ABSTRACT

In films, television programmes, advertising, newspapers, popular songs and novels, in narratives and images that press in from every side, men are invited to recognize themselves in the masculine myth. The myth posits masculinity as natural, normal and universal. In fact it embodies a particular definition of masculinity with its own particular structure, as these various short essays have tried to show. Masculinity aims to be one substance all the way through. In order to do this it must control what threatens it both from within and without. Within, femininity and male homosexual desire must be denied; without, women and the feminine must be subordinated and held in place.