Continuing to Work toward US Manhood
Contemporary Performance-photographer Kerry Skarbakka’s The Struggle to Right Oneself
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2388197 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Corey Dzenko (Monmouth University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 20 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 3-26 |
| Publication date | 2017-04-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Men and Masculinities (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1097-184X • E-ISSN: 1552-6828 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1097184x15604687 |
| OpenAlex | W2128376494 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 7 |
For his large-scale, color series The Struggle to Right Oneself (begun in 2002), contemporary performance-photographer Kerry Skarbakka depicts himself falling in order to discuss personal and broader social instabilities, such as the 'falling' reputation of the United States and the politics of identity. Although his white, male body in this precarious act suggests the potential loss of control of white masculinity, I argue that his work reinstates ideals of manhood in numerous ways. By analyzing the performative making of the series, the images themselves, and Skarbakka's presentations after he has made them, I examine how white masculinity continues as a highly operative, but un(der)examined, position in the contemporary United States. In particular, the construction of white masculinity in this series is furthered through the long-established tropes of 'work' and failure while the myth that certain bodies circulate without embodied particularities-a dangerous myth cultivated by, and necessary for, neoliberal ideologies-continues
Aesthetics · Art · Embodied cognition · Epistemology · Ideology · Literature · Masculinity · Mythology · Performative utterance · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Law · Philosophy · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics
| Citations per year | 0.17 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2020 - 2020 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |