After four or five years of research, Russell Meeuf will publish his book on John Wayne and transnational masculinity in the 1950s. Meeuf, a clinical assistant professor for the University of Idaho School of Journalism and Mass Media, will present the first lecture in the Malcolm M. Renfrew Interdisciplinary Colloquium on the topic of his book at 12:30 p.m. today in the Aurora room of the Idaho Commons.
“When I came across the topic I knew I was interested in masculinity studies and how celebrities displayed different ideologies on gender and so I was just doing a smaller research project on John Wayne,” Meuff said.
Meeuf said he was fascinated with John Wayne’s influence on an international level.
“His war films are very emblematic of the 1940s view of the Japanese, they are very racist and use a lot of dehumanizing stereotypes so I was fascinated in the ways that those films would become popular in Japan after World War II,” Meeuf said.
He said this find led him to conduct a deeper investigation.
“It got me thinking about how John Wayne’s form of masculinity might be popular beyond borders and racial barriers we usually use when we try to understand why people take pleasure out of movies,” Meuf said.
Meeuf said he intends to discuss Wayne’s influence on the U.S. as well.
“It provides a more complex understanding of a figure that still plays an important cultural role in how America perceives masculinity, conservative politics and patriotism,” Meeuf said.
But while he will focus on Wayne’s influence, Meeuf said he will explore the bigger picture.
“I want to shed light on the relationship between movies, media and culture in general, it helps us think more critically on how movies are reflections of our own culture and collections of our different kinds of histories,” Meuff said.
Aaron Wolfe can be reached at [email protected]