PATRIARCHY MADE ME DO IT AND THE 24 GENDERS

This has turned out to be a weird week in terms of gender, particularly in Scotland and in Spain. I’m writing this specially for my international MA class in the subject ‘Body and Gender in Narrative’ as they might miss either one of the two events I wish to discuss here: the complete withdrawal from […]

KING SOLOMON’S MINES: “IT IS A QUEER BUSINESS”

Even though I have been teaching H. Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines (1885) for a few years now, it seems I have not written about this novel here. A bit odd. Since I am most likely saying goodbye to it, this is perhaps the right moment to discuss its racist, colonial content, the issue on […]

 THANK YOU, GOODNIGHT: THE BON JOVI DOCUMENTARY MINISERIES – REFLECTIONS ON THE AGEING MALE ROCK STAR

My post today is a sort of belated coda to the book I published last year, American Masculinities in Contemporary Documentary Film: Up Close Behind the Mask (see my post on this book), whose Spanish self-translation Detrás de la máscara: masculinidades americanas en el documental contemporáneo, is now available in open access. In that book […]

DOING MASCULINITIES STUDIES AS A FEMINIST WOMAN: AIMS AND GAINS

On Friday I’ll be giving a lecture as the guest of ICGR’s 7th International Conference on Gender Research, to be celebrated at my own university, UAB. The title of my lecture is the one I’m using for this post: ‘Doing Masculinities Studies as a Feminist Woman: Aims and Gains.’ This invitation has reached me at […]

KEN LEARNS ABOUT THE PATRIARCHY: KENOUGH MIGHT NOT BE KENOUGH

[WARNING: This post discusses the movie Barbie with spoilers] It’s been a week since Greta Gerwig’s movie Barbie was released and the internet is abuzz with comments of all sizes and types. Surely, mine is not needed but, as happens, the more I think about the movie, the more restless I get. I was delighted […]

NOW THAT I HAVE READ THE SHARDS: FEAR, LOATHING, AND AMERICAN PSYCHO

I feel provoked to write today by an MA dissertation arguing that in American Psycho (1991) Bret Easton Ellis manipulates readers so that they share with its protagonist, Patrick Bateman, the pleasure he feels when he tortures, mutilates and kills his victims. I will award the student in question an A because she has researched […]

SONGS OF SURVIVAL: MEN IN 21ST CENTURY POPULAR MUSIC

Today I am celebrating the publication of the eleventh book I have edited gathering together work by my BA and MA students. I refer to Songs of Survival: Men in 21st Century Popular Music, written by the MA students enrolled in this year’s elective subject ‘Gender Studies’. Two years ago I decided to plan companion […]

The Posthuman Patriarchal Villain as Absolute Future Threat: Winston Duarte (and the hero James Holden) in The Expanse novel series

SPOILERS WARNING: This post deals with the nine Expanse novels and discusses the series’ ending. The Expanse is a series of nine space opera novels—Leviathan Wakes (2011), Caliban’s War (2012), Abaddon’s Gate (2013), Cibola Burn (2014), Nemesis Games (2015), Babylon’s Ashes (2016), Persepolis Rising (2017), Tiamat’s Wrath (2019) and Leviathan Falls (2021)—accompanied by a short […]