Masculine Jealousy and Contemporary Cinema

Provides new insights into the relationship between masculinity and jealousy through the study of representations of male jealousy in contemporary Hollywood cinema. It argues that male jealousy has played a key role in the psycho-cultural shaping of Western masculinities and male fantasy, and can be used to explore the losses and insecurities of contemporary masculinities. Candida Yates develops that discussion through the study of representations of male jealousy in contemporary Hollywood films, where the emotional and moral outcomes of jealous triangles are now often ambiguous. Such ambiguities resonate with cultural images of 'masculinity in crisis' and the alleged feminization of masculinity within popular culture more generally. These themes are explored in depth through five film case studies where the male stars and their cultural reception in the press are discussed alongside the potential of such images for more complex and less destructive formations of masculinity and jealousy.