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Messner's The Masculinity Of The Governator

Decent Essays

Messner’s “The Masculinity of the Governator” seems to extend Connell’s (2005) discussion of hegemony as a fluid, “historically mobile relation” (77). For, as is demonstrated, the notion of hegemonic masculinity is “always shifting with changes in the social context” (462). Furthermore, it is [male] American politicians’ recognition of cultural circumstances that prompts them to re-mold the masculine image that they present to the public during their campaigns as a means of preying upon citizens’ concerns. In using Schwarzenegger as a sort of case study, Messner leads their audience to recognize how the California governor has changed his image according to context. When the post-Vietnam era called for a “cultural remasculinization,” Schwarzenegger’s muscular structure “legitimatized the patriarchy,” as Connell would say, and “reaffirmed categorical sex differences” in order to quell the radical activism and unease that had surfaced (Connell 77, Messner 464). Yet, when 9/11 occurred, the actor-turned-politician was able to detect the “culture of fear” and move beyond the one-dimensional image of masculine aggression and muscularity.

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