Book Review: Malin, Brenton J. (2005). American Masculinity Under Clinton: Popular Media and the Nineties “Crisis of Masculinity.” New York: Peter Lang
Abstract
Book ReviewMalin, Brenton J. (2005). American Masculinity Under Clinton: Popular Media and the Nineties “Crisis of Masculinity.” New York: Peter Lang SAGE Publications, Inc.200810.1177/1097184X06298455 TimothyShary Clark University The Clinton era offered changes and challenges to masculinity in terms of poli- tics and to the politics of masculinity itself. In this timely book, Brenton Malin explores the intriguing ways in which masculinity takes on a certain conflicted bipo- larity in United States culture, which President Clinton unwittingly embodied. Clinton was a prime representative of masculine identity crisis at the end of the twentieth century, a man who was at once sensitive and not afraid to cry in public yet who was known as a cunning womanizer before he was even elected. Clinton also played to split personalities of manhood by emphasizing his humble childhood roots at the same time that he enjoyed wealth with his wife. He entered office with perhaps the most leftist mandate of any president since Franklin Roosevelt and then famously “waffled” on his campaign pledges, especially in regard to the military, perhaps the most significant example of which (in terms of gender) was his awkward compromise on gays in the service. While Malin explores many