Re-Imagining White Masculinity & Skateboarding?

Emily Chivers Yochim, an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Arts, Allegheny College, has a new book out from the University of Michigan Press. The book is titled Skate Life: Re-Imagining White Masculinity reportedly uses a group of skateboarders to investigate the status of the young American male.

Skate Life examines how young male skateboarders use skate culture media in the production of their identities. Emily Chivers Yochim offers a comprehensive ethnographic analysis of an Ann Arbor, Michigan, skateboarding community, situating it within a larger historical examination of skateboarding’s portrayal in mainstream media and a critique of mainstream, niche, and locally produced media texts (such as, for example, Jackass, Viva La Bam, and Dogtown and Z-Boys). The book uses these elements to argue that adolescent boys can both critique dominant norms of masculinity and maintain the power that white heterosexual masculinity offers.

And that’s just the description. We have a feeling this isn’t going to be on the best seller list anytime soon, but kind of wish we had a review copy all the same.

[Link: Skate Life: Re-Imagining White Masculinity]