Cracks in the Pedestal: Ideology and Gender in Hollywood

By Philip Green

This book analyzes the ways in which the American film and television industry--the multifaceted, male-dominated institution known as Hollywood--has responded to the feminist cultural revolution of the past twenty-five years. The focus is on the treatment of those ideals and institutions, especially "the family," within which prevailing notions of gender and sexuality are embedded and take on active life. Distinguishing his own neo-Marxist approach from that of other media scholars, Philip Green pursues two interrelated themes. In the first part of the book, he looks at the strategies Hollywood has employed to deflect or absorb the ideological challenges posed by the feminist critique of contemporary American society. He demonstrates the ways in which mainstream movies and television programs, no matter how unconventional or "subversive" they may appear, produce and reproduce familiar images of sexuality and gender identity. In the second part, Green highlights instances in which reproduction of the dominant ideology is less successful by examining several recent new film noir--that portray the real ambiguities of a social order in upheaval. As a male consumer of the cultural commodities being discussed, the author offers a perspective on American films and television different from that of most other feminist critics.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1558491201
• ISBN13: 9781558491205
• Release Date: December 1997
• Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.2"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Excellent book, excellent professor

Philip Green is a former professor of mine, and we used the book as one of many texts in the class. He may have a particular style of writing that is not for everyone. However, his message opened my mind to how stories are constructed and made into the modern fables we have in movies. Green's consistent and thoroughly researched approach was enlightening and liberating, in the best senses of both words. He is also very funny, unlike some other critics of Hollywood who have some narrow-minded moral axe to grind. His critique is well-thought out, so this is not Drive-By reading. But if you want to get a mental recharge on the interplay of politics, culture, gender and the immersive media environment we all swim in, read this book.