Movies American Society Book

Excellent book on how male stars reflected or stood in opposition to ideas of masculinity at a time when it was considered to be in crisis in the culture at large. I admit a certain dismay in reading the first chapter on Douglas Fairbanks (especially having just finished Evil Sisters). Despite being the Master Race (and gender), white men in the early 20th century seem to have been a bunch of cowed wusses, terrorized by bunches of experts telling them they were insufficiently manly to withstand the weakening influences of women and, presumably, inferior races. To avoid this fate, they had to train boys into proper manhood. This seems to have involved being outdoorsy and physically fit, while taking boys casual cruelty and rambunctiousness and training it into more socially responsible channels. Attracted to heroics, though, it was hard to find an application for this in the modern world. Studlar cites endless examples, which gets annoyingly repetitious, though she is effective in tying Fairbanks in as an exemplar of the approved Boy Culture. She also notes how he retreated into historical epics as gender and social roles in the 20s became more complicated. This does lay the groundwork, however, for the rest of the chapters. John Barrymore is seen as someone whose "masculinity" was complicated by his appeal to women and his catering to their expectations in playing up the feminine aspects in his character and roles. He was seen as a "woman-made man," earning the disapproval of male social critics. There is an extensive exploration of his stage career and his public image at that time, how that carried over into his film career, and how his persona was brought more into line with masculine norms through period swashbucklers in the late 20s, though they didn't lose the opportunity to display his body through scenes of suffering. This is the only academic exploration i've seen of Barrymore and it was quite fascinating. It is also suggestive if one is familiar with Barrymore's life and later roles. The chapter on Valentino's problematic image is one of the best of the many i've read, including not only the issue of his foreignness, but also the image of dance in the 1910s and 1920s. She has an interesting take on the anomalous stardom of Lon Chaney, the dark side of masculine expectations and the changing position of freaks in American society. I was not aware that Chaney was considered a star who specifically did not appeal to women (news to me, i always liked him). The footnotes are worth reading, as she frequently expands on a comment or takes issue with the author of the cited work.