The charismatic male with the power to take charge and bring order to the world is a widespread mythic image in cinema, says McGillis (English, U. of Calgary), but he looks at the ones who
fashioned his own notion of manhood in the Saturday-afternoon second-rate westerns that he grew up with. In particular, he explores whether the characters and films, for all their lionizing
what is now called the hegemonic image of masculinity, actually sowed the seeds of images that have arisen since then, such as the sensitive, vulnerable, compromising, and non-competitive male.
His perspectives include straight and pure and all boy, the friendly gun, romance on the range, white hats and white heroes, virgin land, and corporate cowboys. Annotation 穢2009 Book News,
Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
