Adam Sandler as (questionable) masculine ‘role model’: towards an analysis of disgust and violence in Adam Sandler's comedian comedy

© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group Adam Sandler's film work has been critically vilified and paid little attention by academics. This article suggests that his work justifies sustained academic attention, yet I conclude that he offers questionable masculine role models dependent on masculinity being asserted via ambivalent dis-identification with gay men and women. I argue this case via critique of the most sustained analyses of his workand via close readings of aspects of Sandler's films. I dispute Chapman's contextualisation of Sandler's film comedies in relation to thinking about masculinity and gay men. These changes have arisen in response to feminism and the lesbian and gay movement. I argue that Chapman's contextualisation of, and the ambiguities of Sandler's engagement with, feminism and gay men needs more critical attention. Further, I argue that we should actively read Sandler's films using Seidman's idea of comedian comedy and that focusing attention on such comedies’ tensions with narrative film enable us to direct our critical attention on the ambivalences present in Sandler's movies. His films show resistance to relinquishing some privileges of dominant forms of masculinity (physical violence) and demonstrate disgust withthe sexuality, bodies and behaviour of gay men

“I will take ARVs once my body deteriorates”: an analysis of Swazi men’s perceptions and acceptability of Test and Start

Swaziland has the highest HIV prevalence in the world. To mitigate the spread and devastation caused by HIV and to improve the wellbeing of people living with HIV, the country has adopted the latest available HIV prevention campaigns, including “Test and Start”. Because evidence from randomised controlled trials has demonstrated a significant risk reduction in HIV transmission when HIV-positive people start antiretroviral therapy (ART) early, Swaziland aims to find these people and link them to treatment. This study presents findings regardingthe perceptions of this promising HIV-prevention intervention among men aged 17–69 years. A combination of qualitative methods including focus group discussions (12), in-depth interviews (17), informal conversations and participant observation (21) were used to collect data in two peri-urban communities in 2013–2014. Findings illustrate that men still fear taking an HIV test because of a relatively high probability of a positive test which some still interpret as a death sentence. Other potential barriers to the effectiveness of Test and Start programmes include lack of hospitality in hospitals, fear of starting treatment early related to side effects of ART, poverty, and lack of trust in the financial stability of the Swazi government. We argue that several social factors need to beconsidered for the Test and Start programme to be more effective