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"Constructing Masculinity is an anthology of 21 original texts based on presentations at the "Constructing Masculity conference held at the DIA Center for the Arts in New York.
"Constructing Masculinities is organized into five discursive areas addressed by leading academics, social and applied scientists, legal scholars, poets, activists and cultural critics. "What is Masculinity?" questions society's normative standards of the masculine and contemplates the extent to which men and women can transcend these stereotypes and proscriptions; "Masculinity and Representation" explores the ways in which representations of masculinity and maleness in the media and the arts produce, challenge and ultimately shape notions of the masculine; "How Science Defines Men" and "Masculinity and the Rule of Law" consider masculinity in relationship to science and law, two dominant social institutions that play a vital role in constructing stereotypes and establishing gendered power relationships; "Male Subjectivity and Responsibilty" asks how an informed and activist notion of masculinity can contribute to the political debates about identity and power.
"Constructing Masculinity takes us beyond the notion of "men in feminism" to a more radical rethinking of the status of masculinity itself. Men must do more than admit their complicity in the patriarchy; they must begin to rethink the very boundaries that shape and define what it means to be a man. Conversely, women must play an important role in this reevaluation, an idea suggested by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's admonition that "when something is about masculinity, it isn't always about men."' Far from being just about men, "ConstructingMasculinity engages, inflicts upon, and has vital meaning for all members of society.
Contributors: Stanley Aronowitz, Derrick Bell, Leo Bersani, Homi Bhabha, Marcellus Blount, Judith Butler, Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, Barbara Ehrenreich, Anne Fausto-Sterling, Richard Fun
List of contents
Introduction, What is Masculinity? Masculinity and Representation, How Science Defines Men, How Science Defines Men, Masculinity and the Rule of Law, Male Subjectivity and Responsibility.
About the author
Maurice Berger is Senior Fellow at the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at the New School for Social Research in New York. Simon Watson is the founding director of The Contemporary Art Institute of New York, sponsor of the annual SoHo Arts Festival. Brian Wallis is a cultural critic, living in New York. He has written extensively on contemporary art, and is the editor of numerous books, including Art After Modernism (1984), and Rock My Religion: Writing and Art Projects by Dan Graham (1994).
Summary
This book takes us beyond the status of masculinity itself, questioning society's and the media's normative concepts of the masculine, and considering the extent to which men and women can transcend these stereotypes and proscriptions.
