Love, tears, and the male spectator
By: Kenneth MacKinnon
Publisher: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press; Associated University Presses
Published: 2002
Place of publication: Madison [NJ]; London; Cranbury, NJ
Language: eng
Number of pages: 221
ISBN-13: 9780585439112
Subjects: Motion pictures and men; Men in motion pictures; Television soap operas; Social aspects; Cinéma et hommes; Hommes au cinéma; Téléromans; Aspect social; PERFORMING ARTS; Film & Video; Reference
Description: "The most popular film studies accounts of male spectatorship suggest that it is sadistic, "active, " phallic. This sort of spectatorship was originally understood as a spectator position. It was not occupied by a male person. Rather, it was constructed by the film text. Over time, though, understanding of that position has changed. Now, the male spectator has begun to be conceived of as an actual male in the audience. It is difficult to continue to believe in the machismo of that male spectator when consideration is given to the fact that the love story is a significant element in such a variety of Hollywood genres. Surely a man in love is normally mastered rat. If the spectator identifies with the on-screen male, then it must to some extent be with a hero that is troubled, insecure, and anxious."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 208-215) and index.
Table of contents: title: pt. I. Questions of sex and gender. Sex and gender. Feminism/patriarchy/masculinity; title: pt. II. Maleness/masculinity/spectatorship. Gendered identification: fantasy, masquerade, readership. Spectatorship theory. Genre and gender: melodrama and soap opera; title: pt. III. Maleness/masculinity/spectacle. Hollywood's "feminization" of the male. The 1950s: the United States, Hollywood, and Hitchcock. A sample of five 1950s movies. Toward some conclusions.