TY - BOOK

T1 - Play the Man!

T2 - Men and Masculinities in Interwar Britain

AU - Edelberg, Peter

PY - 2009

Y1 - 2009

N2 - This book investigates ideas of men and masculinities in interwar Britain in three different areas: psychology, physical education and sex. Using a broad range of sources from different walks of life it explores how men and masculinities were constructed in different ways for different purposes. The central argument is that 'a man' was not something one was born as, but something one could aspire to be, if one trained oneself according to the rules and standards laid out in the period. Becoming a man was not purely an aestetic pursuit, but deeply entrenched in discourses of Nation, State, and Race. Men's bodies experienced a new form of interest in interwar Britain as physical training was becoming a general pursuit and sexual reformers and conservatives tried to come to terms with a post-Victorian society. The interwar period saw a strong tendency away from the ideal of men and women as opposites towards a heterosexual matrimonial ideal wherein men could try to establish a masculine identity. This tendency created new frontiers where homosexuals, 'perverts', 'misfits' and 'freaks' were seen as opposites of the 'real man' in the symbolic world of the early twentieth century.

AB - This book investigates ideas of men and masculinities in interwar Britain in three different areas: psychology, physical education and sex. Using a broad range of sources from different walks of life it explores how men and masculinities were constructed in different ways for different purposes. The central argument is that 'a man' was not something one was born as, but something one could aspire to be, if one trained oneself according to the rules and standards laid out in the period. Becoming a man was not purely an aestetic pursuit, but deeply entrenched in discourses of Nation, State, and Race. Men's bodies experienced a new form of interest in interwar Britain as physical training was becoming a general pursuit and sexual reformers and conservatives tried to come to terms with a post-Victorian society. The interwar period saw a strong tendency away from the ideal of men and women as opposites towards a heterosexual matrimonial ideal wherein men could try to establish a masculine identity. This tendency created new frontiers where homosexuals, 'perverts', 'misfits' and 'freaks' were seen as opposites of the 'real man' in the symbolic world of the early twentieth century.

KW - Faculty of Humanities

KW - maskulinitet

KW - kønsstudier

KW - queer teori

KW - Storbrittanien

KW - seksualitet

KW - masclinity

KW - gender studies

KW - queer theory

KW - Great britain

KW - sexuality

M3 - Book

SN - 978-3639128130

BT - Play the Man!

PB - VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & C o. KG

CY - Saarbrücken

ER -