany and Italy. At an individual level, young men's physical sense of self was coming under the growing influence of visual forms and commercial leisure trends, bringing working-class young men into contact with new models of personal behaviour and social interaction which made many sensitive to style, fashion and appearance. This chapter examines how working-class young men mediated the feminised connotations of consumption in negotiating these new physical images and ways of performing masculinity.Less
Chapter 3 compares and contrasts anxieties and concerns which surrounded the clothed and unclothed male body. Male bodies had a powerful cultural resonance after the war, in rehabilitative initiatives and emerging consumer industries. By the 1930s, the physical power of the masses, from the Bolshevik Revolution to images of crowds at play, was informing a national iconography of controlled and disciplined youth, very visible in newsreel footage from the 1930s of the Scouts, BB, boys' clubs, and totalitarian youth movements in Germany and Italy. At an individual level, young men's physical sense of self was coming under the growing influence of visual forms and commercial leisure trends, bringing working-class young men into contact with new models of personal behaviour and social interaction which made many sensitive to style, fashion and appearance. This chapter examines how working-class young men mediated the feminised connotations of consumption in negotiating these new physical images and ways of performing masculinity.
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226569550
- eISBN:
- 9780226569598
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226569598.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
This chapter discusses the importance of the male body in the concept of masculinity in medieval England. It explains that masculinity was a physically expressible feature and that the male body was ...
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This chapter discusses the importance of the male body in the concept of masculinity in medieval England. It explains that masculinity was a physically expressible feature and that the male body was more on display during this period due to changes in men's attire. Men's clothes displayed both wealth and a desire to be in fashion, and affirmed a man's social presence among others. The awareness of being on display expressed masculine self-confidence; it confirmed the way the wearer felt about himself as a man and the way he wanted his male peers to perceive him.Less
This chapter discusses the importance of the male body in the concept of masculinity in medieval England. It explains that masculinity was a physically expressible feature and that the male body was more on display during this period due to changes in men's attire. Men's clothes displayed both wealth and a desire to be in fashion, and affirmed a man's social presence among others. The awareness of being on display expressed masculine self-confidence; it confirmed the way the wearer felt about himself as a man and the way he wanted his male peers to perceive him.
Jonathan Kemp
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748634040
- eISBN:
- 9780748652563
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748634040.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This chapter explores how Gilles Deleuze's critical energy and concepts can be marshalled into challenging the totalising notions of masculinity and the body. It offers an interpretation of the case ...
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This chapter explores how Gilles Deleuze's critical energy and concepts can be marshalled into challenging the totalising notions of masculinity and the body. It offers an interpretation of the case of Daniel Paul Schreber as a DeleuzoGuattarian becoming-minoritarian/woman/queer that shattered the neat and stable confines of the concept of man. The chapter also explores one aspect of embodiment so far ignored or misunderstood within critical theory: the penetrated male body.Less
This chapter explores how Gilles Deleuze's critical energy and concepts can be marshalled into challenging the totalising notions of masculinity and the body. It offers an interpretation of the case of Daniel Paul Schreber as a DeleuzoGuattarian becoming-minoritarian/woman/queer that shattered the neat and stable confines of the concept of man. The chapter also explores one aspect of embodiment so far ignored or misunderstood within critical theory: the penetrated male body.
Kent L. Brintnall
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226074696
- eISBN:
- 9780226074719
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226074719.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter attends to representations of violence—specifically, violence generated by and directed against male bodies—in Hollywood action films. Linking the “violence” of action films with the ...
More
This chapter attends to representations of violence—specifically, violence generated by and directed against male bodies—in Hollywood action films. Linking the “violence” of action films with the trauma of war, however tangentially, may appear as obscene and problematic as Bataille's celebratory turn to mystical self-annihilation in the midst of World War II, but a connection between the action genre's pleasures and those “drawn [from] the combat aspect of war” can be seen. This chapter then considers some of the clearest examples of the male-body-in-pain's ambiguity. Featuring narratives of the suffering but triumphant hero, and containing spectacular displays of the male body, action films present all the issues and questions that motivate this study.Less
This chapter attends to representations of violence—specifically, violence generated by and directed against male bodies—in Hollywood action films. Linking the “violence” of action films with the trauma of war, however tangentially, may appear as obscene and problematic as Bataille's celebratory turn to mystical self-annihilation in the midst of World War II, but a connection between the action genre's pleasures and those “drawn [from] the combat aspect of war” can be seen. This chapter then considers some of the clearest examples of the male-body-in-pain's ambiguity. Featuring narratives of the suffering but triumphant hero, and containing spectacular displays of the male body, action films present all the issues and questions that motivate this study.
Kent L. Brintnall
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226074696
- eISBN:
- 9780226074719
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226074719.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter examines the theme of crucifixion or the reduction of flesh to meat in Francis Bacon's work. It reflects on his depiction of the male body and the alluring beauty of its vulnerability ...
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This chapter examines the theme of crucifixion or the reduction of flesh to meat in Francis Bacon's work. It reflects on his depiction of the male body and the alluring beauty of its vulnerability and collapse. It traces the relation between the violence of crucifixion and the violation of representation in his paintings to explore the inherent vulnerability of the male body on display. Meat has something to teach humankind, but as Bataille's comments emphasize, society works very hard to sequester the slaughterhouse and suppress its lessons. Bacon's painterly corpus can be understood as an attempt to make meat speak again—even in the form of a choked, strained, guttural scream.Less
This chapter examines the theme of crucifixion or the reduction of flesh to meat in Francis Bacon's work. It reflects on his depiction of the male body and the alluring beauty of its vulnerability and collapse. It traces the relation between the violence of crucifixion and the violation of representation in his paintings to explore the inherent vulnerability of the male body on display. Meat has something to teach humankind, but as Bataille's comments emphasize, society works very hard to sequester the slaughterhouse and suppress its lessons. Bacon's painterly corpus can be understood as an attempt to make meat speak again—even in the form of a choked, strained, guttural scream.
