"He's all man" : learning masculinity, gayness, and love from American movies

J. Clum

A treatment of how a popular form represents gay men and, more generally, manhood. Although Clum continues to include some references to plays in this work, his main focus remains American film. And unlike other academics, he does not attempt to "queer" the subject, that is, to interpret it from a gay/queer perspective, but rather wants to examine broader social issues that it implicates and to answer the highly provocative question, "What is the vision of the American male that Hollywood has sold us?" In other words, Clum does not just seek to identify gay references in film but also attempts to explore and come to terms with topics such as violence and masculinity, gender equity in portrayals, fathers on-screen, and images of gay men both before and after the advent of liberation movements of the 1960s.