Frank-n-Furter, Michel Dorsey/Dorothy Michels, and Dil: alternative masculinities in film from the 70's to the 90's
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Tootsie (1982), and The Crying Game (1993) are united by their overt concern with sexuality and gender; particularly non-dominant gender and sexual identities. Dr. Frank-N-Furter, of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Michel Dorsey, of Tootsie, and Dil, of The Crying Game, challenge conventional masculinity, and, the latter two especially, expose gender roles as nothing more than performances or social constructs. In so doing, these protagonists propose alternative masculinities and male gender roles. The nature and the presentation of these alternative males has evolved from being alien, as in the early Rocky Horror Picture Show, to being an improvement on the masculine norm, as in Tootsie, to being a completely new form of masculinity within society, as in the recent Crying Game. This evolution demonstrates society’s gradual acceptance of the existence of alternative masculinities, from the seventies to the nineties.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is considered by many film scholars to be "the granddaddy" (Saunders 91) of cult films. As most cult movies appeal to our subversive instincts, our desire to see conventional morality trashed (Giannetti, Leach 252), the film provides an interesting point of departure for a study of the subversion of masculine norms. Throughout this film, Frank-n-Furter mercilessly assaults the straight world and its values, especially conventional masculinity, as represented by Brad, and finally seduces Brad into adopting his alternative masculinity. The opening scene foreshadows the fact that Brad’s conventional masculinity will be challenged late...
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... The Crying Game, all challenge conventional male gender roles, and propose alternative ones. The latter two characters also expose gender as a social construct, and, in so doing, illustrate that gender roles are malleable, and not predetermined and fixed. While The Rocky Horror Picture Show presents an alternative form of masculinity in an alien being, and Tootsie’s alternative male turns out to be a reworking of the conventional male, in The Crying Game, the alternative male is just that, a real alternative to normative masculinity. Dil is not an alien, or a heterosexual actor, but is an actual transvestite, living among more or less conventional masculine types. This evolution in the presentation of alternative masculinities in film, from the seventies to the nineties, demonstrates society’s gradual acceptance of the existence of alternative forms of masculinity.
A large portion of contemporary film and theatre has been lacking in substance. More often than not, we are presented with a “been there, seen that” scenario. One such exception to this rule is Hedwig and the Angry Inch, a film by John Cameron Mitchell that was released in 2001. Set primarily in post-Cold War America, Hedwig is a film that characteristically breaks convention. Our story follows Hedwig, a forgotten and confused homo…trans…well, human being. Growing up in East Berlin during the Cold War, Hansel Schmidt (John Cameron Mitchell) lives what I would call a horrible childhood in the bleak landscape of communist occupied Germany. He falls in love with an American soldier, and undergoes a sex change in order to marry him and leave East Berlin. The operation is botched, leaving him/her as a physical contradiction. Not quite a man, but not yet a woman, Hansel (now Hedwig) has what she describes as an “angry inch.” When describing it in lighter terms, she calls it a “Barbie doll crotch.” Upon arriving in America, the soldier leaves her the same day the Berlin wall comes down. Destroyed, Hedwig spends some time discovering her new self and eventually finds a soul mate in a young boy named Tommy Speck (Michael Pitt). They collaborate musically and romantically, but upon discovering Hedwig’s secret he leaves with all of their music. He becomes a huge rock star, living Hedwig’s dream while simultaneously leaving her in the dust. From then on, Hedwig and her band “The Angry Inch” follow Tommy as he tours the nation while Hedwig tries desperately to gain the notoriety she deserves for her music. Viewing this film through the lens of a feminist gender perspective, I find that Hedwig is a pioneer on the forefront of changing the gende...
In the classical Western and Noir films, narrative is driven by the action of a male protagonist towards a clearly defined, relatable goal. Any lack of motivation or action on the part of the protagonist problematizes the classical association between masculinity and action. Due to inherent genre expectations, this crisis of action is equivalent to a crisis of masculinity. Because these genres are structured around male action, the crises of action and masculinity impose a crisis of genre. In the absence of traditional narrative elements and character tropes, these films can only identify as members of their genres through saturation with otherwise empty genre symbols. The equivalency between the crises of genre and masculinity frames this symbol saturation as a sort of compensatory masculine posturing.
In Brenda Cooper’s article “Chick Flicks,” she argues, the film, Thelma and Louise employs mockery as a narrative tool, and functions to produce a defiant narrative which fiercely confronts and denounces patriarchy. Societal norms are able to create a kind unconscious compliance, resulting in self-imposed coercion and oppression. A film like Thelma and Louise brings consciousness to women’s own complicity in social norms like patriarchy, so they can no longer blindly follow these norms. This leaves women in either a state of denial and resistance or a state of evolution and change. Through mockery this film sheds light on accepted norms, and in some, causes a defensive response, as it
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) gained a reputation during the 1960’s and 1970’s as a cult figure among youths disillusioned with war and the technological age. His continuing popularity evidences his ability to evoke the oppressive realities of modern life while drawing audiences into a fantasy world.