Asia Friedman
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226023465
- eISBN:
- 9780226023779
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226023779.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
This chapter focuses on those bodily details that are cognitively filtered out of our perceptions or eliminated through polarizing display practices. It presents evidence that “male” and “female” ...
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This chapter focuses on those bodily details that are cognitively filtered out of our perceptions or eliminated through polarizing display practices. It presents evidence that “male” and “female” bodies are proportionately more similar than different, but that we are socialized to be blind to sex sameness.Less
This chapter focuses on those bodily details that are cognitively filtered out of our perceptions or eliminated through polarizing display practices. It presents evidence that “male” and “female” bodies are proportionately more similar than different, but that we are socialized to be blind to sex sameness.
Derek Krueger
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823226351
- eISBN:
- 9780823236718
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823226351.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Symeon the New Theologian (949–1022), arguably the most important Byzantine religious thinker between John of Damascus in the eighth century and Gregory Palamas in the ...
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Symeon the New Theologian (949–1022), arguably the most important Byzantine religious thinker between John of Damascus in the eighth century and Gregory Palamas in the fourteenth, often presents salvation as a heavenly marriage. Scholars have long noted Symeon's frequent use of erotic and nuptial imagery to explore the relationship between the monk and God. What scholars have generally failed to notice or account for is that much of this imagery reflects homoeroticism. This chapter uncovers in the writings of Symeon the New Theologian evidence of a startlingly rich homoerotic imaginary that foregrounds the male monastic body as the site of erotic transformation or deification. The chapter detects possible echoes in Symeon's work of the teasingly cloaked erotic exchange between Alcibiades and Socrates with which Plato's Symposium concludes. While Symeon often invokes divine eros in his understanding of the process of deification, it is debatable whether this parable and its interpretation are “consistent with the New Theologian's use of nuptial imagery elsewhere”.Less
Symeon the New Theologian (949–1022), arguably the most important Byzantine religious thinker between John of Damascus in the eighth century and Gregory Palamas in the fourteenth, often presents salvation as a heavenly marriage. Scholars have long noted Symeon's frequent use of erotic and nuptial imagery to explore the relationship between the monk and God. What scholars have generally failed to notice or account for is that much of this imagery reflects homoeroticism. This chapter uncovers in the writings of Symeon the New Theologian evidence of a startlingly rich homoerotic imaginary that foregrounds the male monastic body as the site of erotic transformation or deification. The chapter detects possible echoes in Symeon's work of the teasingly cloaked erotic exchange between Alcibiades and Socrates with which Plato's Symposium concludes. While Symeon often invokes divine eros in his understanding of the process of deification, it is debatable whether this parable and its interpretation are “consistent with the New Theologian's use of nuptial imagery elsewhere”.
Asia Friedman
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226023465
- eISBN:
- 9780226023779
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226023779.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
This introductory chapter first sets out the book's main argument, namely that when we see sex, some parts of the body are noticed, and others are ignored. In fact, the proportion that is relevant ...
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This introductory chapter first sets out the book's main argument, namely that when we see sex, some parts of the body are noticed, and others are ignored. In fact, the proportion that is relevant for sex attribution is probably smaller than the proportion that is disregarded. This is especially evident when we consider that dominant conceptions of sex are based only, or mostly, on visual data. The chapter also details the study's methodology, interviewing two groups—blind people and transgender people—representing extreme cases in relation to the visual perception of male and female bodies. The aim is to challenge the visual self-evidence of sex differences. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.Less
This introductory chapter first sets out the book's main argument, namely that when we see sex, some parts of the body are noticed, and others are ignored. In fact, the proportion that is relevant for sex attribution is probably smaller than the proportion that is disregarded. This is especially evident when we consider that dominant conceptions of sex are based only, or mostly, on visual data. The chapter also details the study's methodology, interviewing two groups—blind people and transgender people—representing extreme cases in relation to the visual perception of male and female bodies. The aim is to challenge the visual self-evidence of sex differences. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.
Alejandro Melero
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474400473
- eISBN:
- 9781474434744
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474400473.003.0009
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter studies the performances of Tony Fuentes in two popular destape films: Deseo carnal/Desire of the Flesh aka Carnal Desire (dir. Manuel Iglesias, 1978) and Jóvenes viciosas/Dirty Young ...
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This chapter studies the performances of Tony Fuentes in two popular destape films: Deseo carnal/Desire of the Flesh aka Carnal Desire (dir. Manuel Iglesias, 1978) and Jóvenes viciosas/Dirty Young Ladies (dir. Manuel Iglesias, 1980), as well as the evolution of Fuentes’ star persona. The analysis reveals both how the films projected onto the actor’s body stage some of the social anxieties of the time, and how, in turn, these and other historical traces are carried forward into his roles in other films.Less
This chapter studies the performances of Tony Fuentes in two popular destape films: Deseo carnal/Desire of the Flesh aka Carnal Desire (dir. Manuel Iglesias, 1978) and Jóvenes viciosas/Dirty Young Ladies (dir. Manuel Iglesias, 1980), as well as the evolution of Fuentes’ star persona. The analysis reveals both how the films projected onto the actor’s body stage some of the social anxieties of the time, and how, in turn, these and other historical traces are carried forward into his roles in other films.
