The Handbook of Gender, Sex and Media offers original insights into the complex set of relations which exist between gender, sex, sexualities and the media, and in doing so, showcases new research at the forefront of media and communication practice and theory.Brings together a collection of new, cutting-edge research exploring a number of different facets of the broad relationship between gender and mediaMoves beyond associating gender with man/woman and instead considers the relationship between the construction of gender norms, biological sex and the mediation of sex and sexualityOffers genuinely new insights into the complicated and complex set of relations which exist between gender, sex, sexualities and the mediaEssay topics range from the continuing sexism of TV advertising to ways in which the internet is facilitating the (re)invention of our sexual selves.

Karen Ross is Professor of Media and Public Communication at the University of Liverpool. Her recent publications includeRethinking Media Education: Critical Pedagogy and Identity Politics (edited with Anita Nowak and Sue Abel, 2007), Gendered Media (2009), andThe Media and the Public (with Stephen Coleman, Wiley Blackwell, 2010). She is the founding editor of the ICA/Wiley Blackwell journalCommunication, Culture& Critique.

Notes on Contributors viii

Acknowledgments xix

Editors Introduction xx

Part I Mediated Women 1

1 The Geography of Women and Media Scholarship 3
Carolyn M. Byerly

2 Chilean Women in Changing Times: Media Images and Social Understandings 20
Claudia Bucciferro

3 The Girls of Parliament: A Historical Analysis of the Press Coverage of Female Politicians in Bulgaria 35
Elza Ibroscheva and Maria Stover

4 Gossip Blogs and Baby Bumps: The New Visual Spectacle of Female Celebrity in Gossip Media 53
Erin Meyers

5 Fanfiction and Webnovelas: The Digital Reading and Writing of Brazilian Adolescent Girls 71
Ilana Eleá

6 Virtually Blonde: Blonde Jokes in the Global Age and Postfeminist Discourse 88
Limor Shifman and Dafna Lemish

Part II Rugged Masculinity and Other Fables 105

7 Men, Masculinities, and the Cave Man 107
Jeffery P. Dennis

8 Rhetorical Masculinity: Authoritative Utterance and the Male Protagonist 118
Stuart Price

9 Conan the Blueprint: The Construction of Masculine Prototypes in Genre Films 135
Guido Ipsen

10 Save the Cheerleader, Save the Males: Resurgent Protective Paternalism in Popular Film and Television after 9/11 157
Sarah Godfrey and Hannah Hamad

11 Fucking Vito: Masculinity and Sexuality in The Sopranos 174
Lynne Hibberd

12 Studio5ive.com: Selling Cosmetics to Men and Reconstructing Masculine Identity 189
Claire Harrison

Part III Queering the Pitch 205

13 No Hard Feelings: Reflexivity and Queer Affect in the New Media Landscape 207
Katherine Sender

14 The L Word: Producing Identities through Irony 226
Julie Scanlon

15 Andro- phobia?: When Gender Queer is too Queer for L Word Audiences 241
Rebecca Kern

16 Questioning Queer Audiences: Exploring Diversity in Lesbian and Gay Mens Media Uses and Readings 260
Alexander Dhoest and Nele Simons

17 In Touch with the Female Body: Cinema, Sport, and Lesbian Representability 277
Katharina Lindner

18 Why Doesnt your Compass Work?: Pirates of the Caribbean, Fantasy Blockbusters, and Contemporary Queer Theory 294
Martin Fradley

19 Raised Voices: Homophobic Abuse as a Catalyst for Coming Out in US Teen Television Drama Series 313
Susan Berridge

20 Transmen on the Web: Inscribing Multiple Discourses 326
Matthew Heinz

21 Transgendered Saints and Harlots: Reproduction of Popular Brazilian Transgender Stereotypes through Performance on Stage, on Screen, and in Everyday Life 344
Johannes Sjöberg

Part IV Women, Men, and Gender 363

22 Sex/Gender and the Media: From Sex Roles to Social Construction and Beyond 365
Cynthia Carter

23 Colin Wont Drink out of a Pink Cup 383
Barbara Mitra and Jenny Lewin- Jones

24 Postfeminism Meets Hegemonic Masculinities: Young People Read the Knowing Wink in Advertising 401
Sue Abel

25 Communication as Commodification: Video Technology and the Gendered Gaze 419
Corinna Chong, Heather Molyneaux, and Hélène Fournier

26 Dutch Moroccan Girls Performing their Selves in Instant Messaging Spaces 436
Koen Leurs and Sandra Ponzanesi

Part V All about Sex 455

27 Sex and the Media 457
Feona Attwood

28 Deliciously Consumable: The Uses and Abuses of Irony in Sex-Trafficking Campaign Films 470
Jane Arthurs

29 The Sex Inspectors: Self-help, Makeover, and Mediated Sex 487
Laura Harvey and Rosalind Gill

30 Enacting Bodies: Online Dating and New Media Practices 502
Begonya Enguix and Elisenda Ardévol

31 Gender and Sexuality in the Internet Era 516
Panayiota Tsatsou

32 Gay for Pay: The Internet and the Economics of Homosexual Desire 535
John Mercer

Index 552