O’Sullivan, S. (2022) Reality TV’s Real Men of the Recession: White Masculinity In Crisis and the Rise of Trumpism. Lexington Books

Abstract

Reality TV’s Real Men of the Recession: White Masculinity in Crisis and the Rise of Trumpism explores the popularity and persistent appeal of blue-collar frontier shows such as Ax Men , Deadliest Catch , and Ice Truckers alongside Trump’s presidency and media presence. The book’s author, independent media studies scholar Shannon O’Sullivan, interrogates reality television from networks such as Discovery and History to identify a cultural trend within American media that presents white, working-class masculinity as a hegemonic model with foundations in frontier violence, white supremacism, and settler colonialism. The book shows how American media conflates gender, class, and race to present audiences with monolithic symbols of power: a troubling circulation of blue-collar, frontier-laden white masculinity. O’Sullivan tactically mixes methodologies, drawing on literary criticism, sociology, media studies, and cultural studies to parse out the complicated genealogy and representational politics of the blue-collar frontier phenomenon. The study triangulates this phenomenon using three provocative areas of focus: hegemonic masculinity, the historical and ideological conceptions of the frontier, and performativity. Reality TV’s Real Men of the Recession dedicates the most time to defining hegemonic masculinity. As a status-quo gender performative, several chapters address how hegemonic masculinity informs media presentations of white, working men who thrive on danger, violence, and homo-social competition. While attention to this topic often feels more like a literature review than an intervention, the author does work to make the discussion more contemporary by applying an intersectional lens that calls upon both black feminist critics and indigenous critical theorists for perspective. Doing so helps to identify not only what constitutes the real men offered in the title, but provides how hegemonic masculinity becomes the social currency that maintains positions of power in 21st century America. O’Sullivan reveals how the physical and cultural geography of blue-collar