Synopses & Reviews
"A brilliant . . . analysis of the fragile hegemony and identities of colonial Virginia's elite men. . . .
On the Sources of Patriarchal Rage compellingly illuminates the ragged edge where masculinity and colonial identity meet. . . . [the book] will undoubtedly send Jefferson scholars scurrying back to their notes. . . . Most significant, by being among the first to tackle the subject of masculinity in early America, Lockridge forces colonial scholars to reexamine the lives of men they thought they already knew too well."
William and Mary Quarterly
Two of the greatest of Virginia gentlemen, William Byrd II and Thomas Jefferson, each kept a commonplace book--in effect, a journal where men were to collect wisdom in the form of anecdotes and quotations from their readings with a sense of detachment and scholarship. Writing in these books, each assembled a prolonged series of observations laden with fear and hatred of women. Combining ignorance with myth and misogyny, Byrd's and Jefferson's books reveal their deep ambivalence about women, telling of women's lascivious nature and The Female Creed and invoking the fallible, repulsive, and implicitly corruptible female body as a central metaphor for all tales of social and political corruption.
Were these private outbursts meaningless and isolated incidents, attributable primarily to individual pathology, or are they written revelations of the forces working on these men to maintain patriarchal control? Their hatred for women draws upon a kind of misogynistic reserve found in the continental and English intellectual traditions, but it also twists and recontextualizes less misogynistic excerpts to intensified effect. From this interplay of intellectual traditions and the circumstances of each man's life and later behavior arises the possibility one or more specific politics of misogyny is at work here.
Kenneth Lockridge's work, replete with excerpts from the books themselves, leads us through these texts, exploring the structures, contexts, and significance of these writings in the wider historical context of gender and power. His book convincingly illustrates the ferocity of early American patriarchal rage; its various meanings, however suggestively explored here, must remain contestable.
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"This compelling study examines the visibility and marketability of Latina actors and characters in tabloids, blogs, "telenovelas," movies, and music... [Molina-Guzman] argues that deviation from prescribed images unsettles mainstream viewers, whose notions of identity/sexuality reject foreign or exotic representations."-CHOICE,
Review
“Dangerous Curves is an absolutely essential, central, and most insightful component of Latina/o media studies. Molina-Guzman brings together structural, labor, textual, and audience elements to provide a nuanced analysis whose influence will span across communication, media, and Latina/o studies.”
-Angharad N. Valdivia,University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
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“Dangerous Curves is an unswerving look at the flattening out of Latina lives in mainstream media narratives. A must read for anyone interested in understanding why and under what conditions the slightest tear of a stereotype can be perceived as disruptive of the social fabric.”
-Frances Negron-Muntaner,author of Boricua Pop: Puerto Ricans and the Latinization of American Culture
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"Dangerous Curves remains an engaging and compelling examination of the conflicting demands placed on Latina bodies in the popular imagination."-Magdalena L. Barrera,Camino Real
Synopsis
With images of Jennifer Lopezs butt and America Ferreras smile saturating national and global culture, Latina bodies have become an ubiquitous presence.
Dangerous Curves traces the visibility of the Latina body in the media and popular culture by analyzing a broad range of popular media including news, media gossip, movies, television news, and online audience discussions.
Isabel Molina-Guzmán maps the ways in which the Latina body is gendered, sexualized, and racialized within the United States media using a series of fascinating case studies. The book examines tabloid headlines about Jennifer Lopezs indomitable sexuality, the contested authenticity of Salma Hayeks portrayal of Frida Kahlo in the movie Frida, and America Ferreras universally appealing yet racially sublimated Ugly Betty character. Dangerous Curves carves out a mediated terrain where these racially ambiguous but ethnically marked feminine bodies sell everything from haute couture to tabloids.
Through a careful examination of the cultural tensions embedded in the visibility of Latina bodies in United States media culture, Molina-Guzmán paints a nuanced portrait of the medias role in shaping public knowledge about Latina identity and Latinidad, and the ways political and social forces shape media representations.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 115-128) and index.
About the Author
Trained under Frank Craven and Lawrence Stone, Kenneth A. Lockridge teaches at the University of Montana and is the author of numerous essays on American and European history.