Representation Masculinity in American Films - Movie Review Example

Masculinity in Film The complex of masculinity in Western culture represents a conflict that has been underlying within the American media for centuries. For my essay I will mainly focus on the films American Beauty and Fight Club. I have chosen to do so as I found it interesting how both films use a similar approach to representing masculinity. No two films better address the diverse aspects of the manhood controversy than American Beauty and Fight Club. These two films tackle the issue of masculinity in a brutally truthful way. Problems confronting the middle age man in America, aspects of homophobia and inadequacy about a man's ability to measure up to societal expectations are key themes in these films. They bring up the question, what does it 'really' mean to be masculine Contemporary culture might define masculinity as the opposite of feminine. Popular culture is the most dynamic driving force behind the human interpretation of society, and the popular image of masculinity shapes how individuals within society perceive themselves. Men base their level of masculinity according to how they measure up to societal expectations. Through it, people develop social expectations and then project those expectations on to others. Addressing the delusion of this complex is the main theme of Fight Club. Fight Club is the quintessential film of mental liberation and the search for self and actualization. The psycho-social rhetoric of the protagonist's alter ego Tyler Durdan drives the film's ideology which is oddly compatible with Neiztche's ideal of liberation. Throughout the film he says things like, "Fuck off with your sofa units and strine green stripe patterns, I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say let... lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may (Tyler Durdan, Fight Club)" and "Only after disaster can we be resurrected." These are key themes of the film, as is the promotion of anarchy, which is the tool used to eliminate regulation, responsibility, and entitlement. This is a very significant theme because it can universally be found as a part of all major works dealing with truth. A defining scene in Fight Club occurs when the narrator goes to a support group for men with testicular cancer. The name of the group is titled "Remaining Men Together." When a man depressed over his ex-wife giving birth to another man's baby and the fact that the medication prescribed for his testicular cancer has resulted in the development of breasts in his body due to excessive estrogen, the group congregates for hugs to comfort one another. These hugs and the large turnout for the group reflect the urgency in crisis of masculinity for the American male. All In Taking it Like a Man David Savran discusses the emergence of the "masochistic male subjectivity" (163) and argues that the "new-narcissist" or "new sado-masochist" is now a dominant figure in U.S. culture and is no longer located in the margin. "In Fight Club the white male has lost faith in his role as a consumer and wants to experience a "real" sense of being that can only be achieved through pain. The narrator, whose body has been bloodied and broken by Tyler (aka, himself) in the final scene of the film, portrays himself as the victim who wants to reverse the damage of Project Mayhem when he tells Tyler "this is too much!" This infatuation with white male masculinity is a popularized concept in western society and the glorification of what masculinity is in America. In Richard Dyer's essay The White Man's Muscle, he talks about stereotypes that have been enforced connecting as far back as the Greek era, and that now dominate film and television basically promoting the superiority of white masculinity. Body hair is animalistic; hairlessness connotes striving above nature. The climax of Gli amori di Ercole has Hercules fighting a giant ape, who has previously behaved in a King Kong-ish way towards Hercules's beloved Dejanira, stroking her hair and when she screams making as if to rape her; close-ups contrast Hercules's smooth, hairless muscles with the hairy limbs of this racist archetype. (Dyer) Here Dyer points out how the uppermost essence of masculinity is equated with shaven white muscle, through its very contrast to that of hair apes, who are historically associated with blackness. He acknowledges the racist aspects of this archetype, but also gives notice to the private boys' club-like tradition that has formed from this prejudice. This same ideal of exclusion is expressed in Gamy Robson's Millwall Football Club: Masculinity, Race and Belonging in which the author points out how Millwall Football Club is a devout fan base-community that excludes those who aren't born within it and those of different races. In western culture, muscular bodies are associated with much leisure time, discipline, and affluence. Dyer also makes the Christian connection that a muscular body connotes pointing out the ideal of finding salvation or purity through the experience of pain. He points out that historically body building culture has been an equal opportunity medium when he says, Bodybuilding as an activity has a relatively good track record in terms of racial equality. From the 1950s on, non-white men - and especially those of African descent - became major figures in bodybuilding competitions. Yet the dominant images of the built body remain white. Kenneth Dutton (1995: 232) points out that black bodybuilders are rare on the cover of Muscle and Fitness, the bodybuilding magazine now most responsible for establishing and promulgating the image of the sport. (Dyer) Within the world of contemporary bodybuilding, this view has been greatly contrasted considering the current popularity top African American bodybuilder Ronnie Coleman, but even still, unless a particular bodybuilder is professional the chance of them finding their way on the cover of a magazine without being white is still sparse. Thus pointing out that, bodybuilding culture is one of great prejudice. Dyer states that the culture itself in western society ideologically is connected as far back as the Greek era, when they believed that to improve the physical structure through body building was to bring it that much