In Kenneth Mackinnon’s article “Masculinity in Movies,” he provides information about what has changed and what has remained somewhat the same throughout the years of film making, as well as examples of “masculinity in movies.” It is said that the movie industry is a “key source for images of dominant masculinity.” To help with categorizing different types of movies, movies separated into “genres.” They may not tell the same story, but all movies in a specific genre are somehow related in one way or another. After successful commercials for Star Wars in 1977 and Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981, the production of action movies began to rise. Heroism was promoted in these movies and it showed that you need physical strength. For example, films starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and Bruce Willis, …show more content…
Heterosexuality is a problem because it is rare to see a “hero” being attracted to another male, but it is the norm for male to be attracted to someone of the opposite sex. As a result, friendships involving two male may feel close, but there is a distance between them because they’re afraid of being too close. In the article, it says that “if love for family and female partners in romance is demonstrated and supported, that story of love is less emotionally engaging than the hero’s feelings for his sidekick.” I believe this is somewhat true because it is often felt that friends of the male are most important to them because they share the most memories and they may have more things in common. In addition, it may feel as though loving family and female partners is a mandatory thing, so even if something goes wrong, male feel like their family and female partner needs them and won’t do anything to leave them. As a result, it may feel like it is common for a male to say “I’m going to hang out with the guys,” if they want to relax, rather than “I’ll stay with with my family (or female
In the novel the Maltese Falcon, the main theme in the play is the masculinity attributes of the piece. In this particular work, there are key characters that from their basis, one comprehends how this author views what masculinity should look like. Masculinity comes to symbolize both strong heroic operate mannerism while expounding on the costs incurred through achievement of this theme in the Maltese Falcon (Huston et al., 45).
Smith, Jeff, and Chloe Beighley. "Normalizing Male Dominance: Gender Representation in 2012 Films." Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy. N.p., 12 Feb. 2013. Web. 1 Apr. 2014.
“The Other Wes Moore” By Wes Moore, reveals how two men can develop differently in the same social environment, and yet and have different intrapersonal views. The two men grew up in the same impoverished city, yet both have different experiences and views of what it means to be a man. The other Wes Moore, living his whole life in a poverty-stricken society, believes that being a man means to be powerful and unforgiving. The author, Wes Moore, living in two different worlds, views himself as a man when he becomes an exceptional leader and responsible for others lives. These concepts both tie into the constructs of masculinity in the United States where men are supposed to be protectors of society. The two Wes’ notions of manhood derive from
Movies are a new edition in today’s culture. They are a new form of art medium that has arrived in the late 1900s and were a new way to express ideas and viewpoints of the time. A good example of this is the movie The Manchurian Candidate. The movie had a simple plot a man is kidnapped after the Korean war and is hypnotized to work for the communists and take down the U.S. This movie showed the American public’s fear of communism at the time. If a movie like this can easily portray the fears of the American people at the time then it can easily portray stereotypes of gender. There have been thousands of movies where the male protagonist is a rough tough dude but there is one movie that has that stereotype is broken. That movie is none other than Napoleon Dynamite.
The American black comedy The Wolf of Wall Street directed by Martin Scorsese was released December 25, 2013 and stars the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill and Margot Robbie. While on face value The Wolf of Wall Street looks like a film about excessive cocaine binges, long evenings filled with men with cigarettes, large portions of alcoholic consumption, having many sexual escapades with various women and even dwarf tossing from time to time, the film is deeply rooted in perception gender within the genre of The Wolf of Wall Street. The word ‘genre’ is rooted into a similar category as
Williams, Linda. "Film Bodies: Genre, Gender and Excess." Braudy and Cohen (1991 / 2004): 727-41. Print.
Peter Bogdanovich 1971 film, The Last Picture Show, tells a coming of age story about a boy and his friends in the dying Texas town of Anarene, in the 1950s. While exploring various themes of masculinity pertaining to relationships—in the friendship, family, and romantic aspects—as well as the style in which the film was shot, and the staging of various scenes, Bogdanovich’s film leads into Siegfried Kracauer’s theory of the realist tendency. Also, the usage of various cowboy ideologies, combined with elements of western-styled films, permits the viewers to make a meaningful connection to the story up on the screen. These themes work together to add a significant sense of realism to the plot, making it an exceptionally enjoyable film to watch. Kracauer’s realist tendency theory states, “…films go beyond photography in two ways.
