The crisis of masculinity

The crisis of masculinityINTRODUCTIONMy dissertation is concerned with the potent hegemony of Hollywood cinema. I will take c be short the representation of the womanly exclusively altogether to support the discussion of male hegemony in regards to spectatorship and representation of the male.I will limit my argument to the post libber period (post 1970s) because this cinema era is super signifi pottyt as it demonstrates a fundamental change in the representation of the male. I have decided to trim down on the representation of the male because the discussion of distaff representation, although not investigated in its entirety, is generally more prevalent.I have chosen to analyze two primal picture palaces that had major success in the year 1999. I have specifically chosen these films as not only do they reenact a threshold guide in societys perception, precisely some(prenominal) deal heavily with the theme of modern day masculinity.The two different approaches from very different directors- David Fincher, The director of deal club has a lengthy history of mainstream work whereas capital of Minnesota Thomas Ander passwords work history is more alternative.I will argue that in its structure Fight club is highly synonymous with Hollywood in terms of portion placement.(male admirer, passive female). I will aroma at how Magnolia is more discoursive/melodramatic focusing on coming from a female berth.I will look at the main characters in each of the films and discuss how both films approach the nominate aspects of masculinity Paternity the Phallus.The similar concerns and contrasting nature of the films thus conclude that they serve as great examples for discussion.The dissertation will consider film theory and psycho-analysis however I would like to relate those to cinematic textual systems a term used by to describe mise en motion picture elements, editing and other cinematic manipulation of the frame for the spectator.Talk about how pers pective and cinematography are interlinked, cinematography being vital to the gaze.To think everyplace the gaze is to engage in cinematic textual systems (diegesis, montage, mise-en-scene, intertextuality and so forth and the act of see, as well as the competing, dynamic and heterogeneous processes involved between the two. Pg 6 (a)WHY CINEMATOGRAPHY IS IMPORTANT TO DISCUSS. Once we have investigated on a functional level how cinema manipulates the viewers gaze only then offer we move forward and expand on this?The very existence of cinema relies on box office profits cinema conveys the touchableity of the desire of the spectator, but also notably produces films that display the unconscious fears of the societies that produced them. This is an argument I will discuss at more length in the first chapter.CHAPTERSPhallocentric perspective/cinematographyI will detonate by engaging with the philosophy which forms the basis of the dissertation. I will also justify the inclusion of c inematography as a valid point in my dissertation by clarifying its relationship with film theory and psychoanalysis.Were Designed to be hunters and were in a society of shoppers Tyler Durder (Fight Club)In the second chapter I will put my discussion in context, explaining briefly the importance of the cinema of this era.Fight ClubI will discuss why I chose the two films I did The two different approaches directors- coming from very different background fightclub is aimed at mainstream whilst magnolia comes from an alternative viewpoint.I will argue that in its structure Fight club is highly synonymous with Hollywood in terms of character placement.(male protagonist, passive neurotic female)MagnoliaI will look at the key characters of the film and analyse how they demonstrate a crisis of masculinity. I will examine the look at how Paul Andersons Magnolia manages to subvert the male hegemony of mainstream films and acts as a critique of the Hollywood cinematic address.PHALLOCENTRIC PERPSEPCTIVEThe spectator constructed by the text is taken to be male-regardless of the actual genderof the viewer. He is taken to look through the eye of the male hero on screen at theon-screen female, so that the viewer in the auditorium can fantasize the pleasure of dominating and possessing her, and thus enjoy the optical pleasure of masculine conquest. Kenneth MackinnonWhatever the route of the gaze, the result is the same. She is objectified. And the female object confirms that the male is the proper and sole upshot. (b) pg 126Since Hollywoods conception the films produced have taken to preferably formulaic, standardized conventions to accrue predicted success at the box office. These are seen in its cinematic style, and report form. As a result Hollywood has become extremely skilled at satisfying the spectator through manipulation of its address. male hegemonyAt the beginning of cinema for example, spectators desired to see more and so became the standardization of erotic display to satisfy the spectator interest