He was Some Kind of a Man Masculinities in the B Western [Paperback]

He Was Some Kind of a Man: Masculinities in the B Westernexplores the construction and representation of masculinity in low-budget western movies made from the 1930s to the early 1950s. These films contained some of the mid-twentieth-centurys most familiar names, especially for youngsters: cowboys such as Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy, and Red Ryder. The first serious study of a body of films that was central to the youth of two generations,He Was Some Kind of a Mancombines the authors childhood fascination with this genre with an interdisciplinary scholarly exploration of the films influence on modern views of masculinity.

McGillis argues that the masculinity offered by these films is less one-dimensional than it is plural, perhaps contrary to expectations. Their deeply conservative values are edged with transgressive desire, and they construct a male figure who does not fit into binary categories, such as insider/outsider or masculine/feminine. Particularly relevant is the authors discussion of George W. Bush as a cowboy and how his aspirations to cowboy ideals continue to shape American policy.

This engagingly written book will appeal to the general reader interested in film, westerns, and contemporary culture as well as to scholars in film studies, gender studies, childrens literature, and auto/biography.

``In his fine bookHe Was Some Kind of a Man... McGillis views B westerns with the steely-eyed gaze of a tough-minded culture critic.... As McGillis notes, the heroes of B westerns are steadfast, independent, resourceful, self-reliant, aggressive, rational and controlling (1).... To be a B-movie cowboy is to live the playfully irresponsible (and sexually inactive) life of a boy. Indeed, according to McGillis, the boy is our ideal of masculinity (18). Real men do not work in offices, change diapers, or cut down on sweets or gunplay.... As well as drawing on theories of camp and drag and offering a Lacanian analysis l£'