Introduction: A Feminist Approach to Boy Culture
Chapter 1: Postfeminist Nostalgia for Pre-Sputnik Cowboys
Chapter 2: Superior Bodies and Blue-Collar Brawn: “Real” and
Rhetorical Manhoods
Chapter 3: “I am Speed”: Athleticism, Competition, and the Bully
Society
Chapter 4: “Hey, double prizes!” Pixar’s Boy Villains’ Gifts and
Intensities
Chapter 5: Ornamental Masculinity and the Commodity-Self
Chapter 6: “She don’t love you no more”: Bad Boys and Worse
Parents
Works Cited
About the Authors
Index
Shannon R. Wooden is professor of English at Missouri State
University, where she teaches British literature, critical theory,
disability studies, and literature and medicine.
Ken Gillam is Director of Composition at Missouri State University,
where he teaches composition theory and writing pedagogy.
Written by a husband and wife team, this excellent book deals with
the issues surrounding raising boys in a society that seems to
offer young men only rigidly defined gender roles. Wooden and
Gillam argue that in the postfeminist era, with the collapse of the
traditional patriarchy, boys are given conflicting messages by the
media–particularly, as discussed in this book, by Pixar animated
cartoons. Jammed into roles of either supportive helpmates or macho
superheroes, young boys often emulate the exaggerated heroics of
Pixar's characters to become, in the words of the authors,
'relentlessly competitive, aggressive, violent and emotionally
restricted,' unsure of how to construct themselves in a new social
landscape. The authors demonstrate this in detailed readings of
Pixar films that, for them, embrace a hypermasculine culture that
is both unrealistic and damaging. The parents of two young boys,
Wooden and Gillam worry that their sons are not getting the moral,
emotional, or social guidance they need from pop culture, and here
they argue for ways to counteract Pixar's limited role models. . .
.[T]his is an impassioned and deeply felt book, well worth reading.
Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through
faculty and professionals.
*Choice Reviews*
Pixar's Boy Stories is an important contribution to boyhood and
childhood studies. . . .The authors find some interesting patterns
in presenting stereotypical jocks and nerds, often overlooked by
critics and the general public. The book is well-written and
captivating.
*IRSCL: International Research Society for Children's Literature*
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