Producing Masculinity: The Internet, Gender, and Sexuality

Summary

Thoughtful, witty, and illuminating, in this book Michele White explores the ways normative masculinity is associated with computers and the Internet and is a commonly enacted online gender practice. Through close readings and a series of case studies that range from wedding forums to men’s makeup video tutorials, White considers the ways masculinities are structured through people’s collaborations and contestations over the establishment of empowered positions, including debates about such key terms and positions as “the nice guy,” “nerd,” “bro,” and “groom.” She asserts that cultural notions of masculinity are reliant on figurations of women and femininity, and explores cultural conceptions of masculinity and the association of normative white heterosexual masculinity with men and women. A counterpart to her earlier book, Producing Women, White has crafted an excellent primer for scholars of gender, media, and Internet studies.

Table of Contents

List of Figures

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Producing Masculinity by Using Women and Femininity

Chapter 1: "But I’m a Nice Guy": A Voice for Men, Anti-feminist Men’s Rights, and the Straw Feminist

Chapter 2: "Penis, penis, who’s got" the Pants: Levi’s® Ex-Girlfriend Jeans and the Ex-girlfriend

Chapter 3: "You never want to ever looked caked in makeup": Men’s Natural Look Makeup Video Tutorials

Chapter 4: "It’s boner bashing time": Leandra Medine’s Man Repeller Blog

Chapter 5: "Not a newbridetobe": Wedding Masculinity and Forums for Grooms

Afterword: Turning Masculinity Around: Breasted Masculinity, Wedding Suits, and Altered Terms

Selected Bibliography

Index

Author(s) Bio

Michele White is a Professor in the Department of Communication at Tulane University. Her field is media and visual culture studies, with a focus on the forms of cultural production that are associated with the Internet and computer. She is the author of Producing Women: The Internet, Traditional Femininity, Queerness, and Creativity (2015), Buy It Now: Lessons from eBay (2012), and The Body and the Screen: Theories of Internet Spectatorship (2006).