| Preface | |
| Pt. I | Introduction: The Movies as Social Ritual | |
| 1 | Romantic Love, Changing Marriage Norms, and Stars as Behavioral Models | 3 |
| Pt. II | Patriarchal Marriage and Traditional Gender Identities | |
| 2 | Star and Auteur: The Griffith-Gish Collaboration and the Struggle over Patriarchal Marriage | 39 |
| 3 | Star and Genre: John Wayne, the Western, and the American Dream of the Family on the Land | 67 |
| Pt. III | Companionate Marriage and Changing Constructions of Gender and Sexuality | |
| 4 | The Love Goddess: Contradictions in the Myth of Glamour | 133 |
| 5 | Masculinity in Crisis: Method Acting in Hollywood | 160 |
| Pt. IV | Epilogue: Beyond the Couple | |
| 6 | The Destabilization of Gender Norms and Acting as Performance | 183 |
| Notes | 221 |
| Bibliography | 249 |
| Index | 277 |
