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Drawing on extensive field research conducted in North America and Britain over a twenty year period, this book challenges masculine myth making. Mindful of a rich sociological tradition that seeks to understand the social world as lived and experienced, the authors provide insights that are likely to challenge common perceptions of various groups of men and boys, their diverse physical cultures, shared ways of being and identities.
List of contents
Introduction From Myths to Empirically Grounded Understandings: Researching Men's and Boys' Physical Cultures; Chapter 1 'Postmodern' Muscle: The Embodied Pleasures of Vibrant Physicality, Lee F. Monaghan; Chapter 2 Cosmetic Surgery: Men Who Walk/Erase the Gender Line, Michael Atkinson; Chapter 3 Burly 'Bouncers', Cardboard Cutouts and Physical Violence: An Ethnography of Nightclub Security Work, Lee F. Monaghan; Chapter 4 Masculinity on the Menu: Body Slimming and Self-Starvation as Physical Culture, Michael Atkinson; Chapter 5 Challenging the Obesity Myth: Men's Critical Understandings of the Body Mass Index, Lee F. Monaghan; Chapter 6 Schoolboys, Physical Education and Bullying: 'Hey, Leave Those Kids Alone!', Michael Atkinson Methodological Appendix;
About the author
Lee F. Monaghan is currently Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Limerick, Ireland. He is the author of
Bodybuilding, Drugs and Risk and
Men and the War on Obesity: A Sociological Study. He is the co-editor of
Key Concepts in Medical Sociology and
Debating Obesity: Critical Perspectives.
Michael Atkinson is Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education at the University of Toronto, Canada. He is the author of
Tattooed: The Sociogenesis of a Body Art,
Deconstructing Men and Masculinities and co-editor of
Boys' Bodies: Speaking the Unspoken.
Summary
Drawing on extensive field research conducted in North America and Britain over a twenty year period, this book challenges masculine myth making.