in voyeurism. Thus this Hollywood address gives us a spectacular insight into the unconscious fears and desires of society.If we look at angiotensin converting enzyme particular example metropolis (1927) Directed by Fritz Lang, this film featured a destructive and postful female robot. Notably this film came at a time when society had to deal with the increased mechanization, loss of jobs in industries resulted in a perceived loss of male soften and power.Metropolis represented the destruction of masculine dominance over science and nature, represented as a female android, the ultimate opposite.The more information gathered by the development in film theory and psychoanalysis the further we can investigate into understanding the reality of the relationship between spectator and cinema and can move forward from male hegemony into creating an alternative cinema one in which both sexes are represented fairly.this can be shown through the de igesis, mise en scene, etc etc.In Laura Mulveys essay Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, she discusses the passive consumption that women have played in cinema arguing that this passive role supports the male hegemony by encouraging visual pleasure. This visual pleasure is formed byMulvey identifies three looks or perspectives that occur in film which serve to sexually objectify women.The first is the perspective of the male character on screen and how he perceives the female character.The second is the perspective of the spectator as they see the female character on screen.The third look joins the first two looks together it is the male audience members perspective of the male character in the film. This third perspective allows the male audience to take the female character as his own personal sex object because he can relate himself, through looking, to the male character in the film.Female soundbox representation has always involved some degree of eroticism fragment a women s body into sundry(a) body parts.A good example of how editing shot composition and framing can be seen in Martin Scorseses Raging Bull. The main character Jake La Motta becomes fascinate by the physical beauty of - by the side of the pool. By the sequence of close ups we are placed into the mental position of Jake to reduce - to a innocent object to be gawped at. Here we literally see the looks as Mulvey referred to them shown through the shot juxtapositioning. Although one could argue this section was designed to illuminate us of bathroom disturbed mentality, thus serves as an extreme example however we do see these looks perpetrating mainstream Hollywood throughout the generations since its beginnings.However self conscious and ironic Hollywood manages to be, it always restricts itself to a formal mise en scene reflecting the dominant ideological concept of the cinema. The alternative cinema provides a space for the birth of cinema which is musical theme in a both a politica l sense and an aesthetic sense and thus quarrels the basic assumptions of the mainstream filmThus cinematography holds the key to the interred attitudes of gender.The cinema is an epic form that utilizes dramatic elements this is determined by the technologies of the camera and editing. Even in a spatially and temporally continuous scene (mimicking the internal representation situation, as it were), the camera chooses where to look for us. In a similar way, editing causes us to jump from one place (and time sometimes) to another, whether it be somewhere else in the room, or across town. This jump is a form of narration it is as if a narrator whispers to us mean slice, on the other side of the forest. atomic number 53 of the key pleasures cinema allows is credit. The spectator will al or so always identify with the character whose look authorizes the point of view shot. pg 94 Hedges,InezVertigo is a prime of life example whereby everything is seen from the perspective of the ma in male protagonist, the audience follow his erotic obsession and subsequent despair precisely from his point of view. However the spectator is caught in moral ambiguity toward the latter part of the film as the film reveals the illicit nature of the voyeurism.Were Designed to be hunters and were in a society of shoppers -Tyler DurdenThese rough white male icons grew at a time when working class white males had to contend with increasing economic instability and dislocation, the perception of gains by slew of colour at the expense of the white working class and a womens movement that overtly challenged the male hegemony. One way the system allows working clases (of various races) the opportunity for masculine identity validation is through the use of their body as an instrument of power dominance and control.. The threat that women posed as a result of their increased economic independence, destabilizes gender realtions and upsets male identity. Spectacle of the MaleWHAT WAS GOING ON AT THE TIME?Working kind Males had less portal to more abstract forms of