Haven in a Heartless World

Interactional Strategies of the Table Dancer

It is, by now, something of a cliche within film studies to assert that masculinity is "in crisis." As Lee Grieveson recently argued in Screen, it is becoming increasingly clear that in contrast to earlier, more totalizing theories of gender and social privilege, masculinity has never been fixed and stable but has always had an ambivalent relation to power and domination. While film theory, since Laura Mulvey's pioneering 1975 essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema," has frequently argued that masculinity is unproblematically associated with activity, sadism, and the furthering of the narrative (and femininity correlatively with passivity, masochism, and the interruption of narrative via spectacle),' a more productive approach might be, as Grieveson suggests, to acknowledge that masculinity exists "in complex and contradictory ways with regard to various configurations of power."2 Indeed, as Steven Cohan and Ina Rae Hark ask in their introduction to Screening the Male: Exploring Masculinities in Hollywood Cinema, "What are we to make of a masculinity that can preserve its hegemony only by confessing its anxieties at every turn?"3 What is needed, therefore, is for analyses of masculinity in popular culture to be more specific-socially, historically, and politically-about how particular representations of masculinity present a challenge or a critique to questions of gender, male privilege, and social power. With this in mind, the films of John Woo provide an interesting counterpoint to contemporary discussions about masculinity. One of Hong Kong's most famous and respected film directors, Woo has been a cult favorite in the U.S. since the late 1980s; fans and critics alike have celebrated and enjoyed what Rick Baker calls Woo's "heroic bloodshed" movies.4 In particular, Woo is famous for his vision of intense male friendships-depicted through his trademark blend of breathtakingly choreographed action sequences featuring balletic shoot-outs and spurting exit wounds combined with tragic and sentimental plots about the place of loyalty and honor in a corrupt and violent world. Certainly there is nothing new in suggesting that the action genre-dominated as it is by the display of male bodies and by hyperbolic performances of what it means to be a man-might provide a way to understand contemporary anxieties about gender and social roles. However, while Hollywood action films typically celebrate the male body in a very literal way (with the protagonist exposing his muscular, and frequently wounded, torso), Woo's films valorize a model of masculinity that combines an understated emotional intensity with the physical strength and expertise of a deadly killer. This is a masculinity which celebrates both strength and intimacy, and where male bonding can suggest an erotic charge without the associated anxiety such relation-

Reinventing Masculinity: The Spectacle of Male Intimacy in the Films of John Woo

Work-life Balance: Three Terms in Search of a Definition

Until the early 20th century the small town was the most common form of social organization experienced by Americans. Though few Americans today have had that experience, their idealized image of the traditional small town still defines their notions of community and social relationships. The result is an unintentional, collective self-deception in which people mistake their real communities for those of American myth. The deception has serious implications for the practice of planning in small towns. This article is a case study of one such community, a single-industry small town that sees itself as a traditional town. We first describe the history and economy of the community and then explore its culture and community ideology and their implications for planning there and in similar communities.

When the Going Gets Tough: Economic Reality and the Cultural Myths of Small-Town America

Shelters for battered women can be divided into four categories: feminist, social service, custodial, and family welfare. Each has a distinctive ideology, social organization, rationale, and procedures. This organizational study involved interviews and participant observation of eleven shelters in two cities.

Haven in a Heartless World

Citations

Interactional Strategies of the Table Dancer

Reinventing Masculinity: The Spectacle of Male Intimacy in the Films of John Woo

Work-life Balance: Three Terms in Search of a Definition

When the Going Gets Tough: Economic Reality and the Cultural Myths of Small-Town America

Shelters for battered women: Social policy response to interpersonal violence

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