Addie Tsai’s new book Straight White Men Can’t Dance, subtitled American Masculinity in Film and Culture, dives into the big question of how straight white male identity has been shaped, copied, and performed across American pop culture, particularly through reference to movement and dance. It’s an academic read, but one that’s surprisingly engaging thanks to its mix of familiar references, from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Dirty Dancing to The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Friends, and even Justin Bieber.
Tsai explores how the straight white male has been positioned at the centre of American culture, often borrowing (or outright stealing) from Black creativity and queer expression to build its sense of power and cool. The book looks at the ways white masculinity has been ‘performed’, both on screen and off, and how much of what we take for granted as ‘normal’ masculinity has actually been constructed through imitation and appropriation.
Each chapter takes on a different theme – the white man as man-child, gay panic humour, slapstick parody, cross-racial mimicry, and even the unusual topics of disempowered animation and spectacular cakewalk. These may sound like complex ideas, but Tsai’s examples make them easy to follow. Whether unpacking Spike Jonze’s surreal Being John Malkovich (where one character literally takes over another’s body), Fred Astaire’s elegant routines (inspired by Black dance styles), or the nerdy antics of Can’t Buy Me Love’s 1980s teen hero, Tsai shows how these performances reveal the anxieties and contradictions at the heart of American manhood.
What makes the book enjoyable, even if you’re not deep into academic theory, is the way Tsai connects high-brow critique with pop culture everyone knows. You can read a chapter, then watch a film or show, and instantly see what she means. It’s smart, layered, and often quite funny in its observations about how white male identity has been staged, protected, and parodied over decades.
Straight White Men Can’t Dance is both a critique and a celebration of pop culture’s messiness – a book that’ll make you see familiar movies and TV moments in a totally new light.
Straight White Men Can’t Dance is published by Bloomsbury Academic.