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Cosmosexuals
Screen Acting, Stardom, and Male Sex Appeal
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Book Presentation:
An examination of male screen sex appeal and the ways that race, ethnicity, and national origin combine with performance tools and film and television style to aid or inhibit actors’ circulation on an increasingly global stage.
Sex appeal is complicated, especially for screen actors. Looking good is not enough. Charisma and charm have to register when the camera rolls. And sexiness has to travel. Today’s heartthrobs are expected to raise temperatures all around the world.
Cosmosexuals theorizes male sex appeal as a form of capital in an age of international stardom. Screen scholar Mark Gallagher assembles a diverse cast—Idris Elba, Pedro Pascal, Simu Liu, Ryan Gosling, and more—analyzing how each actor uses his appearance, voice, and movement to perform in ways that viewers across cultural divides register as sexually appealing. Cosmosexuals also explores the intersection of global sex appeal and exoticism in historical and contemporary contexts—from the malleable racial identities of Omar Sharif and Conrad Veidt to Mads Mikkelsen’s “accented whiteness”—and assesses the barriers that confine nonwhite actors, in spite of their talent or celebrity. Far more than handsome faces and chiseled abs, male sex symbols emerge as laborers subject to disciplinary regimes steeped in patriarchy, racism, and structural inequity. As such, they have much to tell us about the economies of taste at work in the construction of screen masculinity and the terms of human desire.
About the Author:
Mark Gallagher is the author of Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Another Steven Soderbergh Experience: Authorship and Contemporary Hollywood, and Action Figures: Men, Action Films, and Contemporary Adventure Narratives, and coeditor of East Asian Film Noir. He also coedits the Global East Asian Screen Cultures book series.
Press Reviews:
Analyzing "sex appeal" in terms of performance, Cosmosexuals provides new insights into male stardom and acting. Mark Gallagher explores how actors from around the world convey sensuality, charisma, magnetism, and cosmopolitan allure in performances across their careers. Both thought-provoking and provocative, Cosmosexuals is an invigorating and illuminating read. -- Chris Holmlund, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, author of Female Trouble
An ambitious and compelling project, Cosmosexuals explores a remarkably diverse array of male stars across eras, national contexts, media forms, and genres. Through well-selected case studies and thoughtfully developed arguments, Mark Gallagher has made a significant contribution that researchers and students will find invaluable. -- Sabrina Qiong Yu, Newcastle University, author of Jet Li: Chinese Masculinity and Transnational Stardom
See the publisher website: University of Texas Press
> From the same author:
Fighting Stars (2024)
Stardom and Reception in Hong Kong Martial Arts Cinema
Dir. Kyle Barrowman, Mark Gallagher and Yiman Wang
Subject: Genre > Martial Arts
Another Steven Soderbergh Experience (2013)
Authorship and Contemporary Hollywood
Subject: Director > Steven Soderbergh
> On a related topic:
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