Mainstream movies are about men’s lives, and the few movies about women’s lives, at their core, still also revolve around men (Newsom, 2011). These female leads often have male love interests, looking to get married or get pregnant. Strong independent female leads are still exist for the male view, as they are hypersexualized, or the “fighting fuck toy,” (Newsom, 2011). This depiction has created a culture where women are insecure and waiting for a knight on a horse to come rescue and provide for her as well as the acceptance of women
Led by Laura Mulvey, feminist film critics have discussed the difficulty presented to female spectators by the controlling male gaze and narrative generally found in mainstream film, creating for female spectators a position that forces them into limited choices: "bisexual" identification with active male characters; identification with the passive, often victimized, female characters; or on occasion, identification with a "masculinized" active female character, who is generally punished for her unhealthy behavior. Before discussing recent improvements, it is important to note that a group of Classic Hollywood films regularly offered female spectators positive, female characters who were active in controlling narrative, gazing and desiring: the screwball comedy.
For the purpose of this study, I will critically examine the representation of homosexuality in Hollywood cinema. I will specifically analyse films from the early 90’s to mid 2000’s from ‘Philadelphia’ to ‘Brokeback Mountain’. This dissertation will argue that over the space of 12 years homosexuality has become an acceptable part of cinema. I will look at early Hollywood’s representation of homosexuality depicting how aesthetically so much has changed. The current paper will predominantly focus on the two films ‘Philadelphia’ and ‘Brokeback Mountain’, by critically analysing the aesthetic differences between each film as well as their overall importance to gay culture.
Have you ever had one of those days that were so bad that you desperately needed a night at the ice cream or candy store? The 1970’s was that really bad day, while the night of self- indulgence was the 1980’s. Americans love to escape from our daily stress, and of all the products that allow us to do so, none is more popular than the movies. Movies are key cultural artifacts that offer a view of American culture and social history. They not only offer a snapshot of hair styles and fashions of the times but they also provide a host of insights into Americans’ ever-changing ideals. Like any cultural artifact, the movies can be approached in a number of ways. Cultural historians have treated movies as a document that records the look and mood of the time that promotes a particular political or moral value or highlights individual or social anxieties and tensions. These cultural documents present a particular image of gender, ethnicity, romance, and violence. Out of the political and economic unrest of the 1970’s that saw the mood and esteem of the country, as reflected in the artistry and messages in the movies, sink to a new low, came a new sense of pride in who we are, not seen since the post-World War II economic boom of the 1950’s. Of this need to change, Oscar Award winner Paul Newman stated,
The Trouble with Men: Masculinities in European and Hollywood Cinema - Phil Powrie, Ann Davies and Bruce Babington.
Women are aware that men do have a best friend too, the guy in his life he just cannot let go off - his most trusted ally and confidant. A more fitting term used in Kenyan colloquial would be “his boy”. This is the unique phenomenon that is a ‘bromance’- a purely platonic relationship between 2 heterosexual males bonding over common interests and life experiences. A woman expressing her feelings was and still is the norm, but until recently this bonding between men was somewhat a taboo. Previously men, have been brought up to hide their feelings and affections with those they love, but Ruth Njihia a charted psychologist and Counselor at Oasis Africa encourages these types of relationships and believes that they “show men are improving their social skills.”
The Reasons Behind the Popularity of Action Films In this essay I am going to explore the conventions of action films and their popularity. People love action films, and when they go to see one there are conventions you would expect to see in the film All plots of action films are based on the same outline, Hero and villain meet, there's a disruption of order, and mission, then everything is sorted out when the villain dies and everything returns to normal. There are Stock characters that you expect to see in this genre of film, the hero, the villain and two attractive ladies. The main action is around a male hero, however, modern films have featured female heroines for example Angelina Jolie in 'Tomb Raider'. If the hero is male he is always good looking, intelligent, brave, chauvinistic, and manages to escape from life threatening situations, however the hero will always have a weakness, and if the hero is male the weakness is normally women.
Feminism is a movement that supports women equality within society. In relation to film, feminism is what pushes the equal representation of females in mainstream films. Laura Mulvey is a feminist theorist that is famous for touching on this particular issue of how men and women are represented in movies. Through her studies, she discovered that many films were portraying men and women very differently from reality. She came up with a theory that best described why there is such as huge misrepresentation of the social status quos of male and female characters. She believed that mainstream film is used to maintain the status quo and prevent the realization of gender equality. This is why films are continuously following the old tradition that males are dominant and females are submissive. This is the ideology that is always present when we watch a movie. This is evident in the films from the past but also currently. It is as if the film industry is still catering to the male viewers of each generation in the same way. Laura Mulvey points out that women are constantly being seen as sexual objects, whether it is the outfits they wear or do not wear or the way they behave, or secondary characters with no symbolic cause. She states that, “in traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote it-be-looked-at-ness.”(Mulvey pg. 715). Thus, women are nevertheless displayed as nothing more than passive objects for the viewing pleasure of the audience. Mulvey also points out through her research that in every mainstream movie, there is ...