ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on the concept of masculinity as a discursive assemblage and analyzes televised representations of masculinity in order to highlight the myriad versions of masculinity on offer in the twenty-first century. The dance features the drunk and nude Bates tucking his genitalia between his legs to display a "mangina", a neologism used to describe the way the tucked genitals resemble a female pubic region but reside on a male body. The book discusses a multiplicity of cultural texts, including those from scholars who are hostile to feminism and the broader notion that gender and masculinity are effects of culturally and discursively produced performances. Californication circulates as a post-feminist text in that it assumes that the gains of the second-wave feminist movement have been taken into account, and that men and women are now operating on an even playing field.
