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INTRODUCTION
In 1999, Hollywood produced two films in particular that challenged the progression of American masculinity through the 90s and questioned the directions in which it’s heading.
I will explore how the films Fight Club and American Beauty construct and represent masculinity, and what they’re alluding to.
BACKGROUNDS OF FILMS AND FILMMAKERS 1
CONTEXT
Masculinity
Mas-cu-lin-i-ty [màskye línnetee] noun
1. ... traditional manly qualities: those qualities conventionally supposed to make a man a typical or excellent specimen of manhood, traditionally physical strength and courage
(Encarta© World English Dictionary [North American Edition] © & (p) 2001 Microsoft Corporation.))
Masculinity conventions have been unchanged for hundreds of thousands of years. ...
Masculinity is an important function for the survival of the species as it motivates men to fulfill masculine roles such as father, provider, nurturer, leader. ... Society has distorted the idea of masculinity, creating new roles and aspirations aimed to suppress man’s violent tendencies and to get men to express their more nurturing and compassionate side. ...
This evolution of the concept of masculinity is further being pushed because the traditional roles of men are being challenged. ... This is why the idea of masculinity has become more feminine,
The movies I have analysed (Fight Club and American Beauty) are a male counter reaction. They show men who have aspired to the feminist’s version of masculinity and have realized that its not who they are as men.
ANALYSIS OF FILMS
Fight Club:
Jack’s looking for a place to stay and asks Tyler who asks for one favour in return – “I want you to hit me as hard as you can.” Tyler wants to explore something that they have been brought up no to do – “How much can you know about yourself if you’ve never been in a fight? ... ” This is something that would be more relevant before masculinity changed, this would have been something that men could have identified with. This is where Fight Club was spawned from in the film – men wanting to get back to what they really are, release aggression, to be competitive, where physical strength matters, and where women won’t interfere.
There are subjects in the film that are used to represent aspects of the theme; The testicular cancer support group represents contemporary masculinity, not as a direct representation but in a symbolic form – this is modern man with his testicles removed, crying on each other, “We’re still men?” Bob is the biggest embodiment of this – once a ‘real’ man, a wealthy and successful bodybuilder and father who got testicular cancer (representing that he bought in to the ‘American Dream? ... This symbolizes what has been happening to masculinity (or men) over the past 30 years. But when he finds Fight Club the character is scene differently. The man who embodied what has been happening to men (he still has breasts, and no testicles) but now has Fight Club and he feels better than he ever has. ... In the film, men generally tended to be shot from above until they started going to the Fight Club. When Fight Club appears men are gaining control again and so they are shot from below, giving a sense of power. ... Jack is society’s ‘new man’, the ‘ideal’ man; void of all of the traditional characteristics of masculinity. ... What he says is an important explanation of the theme of the film, about masculinity and about what men really are as apposed to what society has told them. ...
American Beauty:
The represents masculinity in different ways through different characters. Lester is the equivalent of the ‘new man’ chasing the American Dream. ... ” His masculinity that has been stripped, he doesn’t feel like a man any more; he explains to his wife “…you made it clear just how unnecessary you consider me to be! ... A lost link to his masculinity that he seeks to re-discover. ... The young man, unsullied by the expectations of the American Dream reminds Lester what it was to be free. ... 5
On impulse he applies to work in a drive-thru burger bar; he wants to go back to what being the free man he was,11 before feminist oppression, before got caught up in the American Dream.
Approximate Word count = 3356
Approximate Pages = 13.4
(250 words per page double spaced)
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