Tom Keith

Masculinities in Contemporary American Culture

Masculinities in Contemporary American Culture offers readers a multidisciplinary, intersectional overview of masculinity studies that includes both theoretical and applied lenses. Keith combines current research with historical perspectives to demonstrate the contexts in which masculine identities have come evolved. With an emphasis on popular culture -- particularly film, TV, video games, and music -- this text invites students to examine their gendered sensibilities and discuss the ways in which different forms of media appeal to toxic masculinity.

-Read on back cover-

With this book, Thomas Keith had captured the essence of both long existing tensions and changing notions of masculinity in American culture.  This is both an interdisciplinary and intersectional account of men's lives.  Easy to read, comprehensive, and even entertaining, Masculinities in Contemporary American Culture is the most relevant Masculinities textbook on the market.

Eric Anderson.  Professor of Sport, Masculinities and Sexualities, University of Winchester, England

Tom Keith's introduction to Masculinities Studies is a most welcome addition to a growing field.  Sure-handed, level-headed, both judicious and clear, he gives us the next generation of introductory text: steeped in intersectional thinking, taking diversity as its starting point, not the "problem" to be explained.

Michael Kimmel.  Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies, Stony Brook University

This volume offers a comprehensive compendium of the terms and concepts needed to analyze Masculinities in Contemporary American Culture.  A valuable introduction to popular and academic approaches to understanding representations of masculinities and how men are engendered, full of up-to-date, engaging examples.

Harry Brod, Professor of Sociology and Humanities, University of Northern Iowa

Dr. Thomas Keith's new book is proof that there are a numerous amount of innovative ways to engage traditional material.  Dr. Keith tells a profoundly lyrical story that feels like he himself authored the manual for making dysfunctional men, just so that he could tell us how to make repairs.  If you are interested in acquiring the tools to create conversations that lead to deeper understanding, personal epiphanies, and yes, revelations for men to self-reflect and own the fact that we can actually be better and more importantly, do better, then there is no better place to start your exploration then with Dr. Keith's intersectional approach.  This is the new book that the academy will be talking about.

Dr. J.W. Wiley, Chief Diversity Officer and Lecturer, Philosophy & Interdisciplinary Studies, SUNY Plattsburg and Author of The Nigger In You: Challenging Dysfunctional Language, Engaging Leadership Moments

Thomas Keith received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California, specializing in American philosophy with an emphasis on issues of race, gender, and class.  He has published numerous articles on the intersection of gender, media, and popular culture, appeared on TV and radio programs, and produced two best-selling films for Media Education Foundation: Generation M: Misogyny in Media and Culture (2008) and The Bro Code: How Contemporary Culture Creates Sexist Men (2011).  In 2015, Keith released his third film for MEF entitled The Empathy Gap: Masculinity and the Courage to Change, and continues to speak to audiences around the country on issues of masculinity, gender violence, media, and popular culture.