"Addie Tsai convincingly unpacks forty years of film, television, and music videos to reveal how awkward moves, gay panics, and racial appropriation shape constructions of white masculinity dancing on screen. Provocative close readings reveal how dance becomes a battleground for gender, race, and power. Smart and sharp essential reading for anyone curious about what's really at stake when white men hit the dance floor." -- Thomas F. DeFrantz , Professor, Northwestern University, USA "Tsai's Straight White Men Can't Dance examines America's obsession with white, heteronormative masculinity through movement - who gets to dance, when, with whom, and how well. Weaving together histories of public health, capitalism, the entertainment industry, and cultural appropriation, Tsai's study reveals the confounding irony of the white male dancing body in a society intent on preserving narrow notions of what it means to be a man in relation to other men, other genders, and the broader social world. As a text that deals foremost with these themes at the intersection of the body and the screen, it expands our understanding of the socio-political power of screen-based media and how images can influence our understanding of ourselves and each other. Mandatory reading for those interested in screendance, gender studies, queer studies, performance studies, and more.

" -- Cara Hagan, dance and film practitioner, curator and scholar "This is a superb book for anyone curious about how media, historically and currently, contribute to and undergird systemic exclusions. Tsai offers a wonderful example of interdisciplinary research that benefits dance studies, film studies, gender studies, queer studies, critical race studies, media studies, and communication studies." -- Kate Mattingly, Dept of Communication & Theatre Arts, Old Dominion University, USA "Tsai connects high-brow critique with pop culture everyone knows . 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." -- Lou Reviews Blog.