closer to divinity. While bodybuilding ideologically separates the white man from the beast, the black man is the beast. This creates the misconception that to be white is to be masculine and to be black is to be animalistic. American Beauty is a perfect example of the complexity that exists within the understanding of what it means to be masculine. Kevin Spacey's character Lester suffers from a mid-life crisis until he parts ways with his career and picks up a job at a fast food restaurant and begins lifting weights in his garage. This change in character leads him to a personal liberation in that he embraces what makes him feel masculine. His eventual murder touches on the depth of masculinity and the complex of homophobia in the male community. The Colonel character's latent homosexuality draws him towards the animal magnetism Lester has developed with his new found self confidence. He makes a pass at Lester and when the gesture is not returned he kills Lester to cover up the shame of revealing his secret. In Adam Juke's novel Why Men Hate Women he addresses male psychology from the position of a therapist who has dealt with many men who have been violent towards women. His work has led to much controversy "Before we accuse Mr. Jukes of overstating his case, he suggests looking at the plethora of articles in which women describe how men hurt them mentally and physically. He points out that far more women than men initiate divorce. And, of course, men's ability to treat women as a dangerous alien species has been the stuff of literature from Greek mythology, through Shakespeare, to D H Lawrence, Philip Roth and others." This is largely why Women are more likely to seek therapy (Judith, 52). There is an over-diagnosis of women and an under-diagnosis of men. General discrimination towards women is that communal traits aren't as valued as physical strength, which can lead to depression. 'The baby boy, without the intellectual knowledge to understand what is going on, believes the mother is rejecting him. In his eyes she stops being simply the 'princess', who made him feel totally and unconditionally loved, and becomes a 'witch', making him suffer.' Juke's novel touches the aspect of masculinity that is adverse to femininity. That which is not masculine is considered feminine. It is largely believed within the sociological community doing gender research that understanding how and why women differ in coping strategies can lead to a better understanding of general coping strategies. This belief is supported by a background of studies that show men and women have a history of differing in cognitive and physiological factors that are often thought to be closely related to coping with stress. The core cause for trying to better understand human coping methods ultimately rests in the direct relation stress shares with one's mental and physical health. In the report Gender Differences in Coping With Stress: When Stressors and Appraisals Do Not Differ, researchers point out that while women are popularly assumed to be more likely to use emotion-focused methods such as venting, expressing emotions, becoming depressed, or avoiding the situation, when dealing with stressful situations, men are actually more frequent in using emotion-focused coping (Ptacek, 1994). The author also notes that men are more likely to have reported use of drug and alcohol use, and turning against others, while women will be more prone to find social support to counter feelings of alienation or loneliness (Ptacek, 1994). Biologically, research shows that men and women are actually not all that different. Pertaining to cognition, men are more suited for mental rotation, navigation using geometry and recognizing objects within visual backgrounds. Women show better memory for locating objects and navigating through the use of landmarks (Allen, Goldscheider, & Ciambrone, 1999; Baider et al., 1995; Ben-Tov, 1992; Ptacek et al., 1994). As far as motor skills, from age 3-5 years old onward, men show an exceptional accuracy at aiming projectiles, while women show the ability for exceptional speech rate and small amplitude coordination. Pertaining to math skills, men are best suited for solving abstract reasoning problems, while women tend to be statistically best at computation and calculation problem solving. As far as verbal abilities go, women show earlier development of virtually every aspect of verbal ability, verbal memory, spelling grammar and fluency (Oren & Sherer, 2001). When emotions come into play, men and women use different areas of their brains to control sexuality, but most of the chemical systems overlap and most of the social bonding is somehow connected to the sexual process. Men and women have different forms of aggression. In most mammals, men tend to be the aggressor; many forms of aggression are controlled through different neural pathways (Oren & Sherer, 2001). In sum, the multifaceted definition of masculinity as it is most commonly understood within contemporary western culture can be seen directly addressed, and truthfully portrayed, in the films American Beauty and Fight Club. These films are brutally honest and very telling about the complex relationships men share with women as well as the conflicts that exist within their own understanding of self. These films address themes of homophobia, the and inadequacy with masculinity. As research shows there really aren't that many psychological differences between men and women, it becomes clear that the cultural differences between the two have to do with an individual reaction to societal expectations. Work Cited Allen, S. M., Goldscheider, F., & Ciambrone, D. A. (1999). Gender roles, marital intimacy and nomination of spouse as primary caregiver. Gerontologist,39, 150-158. Dyer, Richard "The White Man's Muscles" in White London Ptacek, J., & Dodge, K. (1995). Coping Strategies and Relationship Satisfaction in Couples. The Society for Personality and Social Psychology, 21(1), 76-84. Oren, N., & Sherer, M. (2001). Cancer Patients and their Spouses: Gender and its Effect on Psychological and Social Adjustment. Journal of Health Psychology, 6(3), 329-338. Savran, David. (1998). "Taking It Like a Man: White Masculinity, Masochism, and Contemporary American Culture." 380 pp. Read More