Running Scared: Masculinity and the Representation of the Male Body

Contemporary Approaches to Film and Media Series

by Peter Lehman

Running Scared responds to the absence of critical attention to male sexuality in film by bringing representations of phallic masculinity into the spotlight. In his analysis of films, novels, paintings, photographs, popular music, jokes, and videos, Peter Lehman investigates the patriarchal culture that keeps the male body--and especially male genitals--out of sight. Lehman documents the pervasive anxiety underlying images of the male body, arguing that attempts to keep male sexuality hidden in the pursuit of "good taste" and an avoidance of perversion maintains the "male mystique" and preserves the power of the phallus.

Lehman examines representations of the male body and male sexuality in a variety of settings and through many different lenses. Among the films he analyzes are Howard Hawks's Rio Bravo and Rio Lobo; Scarlet Street; feral child films The Wild Child, Kaspar House, and Greystoke; and Nagisa Oshima's In the Realm of the Senses. In these works, Lehman explores the symbolic enculturation of males, assumptions about power and the male body, and the ways that men's and women's bodies are marked differently with regard to scarring, wounding, and aging. In addition to film, Lehman also considers such varied material as Jim Thompson's noir novel The Nothing Man, sexology and medical representations of male sexuality, the video Dick Talk, penis jokes in Hollywood films of the 1970s and 1980s, and popular music by Roy Orbison. This edition of Running Scared also includes a new chapter on male nudity in the films of the 1990s, adding fresh analysis to this classic text. An updated preface situates the book within the current critical climate.

Scholars of film studies, cultural studies, and gender studies and general readers interested in representations of gender and sexuality will appreciate this valuable text.

Genres: Nonfiction, Gender and Sexuality

296 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1992

Reviews

[Mothwing · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too much based on Freudian and Lacanian theories, which I have some serious doubts about, but especially the bits about gendered injuries and why women are always injured in their faces and men always injured in extremeties were interesting and informative.

[Evan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Each chapter feeds into a wider narrative, neatly and effectively, whilst still retaining its focus. A great structure for an academic work that I will return to piecemeal. A classic for a reason, one of the first monographs to address the representation of masculinity on film. Whilst quite psychoanalytic in its readings, this does not dominate and the author is at pains to look at structural norms without universalising experiences of individuals.

[Belinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really interesting book about the taboos surrounding representations of the penis in Western culture. Although its primary focus is movies, it also looks at medical discourse and the music of Roy Orbison. When it was first published, this book was hugely influential in the field of masculinity studies and its relevance is still clear in this new revised version. A great read.