masculinity validating power (economic power, workplace authority) Fightclub protagonist has loss of authority, in the end he reaffirms his masculinity through physical acts of violence.Susan Faludi went one step further, arguing that films of the 1980s such as Fatal Attraction (1987) and Baby Boom (1987) were part of a wider backlash against womens liberation and womens careers.Yearning for reinstatement of the nuclear family, American Beauty protagonist yearns for realignment of patriarchal structure as does Gaz in full monty his desire to recover his role as breadwinner so that he can domesticize his son from his ex wife.FIGHT CLUBIt touched a nerve in the male psyche that was debated in newspapers across the world. The TimesMARLACould be worse, a woman could cut off your penis Tyler DurdenMarla introduces/is the conflict. Neurotic marla is a sexualized woman/object (her flat dildo etc) placed in to whore category. she disturbs the phratry causes cracks in walls leaks, etc.What counts is what the heroine provokes or rather what she represents. She is the one or rather the love or fear she inspires in the hero, or else the concern he feels for her, who makes him act the way he does. In herself the woman has not the slightest importance Budd BoetticherTYLERTyler and his impulsive nature, represents the Freudian philosophy of the Id. The id is responsible for our basic drives such as food, water, sex and basic impulses. prosperAlways has his tit on show like the iconic images of the 1980s heroic action movies. The body is shown to acquire battle scars which removes any erotism which may induce the female gaze need to explain.. used as a in like mannerl of power to redeem authority. This is the physical manifestation of the ironic rejection of the heroes of the action films of the previous years.He is in control, has the power over Marla and makes the decisions, drives the narrative.PATERNITYWere a generation of men raised by women Tyler DurdenPaternity discussed in the bathroom between the two, stupefy abandoned him EXPANDTHE PHALLUSFirst introduced to violent action gun in his mouth then to the softer image of sign saying Were still men Bob has larger breasts feminized.The genitals are particularly present in this film from Tyler showing the graphic images of full frontal male nudity of the penis to taking by the statesmens balls thus demasculating him. Balls stand for Male Power the ability to reproduce Testicular cancer meetings also.Dildo in Marlas bedroom representing the fake male the fake man, the substitution of the real penis with a fake one reveals inferiority complex no need for the real man in the modern world.CINEMATOGRAPHYPrimarily the narrative of the film Fight Club is wholly centered on the male our protagonist Jack. We are encouraged as the spectator to emphasize with him, he navigates the shots in the Voice over the use o f the word we is used to encourage identification from the spectator.Is there a problem with identification in this film because the spectator identifies with the protagonist Jack who turns out to be Tyler also so when Jack finds out he is Tyler not only do we experience the same surprise as him, the spectator is left feeling removed from identification? Misplaced just as man does in society?The creation of a microcosm in the house new world order fascism back to being real men, almost militarian (thats what they associate with manhood).Use of colour, lighting difference between the house and the flat, how Brad is enclose with his chest exposed showing his muscular torso to portray the idealized man Jack wants to be.The decaying house, large empty insde and out (as its on an industrial estate) builds up a representation of the inner vacousness of the protagonist.MAGNOLIAPaul Thomas Andersons LA ensemble film Magnolia disrupts the classic Oedipal patterning common to many mainstre am films. The film repeatedly enacts a enunciate degree of male failure and what amounts to an indictment of the system of father ruleThe men of Magnolia are to some extent all feminized by circumstance or choice Earl, dying, is in need of care Phil is a compassionate male nurse Donnie is gay and wants to give love Jimmy, because of his illness, is dependent and Jim is a nurturing representative of the fair play who loses first his baton and then his gun, the phallic signifier par excellence. Even Frank Mackey, who has closed down his internal feminine, is again a caretaker by the films end.The most recalcitrant male is Stanleys father, Rick. He suggests a barely controlled violence, throwing a chair through the television as Stanley refuses to compete. A crisis in masculinity and male paradigms of power and behavior is posed. Clearly, the film is scrutinizing how to be a man and live as a man in culture.FRANKThis notion is foregrounded by Franks Seduce and annihilate infomercial s, which appear during different segments of the film, and his performance of masculinity for the internal diegetic male audience. The excess