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Work That Body: Male Bodies in Digital Culture explores the recent rise in different types of men using digital media to sexualise their bodies. It argues that the male body has become a key site in contemporary culture where neoliberalism's hegemony has been both secured and contested since 2008. It does this by looking at four different case studies: the celebrity male nude leak; the rise of young men sharing images of their muscular bodies on social media; RuPaul's Drag Race body transformational tutorial, and the rise of chemsex. It finds that on the one hand digital media has enabled men to transform their bodies into tools of value-creation in economic contexts where the historical means they have relied on to create value have diminished.
On the other it has also allowed them to use their bodies to form intimate collective bonds during a moment when competitive individualism continued to be the privileged mode of being in the world. It therefore offers a unique contribution not only to the field of digital cultural studies but also to the growing cultural studies literature attempting to map the historical contradictions of the austerity moment.
List of contents
1. Introduction / 2. The Male Body in Digital Culture / 3. The Celebrity Male Nude Leak / 4. The Spornosexual / 5. The Rise of Chemsex / 6. Conclusion
About the author
Jamie Hakim is Lecturer in Media Studies, University of East Anglia and Teaching Fellow in Digital Humanities at King's College, London.
Summary
This book explores different ways that the male body has been represented by, constructed in, and experienced through digital media during the age of austerity. It uses three case studies to do this: the celebrity male nude leak; the rise of young men sharing images of their muscular bodies on social networking sites; and the rise of chemsex.