Tolkien, J. R. R., and Douglas A. Anderson. The Lord of the Rings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
Throughout this paper the word 'queer ' will be used as an umbrella catch all term for any individual who is not heterosexual or cisgender, and anyone in the LGBTQ spectrum. Queer will also be used as part of the methodology, it will represent "a moment of fissure when that which is normal is thrown into question...[and] set out the notion of queer as a way of denormalizing gendered heterosexuality." ( Li-Vollmer and LaPointe 92) Using queer examination of film, this paper will discuss and explore the struggle between normalcy and deviance. Queer coding occurs when a character is given common traits associated with queer people, whether that is stereotypical or not depends on the character and the creator themselves. This paper will explore
“Queer Cinema is Back” – headlines the front page of the 2005 issue of the Advocate, signifying to a new flood of movies making way into theatres. Five years prior to this news release B. Ruby Rich, who coined the art as New Queer Cinema almost a decade earlier, declared that the cinema had co-opted into “just another niche market” dominated by popular culture (Morrison 135 & Rich 24). What had seemed to be a movement, turned out to be only a moment in the brief years between the late 1980s and early 1990s when the energies of queer theory, the furies of AIDS activism, the legacies of independent and avant-garde filmmaking, and the schisms of postmodern identity politics came together in a bluster of cultural production to form a cinema of its own (Morrison 136). In many ways Rich’s criticism of the cinema is correct, the queer aspect that so brightly shone in films like Poison, Swoon, Paris Is Burning, Tongues Untied, The Living End and Head On, was shifting as the new millennium was approaching and making more difficult for queer films to stay queer against the forces of Hollywood. However, Rich lacks in her analysis on New Queer Cinema because she does not consider the breadth to which queer operates as a concept within the cinema. For Harry Benshoff and Sean Griffin, the editors of Queer Cinema, queer is an umbrella term encompassing dissident sexualities through history and, indeed, nominating them more productively than they were ever named in their own time (Morrison 137). For Michele Aaron, queer is a specific product of exigencies of social activism of the late 1980s and early 1990s, “with AIDS accelerating its urgency” and New Queer Cinema arising as an “art-full manifestation” of i...
"How Fight Club Relates to Men's Struggles with Masculinity and Violence in Contemporary Culture." HubPages. Web. 22 Feb. 2011. .
Like most popular gender-bending films, Some Like It Hot calls us to critique constructions of sexuality and gender both within the context of historicized moment of the films production and from the perspective of later generations. Every time the two men presented themselves as women several assumptions were made as to how women look, of their intelligence, and of how they act. This was the female image at the time; the high heels, the dress, and even the stereotypical “party girl” were all characteristics of the female. The film defines gender differences by portraying wo...
‘Lad flicks’ or ‘lad movies’ is a type of film genre that emerged in the late 1990s. They are defined as a “‘hybrid of “buddy movies”, romantic comedies and “chick flicks”, which centre on the trials and tribulations of a young man as he grows up to become a ‘real man’. ‘Lad flicks’ respond in part to the much-debated ‘crisis in masculinity’” (Benjamin A. Brabon 116). This genre of film explored what it meant to be a ‘real man’ in the twentieth century and in order to do so, they would have to grow up and leave their juvenile ways behind to enter the heterosexual world. Gender relations in ‘lad flicks’ portray masculinity as a troubled, anxious cultural category hiding behind a humorous façade and also rely greatly on a knowing gaze and irony. The two ‘lad flicks’ that will be analyzed are The 40-Year-Old Virgin (Judd Apatow 2005) and Role Models (David Wain 2008).
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.
Although L’Oreal reached European success, entering into the U.S. market proved much more difficult. In 1953, L’Oreal formed licensee Cosmair Inc. in New Jersey to distribute its hair-coloring products to beauty salons. The company soon realized three challenges within the U.S. market. First, in the U.S. local middlemen delivered products to salons, and L’Oreal had little to no relationship established with this group. Second, L’Oreal hair products were not well known by the salon workers and their clientele and therefore were not purchased and sold much in salons. Finally, the French prestige, which helped sell perfumes, did little for the hair-coloring products.
The environment of L 'Oreal is very competitive and progressive. The trends of consummation force the company to be always more innovative in the production of products, but also in the sale of these products. To continue to be the leader and to compete on the market, L 'Oreal must adopt new strategy in the future in balance with his customers and his environment.
Based on the information provided in the L’Oreal case, Yue Sai struggled to grow and capture additional sales in the high-end Chinese cosmetics sector. In the past, L’Oreal attempted to position Yue Sai in several different ways which can be viewed as detrimental to the company image, showing uncertainty as the company struggles to see which positioning strategy will stick. The most recent positioning presented in the case, which desires to “deliver Yue Sai’s longstanding brand promise that ‘Nobody knows Chinese skin better than Yue Sai’”, allows the highest probability of success for the company capitalizing on countless fresh trends in Chinese cosmetics (6). The positioning statement would reflect this new strategy: “For the modern Chinese woman Yue Sai offers a line of high-end cosmetics. Unlike other high-end cosmetics Yue Sai combines traditional Chinese medicine and sophisticated technology adapted to the unique skin type of Chinese women.” Yue Sai saw reasonable success and hope in the new Vital Essential line which utilized traditional Chinese medicine and, therefore, resulted in above average repeat purchases. Continuing to focus the strategy around traditional Chinese medicine should benefit Yue Sai considerably. Another suggested strategy would be to wholly reposition Yue Sai, however this is ill advised. As stated in the case, Yue Sai tried numerous different positioning strategies, which ultimately provided no clear path strategy. Repositioning would show uncertainty in the company, lowering brand value in the eyes of the consumer.
After studying the cosmetic market we can identify a series of needs in this market: