Taking care of men : sexual politics in the public mind / Anthony McMahon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McMahon, Anthony, 1946-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Men--United States--Psychology.

Men.

Men--United States--Attitudes.

Men in popular culture.

Psychology.

United States.

Man-woman relationships--United States.

Man-woman relationships.

Men in popular culture--United States.

Feminist theory--United States.

Feminist theory.

Physical Description:

vii, 232 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, U.K. ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Summary:

McMahon focuses on the pivotal issue of men's relationship to the vital daily work of caring for people - both physically and emotionally - revealing much confusion about the extent and the interpretation of change. For example, despite women's increased participation in the workforce, studies reveal that men's involvement in household chores and childrearing has only increased minimally overall. Yet these minor shifts are often presented as evidence of radical change.

Using this statistical data, as well as interview transcripts and media analysis, McMahon draws insightful distinctions between pleasure and performance, assistance and responsibility, gendered personality and gendered jobs, and - underlying all - between consumption and production. Essentially, this book argues that recent social conversation about men largely avoids the important political point that men's material interests provide a major motivation for resistance to pro-equity change.

McMahon's analysis ranges broadly over social and psychological theory, empirical social science, popular ideologies and popular culture, and the pop-psychology and pop-sociology of experts and media pundits. It provides thoughtful and provocative new material for readers in sociology, media studies, cultural studies and gender studies, but is also accessible reading for general readers. This book's most important contribution is its claim that by resisting the expectation that caring should be shared, men are taking care of themselves.

Contents:

Introduction: Changing Men? 1

Part I The Interests of Men

1 Having a Wife: The Division of Labour and Male Right 11

2 Producing Men: The Labour of Love 38

Part II The Revolving Door

3 Stalled Rhetoric: The Optimistic Will 65

4 It's on the Agenda: Optimism over Images 92

5 The New Father: The 'Masculine' New Man 116

Part III The Blocked Door

6 Blocked-Door Theory: Misrecognising Resistance 153

7 The Separated, Defensive Male: Psychologising Sexual Politics 179

Conclusion: Waiting for the Man 213.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 207-227) and index.

ISBN:

0521582040

0521588200

OCLC:

40996189