White Guys

"Cultural studies you can actually use." -Spin

This collection of essays exposes the contradictions and constituencies in the ongoing reconstruction of white heterosexual masculinity during the 1980s and 1990s. It considers white, mainstream masculinity through direct participation in its rituals and practices.What do men-white straight men in particular-want? In a series of witty and provocative investigations of American popular culture, Fred Pfeil exposes the contradictions in the construction of white heterosexual masculinity over the last fifteen years. White Guys probes such topics as the rock'n'roll bodies of Bruce Springsteen, Axl Rose, and the late Kurt Cobain; the "male rampage" films Die Hard and Lethal Weapon and the films of "sensitive transformation" that followed in their wake; and the curious yet symptomatic activities of the men's movement whose "rituals" Pfeil has investigated firsthand.