Contemporary Hollywood Masculinities Gender, Genre, and Politics

Traces changing concepts of masculinity in popular Hollywood blockbusters from 1992 to 2008 - the Clinton and Bush eras - against a backdrop of contemporary political events, social developments, and popular American myths. Kord and Krimmer investigate the most common male typescops, killers, fathers, cowboys, superheroes, spies, soldiers, rogues, lovers, and losersand their in-depth analysis of over sixty films, from the The Matrixand Iron Manto Pirates of the Caribbeanand The Lord of the Rings, from Wedding Crashersand Mr. & Ms. Smithto War of the Worldsand The 40-Year Old Virgin, shows that movies, far from being mere entertainment, respond directly to today's social and political realities, from consumerism to 'family values' to the War on Terror.

Susanne Kord is a professor of German, Comparative Literature, and Film Studies at University College London. She is the author of six books and numerous articles on gender issues in literature and film and the co-author of Hollywood Divas, Indie Queens, and TV Heroines (2004). Elisabeth Krimmer is a professor of German, Performance Studies, and Cultural Studies at the University of California, Davis. She has published numerous articles and books on gender and the representation of war and is co-author of Hollywood Divas, Indie Queens, and TV Heroines (2004).

MEN IN TROUBLE * Lawlessness and Disorder: Cops and Other Serial Killers * Fathers, Crises and Nations * Cowboys, Myths and Audiences * REAL MEN? * Superheroes, Leadership and the War on Terror * Spies, Paranoia, and Torture * Soldiers from World War II to Iraq * NEW MEN? * Rogues, Race, and Hegemony * Lovers: Men, Women, and Gender Equality * Losers, Meritocracy and Identification