Boxing and Masculinity: Fighting to Find the Whole Man

"Boxing and Masculinity" is organized into five parts. The first explores current disdain for masculinity and suggests how men can respond to negative views of manliness that we see in media and entertainment all around us. The second part explores sports psychology and exercise science, connecting new views of athletics to new views of masculinity. Exercise turns out to be good for the brain as well as for the body. The third part describes the various environments in which I learned about boxing, ranging from fitness studios to boxing gyms, and the fourth looks boxing as an agent of change and as a form of self-expression. This section also assesses fear, safety, and related concerns that you might have before you climb into the ring. In the fifth section I look at the boxing art of George Bellows (1882-1925), the most famous painter of boxing scenes in America. Five of Bellows's boxing pictures are reproduced in the book. Among his subjects was the great boxer Jack Dempsey, who was also a writer. "Boxing and Masculinity" concludes with a discussion of Dempsey's still-useful book about learning to box.