Pops in Pop Culture: Fatherhood, Masculinity, and the New Man

The definitions of fatherhood have shifted in the twenty-first century as paternal subjectivities, conflicts, and desires have registered in new ways in the contemporary family. This collection investigates these sites of change through various lenses from popular culture - film, television, blogs, best-selling fiction and non-fiction, stand-up comedy routines, advertisements, newspaper articles, parenting guide-books, and video games. Treating constructions of the father at the nexus of patriarchy, gender, and (post)feminist philosophy, contributors analyze how fatherhood is defined in relation to masculinity and femininity, and the shifting structures of the heteronormative nuclear family. Perceptions of the father as the traditional breadwinner and authoritarian as compared to a more engaged and involved nurturer are considered via representations of fathers from the US, Canada, Britain, Australia, South Africa, and Sweden.

Author: Elizabeth Podnieks
Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
Published: 01/12/2016
Pages: 265
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.27lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.69d
ISBN: 9781137581563

About the Author
Elizabeth Podnieks is Associate Professor of English and the Graduate Program in Communication and Culture at Ryerson University, Canada. She is the author of Daily Modernism: The Literary Diaries of Virginia Woolf, Antonia White, Elizabeth Smart, and Anaïs Nin (2000); the co-editor of Textual Mothers/Maternal Texts: Motherhood in Contemporary Women's Literatures (2009); and the editor of Mediating Moms: Mothers in Popular Culture (2012), awarded the Outstanding Scholarship (2012-2013) Prize by the Canadian Women's and Gender Studies et Recherches Féministes. She is the Area Chair (2012-ongoing) for the Motherhood/Fatherhood Area of thePopular Culture Association/American Culture Association.