of language, gestures, and emotion here enact male hysteria. A wielding of language that speaks as a means to recapture and reanimate male power, it suggests a masculinity reasserting itself at the expense of women. Franks misogyny and anger toward women come to seem a projection, a self-discipline of the self-loathing and father-loss that resulted in his becoming his mothers caretaker as she succumbed to cancer. Women seem to be a smokescreen for his pain, something he can latch on to and feed his sense of rage.Frank, played by Cruise at his best in his usual angry young man mode, is aptly named as the teacher of ostensible integrity, power and control who with blazon nailed to an unseen cross is projected as an illuminated (Lucifer) savior. His crucified humanity, now a loaded shell, a persona with rigid firm ego boundaries of patent masc ulinity, launches a provocative assault, laced with inexplicable resentment, against Woman. His assumed control and power over his own vulnerability (fear of his undeveloped feminine component generalized as woman) results paradoxically from the rejection by and loss of his father followed by the incessant care of his slowly dying mother whom he was unable to save.PATERNITYStanley Spector to his father You need to start being nicer to meHis all-encompassing impotent rage is projected along with his need to control the symbolic Woman who constitutes the loss of his childhood and manhood.Like a unparented boy of the ghetto, he shuns the excessive identification and nauseating closeness associated with his mother and her powerless circumstance. To acquire her world would only confirm his loss and her power to destroy. To him she only means burden and loss of freedom thus he abuses Woman in order to maintain control and detachment. Moreover, his loss of masculinity resulting from the i nability to control the inevitable suffering and eventual death of his mother lead him to create and identify with what he lacks, a powerful male image. His artificial self-acquired mastery over himself results tragically from lack of opposition since he cannot win the badge of manhood by defeating a foe who is missing or a cause that is inexplicable.The pleasing male crowd (representing the incomplete male) is willing to pay Frank to attain his techniques to compensate for its loss and to overcome its incompleteness through the power of maintaining distance and control. tho Frank paradoxically eventually finds redemption in what he denied, in the traditional female manner of acquiring power, through interaction with the Other. Frank, the rejected son finally confronts his dying father who is now unable to reply, apologize and expiate his guilt. Without the articulation and acceptance of his fathers sin, Frank cannot forgive or overcome the unknown one, he can only endure his memo ry. The cathartic release of his tormented repressed anger and simultaneous conflicted fear of another loss of and desire for his missing father is gripping. He faces uncertainty but his acceptance of his past and his anguished self, the veil of his repression and denial of his history is lifted and results in the loosening of his current defences and his false self. The traumatic return from/to his original position confirms that rebirth is painful. He can now join the family of man.The initially compliant venture show kid (J. Blackman) alters his condition of shackles by sacrificing the moment of glory by a paradoxical (anorexial) attempt to avoid the game by controlling his body until he loses bladder control. When he realizes that adherence to arbitrary debilitating rules crushes creativity and freedom, he loses his ambition to succeed conventionally by a symbolic Freudian urethral discharge. Both the game and his body are beyond his control. He confronts his parasitic father as an incomplete child (no mother), asking to be treated anew with respect without having to constantly sacrifice himself to earn the love of his father.THE PHALLUSThe cop who shows an interest in her, needs no change, only completion by another, but he too demonstrates his universal deficiency by losing the badge of his profession, his gun. This loss of power is later recovered from the sky god and magically saves a life. His stability rests on his identification with the law which he chooses to interpret selectively as a wise judge with the power to render mercyCINEMATOGRAPHYMagnolia constructs the place of the female subject differently for the process of identification with the spectator. This is done by..Magnolia systematically rejects mainstream films signifying system. As Fiske notes, soap opera suggests the workings of a feminine aesthetic and thereby posits the audience as female (180).Magnolia subverts the classic masculine gaze and audience address usually associated wit h film.The masochistic position from which we watch Magnolia is inscribed by the excessive music and by the competition of the musical discourse and the dialogue. This is doubly