Let's Make Love: Whiteness, Cleanliness and Sexuality in the French Reception of Marilyn Monroe

Copyright © by SAGE PublicationsRichard Dyer’s seminal work on whiteness in film considers Marilyn Monroe as the epitome of an institutionally racist Hollywood system that imagines the most desirable woman to be blonde, given that blondeness is understood as a guarantee of whiteness. This article adds to other recent scholarship on Monroe that has sought to complicate this reading by examining other meanings that can be attributed to her bleached blonde hair. By closely analyzing media texts that discussed Monroe in 1950s France, this article demonstrates the way in which her performance of ideal American female sexuality was read through the prism of Monroe as icon of cleanliness and (linked) modernity. It examines the way in which Monroe’s modernity allowed her to partially escape the traditional feminine private sphere and it concludes that Monroe’s bleached blonde hair can be seen in this context as having liberatory potential

'I'm not allowed wrestling stuff': hegemonic masculinity and primary school boys

Hegemonic masculinity is Connell’s key concept in a hierarchical framework of masculinities which has had a significant influence on thinking about gender. This article draws on Connell’s theories, previous research and my empirical research to argue that there are limitations to using the concept of hegemonic masculinity, and even hegemonic masculinities, when examining boys and masculinity. Boys are rarely mentioned in definitions and theoretical writing about hegemonic masculinity, yet much research examining primary school boys and masculinity uncritically draws on the concept. My research in Australia with 6- and 7-year-old children found that boys had limited access to hegemonic masculinity. As a possible explanation for its usage by researchers with primary school boys, I explore the potential usefulness of multiple and local hegemonic masculinities.Clare Bartholomaeu