"Breaking Bad" Contracts: Bargaining for Masculinity in Popular Culture

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

William & Mary Journal of Women and the Law

Abstract

This Article examines the award-winning television show, Breaking Bad, to illustrate how the idea of a contract in popular culture can become inflected with a style of retrograde masculinity. Deals in Breaking Bad take place in the classic contract imaginary, which resembles the classic Western shootout: two antagonists face each other down in a duel. The show interrogates the frontier thesis, with its links to the American Dream and dangerous masculinities, through the ruthless contracts of Walter White.

First Page

397

Last Page

432

Publication Date

Spring 2017

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