inscribed, as it were, because it speaks to the condition of the character as opposed to working in counterpoint to the image. For example, One (is the loneliest number ) plays while introducing these lonely characters over a close-up of the victimized and addicted Claudia, we hear Save Me (You look like a girl who could use a tourniquet ). goo operas exemplify such double-voiced discourses in which dominant cultural forms allow women participation (Fiske 192). The predominant use of close-ups and extreme close-ups throughout the film also expresses this excess.There are two dramatic points of depature for melodrama. One is coloured by a female protagonists viewpoint which provides a focus for identification. The other examines the family and between the sexes and generations here, although women play an i mportant part, their point of view is not always analysed and does not initiate the drama pg 42 Mulvey.LMarcie, the unruly black woman at the edges of the text, shouts what appear to be empty threats, but the danger she evokes is soon realized. The canted camera angles and frenzy of the editing, in addition to her shouting, foreground the level of disorder she represents. Handcuffed to a sofa, she continues to be verbally abusive as Jim investigates. Pulling the sofa from room to room, she becomes comic relief even as her powerful frame suggests a formidable adversary. Jim seems barely a match for Marcie, condescension her containment.Jim MARCIE DO NOT DRAG THAT COUCH ANY FURTHER (Anderson 29).Coded as marginal, Marcie wreaks havoc on the established order to which she is subject but in which she has no place, except as the return of the repressed. Jim finds a dead man in her closet. As a black woman existing on the social margins, she is an mystery story that Jim and the film ref use to solve.In terms of sex, too, Magnolia exposes the system of male hegemony and power. In most soap operas, the condition of women living under patriarchy is examined to promote a reading that women identify as corresponding to their own reality, which leads to tears.Doane refers to these melodramatic texts as activating the tropes of femininity (183) waiting, watching and self-sacrifice.Through Jimmy and Earl, marriage as a system is also undermined. Not only is Jimmy adulterous, alcoholic, womanizing, and guilty of incest, he has astonishing contempt for his wife. In one of the films most powerful scenes, Rose learns the truth about her marriage, but it is also clear that she has known. Her performance of the dutiful wife, right up to the end, motivates Jimmys contempt.Rose can only face Jimmys molestation of Claudia when her husband breaks with the veneer of mutual respect and love on which their marriage is based. The only women with power in Magnolia are the black women, a nd when we are with them we are sutured to the position of two of the films key white male characters, Frank and Jim. That we identify with these women anyway, and with their threat to Frank and Jim, speaks to Magnolias feminine positioning of the viewer. (a)Magnolia displaces film narrative to television text and shifts from the normative masculine viewing position to a feminine one. Magnolia is symptomatic of a crisis in masculinity and interrogates cultural texts such as cop shows, quiz shows, and infomercials. Magnolia is a subversive cultural product, an indictment of paradigms of male hegemony and power, and a critique of the media systems of film and television.The films privileging of the soundtrack is unusual. Paul Thomas Anderson conceives the film in relation to one of Aimee Manns songs and envisions her voice as another character in the film (Anderson 204). Her voice does indeed constitute another character to such an extent that at times it upsets the normative hierarc hy of discourses that mainstream films espouse. The use of such a counternarrative strategy and the predominance of a strong female voice working against and at times doubling the text also point to Magnolias challenge to the male textual film system and more traditionally masculine narratives. Manns voice is like a commentary on the action, pulling us in to watch the film from a female viewing position.BIBLIOGRAPHYDillman, Joanne Clark Magnolia Masquerading as Soap Opera, journal of Popular Film and Television 33 no3 142-50 Fall 2005Dines, Gail Gender, Race and Class in the mediaBrod,H. (Ed) (1987) The making of masculinitiesVarious, The trouble with men Masculinities in europeon and Hollywood cinema.Fuery,Patrick (2000) New Developments In Film Theory- Palgrave, New York,Male Spectatorship and the Hollywood Love Story Mackinnon, Kenneth. Journal of Gender Studies, Vol. 12, No. 2, 2003, Carfax PublishingClassical Hollywood Cinema Film Style Mode of Production to 1960 Bordwell, Da vid. Staiger, Janet. Thompson, Kristin Publication London Taylor Francis Routledge, 1988.FILMOGRAPHYFight Club () Dir David FincherMagnolia (1999) Paul Thomas AndersonRocky ( 198 200 )Thelma and Louise (1991)Dir Ridley Scott