In the laboratory of masculinity : Renegotiating gender subjectivities in MTV´s Jackass

• This article presents a content analysis of all 25 episodes of the popular television series Jackass aired on MTV between 2000 and 2002 and of the two movies Jackass: The Movie (2002) and Jackass Number Two (2006). Starting with a brief discussion of white male backlash and representations of masculinity in crisis, we move on to show that the text of Jackass seems to reaffirm hegemonic masculinity while still maintaining an ambiguous position vis-á-vis the ideals of machismo and hyper-virility. This, at first hand, may appear as a paradox. Our argument, however, is that if one reads Jackass from outside of, what Judith Butler calls, “the heterosexual matrix,” things do not appear that paradoxical at all. Seeing that gender subjectivities are not essentially fixed or naturally given, Jackass can instead be read in terms of the symbolic struggle between different forms of masculinity within a dialectical process of change throughout history.

Nyckelord

Jackass

Masculinity

Male Backlash

Gender Subjectivities

Sexual Identities

SOCIAL SCIENCES

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

Sociology

sociologi

Publikations- och innehållstyp

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