Jimmy Corrigan: Masculinity and what Ware is Trying to Warn Us ABout - Final Project Potentially

·         Connell, R. W., and James W. Messerschmidt. "Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept." Gender and Society 19.6 (2005): 829-59.

• In order to fully understand and define the modern accepted version of masculinity, this article goes through what makes a “man” as seen from a societal view since the 1980s. The time period is relevant to the setting of Corrigan and will help also tie into the idea that gender stereotypes lean into mass marketing and media icons.
• Hochschild, Arlie. “The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling.” University of California Press. 2003.
• This book is actual from my social theory class. It goes into depth about the disconnection between the workers and the workplace. This echoes the theory I believe Ware is getting at with Mcdonaldization. Big mass media workplaces are turning their workers into robots fitting into a certain mode in order to produce the quickest, most efficient solution.
• Caldwell, Melissa L. "The McDonaldization of Society." Food, Culture and Society: An International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research 13.2 (2010): 297-.
• This article further defines Mcdonaldization which I can further make ties to Ware’s use of icons that can connect the thread of Jimmy’s life and his conflict of what his masculinity means
• My overall plan for my project is to revise and narrow in on a previous essay I did. Ware has drawn parallels between the different definitions of masculinity that appear in Jimmy Corrigan. Tying it to the bigger picture, the definition comes from what society has placed value on (efficiency, quickness). The values are validated in the way workplaces are run or how they become popular or widely accepted as “successful”. I’m arguing that reading Jimmy Corrigan with all this information in mind is Ware’s version of a PSA. Jimmy is construed as sad, naïve, blasé. He could be the potential future if society keeps such a narrow definition of things such as masculinity. Changing how business is run or how much influence the media has can keep us from the sad, iron cage that Jimmy Corrigan represents.