I will investigate a number of films in relation to the ‘crisis in
masculinity’ that is represented in a number of films from the 1990’s. I will
investigate the different styles of representation these films show. For
example I will be looking at Peter Cattanneo’s The Full Monty (1997), Brassed
Off (Mark Herman, 1996), Tim Sullivan’s romantic comedy Jack and Sarah (1995), the drug
orientated films Trainspotting (Danny
Boyle, 1996) and Guy Ritchie’s crime drama Lock,
Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998). I will also be studying various texts
including the authors Claire Monk and Robert Murphy. My main argument will be
whether British Cinema has become preoccupied with a ‘crisis in masculinity’
and how it is represented in cinema. The growth in male unemployment due to
industrial breakdown, was used as the main problem for the ‘crisis in
masculinity’ shown in films of the 1980’s and 1990’s. These films also suggest
that the gender-role reversal also had a huge impact on the males masculinity,
as the women were the wage-earners now and the ‘heads’ of the family, and they
meet up in groups to drink like the men used to at the working-men’s club.
The
films in the 1990’s were preoccupied with masculinity in crisis. They were
concerned with men who were suffering after the industrial breakdown as they were
no longer working-class but the under-class, due to the loss of their jobs. One
example of this is shown in The Full
Monty (Peter Cattaneo, 1997) a group of ex-steel workers become strippers
in order to gain back their masculinity, respect and the traditional gender
role of the working man. Claire Monk (2001) states that
(Claire Monk in Robert Murphy, 2001, pg. 156)
I agree with the argument
that Monk addresses, that deindustrialisation leading to a crisis in
masculinity was a key theme in cinema of the 1990’s. These films dealt with the
issues in a way that men were no longer the sole head of the family; bringing
money in to support the family and the household. Women had become increasingly
integrated into the working-class, therefore bringing home the money and taking
over the male role of the provider. The working-men’s club that had previously
been a men-only establishment had also been taken over by women, in order to
watch the male strippers the Chippendales. As women became the ‘workers’ there
was a return of masculinity and misogyny. The films of the 1990’s were very
homo-social, there are not many women in the films and those women that are,
are marginalised.
In
the 1990’s film the acceptance of different sexual identities, for example
homosexuality started to be accepted as a lifestyle, but homophobia was still
present. Two of the ex-steel workers Lomper and Guy, who become strippers in The Full Monty (1997), are both found
out to be homosexual and they start a relationship, which is accepted by the
others in the group. Claire Monk argues that the mix of masculine reaction and self-scrutiny
had defined the image of men that was represented in British cinema (Claire
Monk in Robert Murphy, 2001, pg. 157) Monk then states that her core argument
is that
1990’s
British cinema’s intensified attention to men should not be read as denoting a
progressive, liberalising or egalitarianising shift in the gender and sexual
politics of British cinema or society.
(Claire Monk in Robert Murphy, 2001, pg.
157)
The attention this cycle of
films in the 1990’s has given to men, should not be understood in the sense
that women are becoming the men’s equal but the problems these films deal with
are the personal struggles of the under-class man. The preoccupation with
masculinity showed the men’s needs and pain. British cinema produced a string
of male focused films to deal with the feminist activities and the
post-industrialism that had started this crisis in masculinity. In these films
men were showed as problems for society, causing trouble, committing petty
crimes all to support their families or themselves, for example Gaz in The Full Monty (1997) is seen stealing a
steel girder from the now shut steel factory, with his young son and fellow
ex-steel worker. He was going to steal the girder so that he could pay his
ex-wife his son’s child maintenance. The political side of the films show the
bitterness of the characters towards Margret Thatcher and her ideas, and blame
her for the problems they have.
British
films showed conflicting tensions in the sense that women were achieving in the
workplace and there was a misogynist upsurge from some men, an example of women
being marginal to the problems concerning men, Twin Town (1997) and Trainspotting (1996), show women as
either having an unrespectable job (Adie the twins sister work as a
receptionist in a massage parlour that does ‘extras’, Twin Town, 1997) or still at school (Diane, Trainspotting, 1996). Another male view is that as far as they were
concerned women working was marginal to their own problems of masculinity.
These films tried to dissect the problems of masculinity and show men an
alternative lifestyle and form of masculinity. The idea of the ‘new man’ showed
men as’ in touch with their feminine side’, sensitive and ready to take on the
previously feminine activities of housework and childcare. These kinds of
representation of men were limited to specific genre such as romantic comedies.
One example of a romantic comedy that used the ‘new man’ idea was Jack and Sarah (Tim Sullivan, 1995), in
which Jack, the main character, is left widowed from his wife who had died
during childbirth. Jack has to take on the responsibilities his wife had
previously dealt with, plus also taking care of a new baby and working to
support his small family. This kind of masculinity was very appealing to women.
In
the films displaying problematic masculinity, especially The Full Monty (1997), men became increasingly worried about their
gender roles and status. For example in The
Full Monty (1997), Gaz witnessed the women in the working men’s club using
the men’s toilets, talking dirty and urinating standing up, Gaz says to his
fellow ex-steel workers that ‘A few years more, and men won’t exist....we’re
obsolete. Dinosaurs. Yesterday’s news’. (Claire Monk in Robert Murphy, 2001, pg.
159) The
Full Monty is completely preoccupied with ‘male disempowerment’ and took
the crises of masculinity and tried to offer male audiences a solution to the
problems through this kind of feel-good comedy. According to Claire Monk ‘men
not only go through gender role reversal in the films but also generational
reversal, in the way that the men revert back to adolescence, just ‘hanging
out’ and playing in the park’. (Claire Monk in Robert Murphy, 2001, pg. 184).
In the case of The Full Monty the
Gaz’s son seems to be more mature than him.
Claire Monk Argues that ‘there are clear
distinctions in the stance on male crisis adopted by films in these various
strands’ (Claire Monk in Robert Murphy, 2001, pg. 160) this relates to films
such as Twin Town (Kevin Allen, 1997)
and Trainspotting (Danny Boyle,
1996), in which the films main narrative concerns drugs and petty crime. These
films portrayed jobless men who were socially excluded with no solution being
shown and no change being presented.
This showed the men not as problems for society but as men taking on a
particular lifestyle. Monk declares that ‘Trainspotting
and especially Twin Town encouraged a
knowing, empathetic complicity between audiences and the films young male
inhabitants’ (Claire Monk in Robert Murphy, 2001, pg. 160). These films show
the problems of masculinity as a subculture of rebellion from women, work and
adulthood responsibilities. Andrew Spicer (2001) states that the mains
character in Trainspotting, Renton
represents the young alienated male who is also a chameleon. He is the
anti-hero and both a conformist and a rebel at different stages throughout the
film. ‘He is the product of a culture that is decentred and heterogeneous, no
longer recognising clear national, ethical or sexual boundaries.’ (Andrew
Spicer, 2001, pg204) national as in both Town
(Kevin Allen, 1997) and Trainspotting
(Danny Boyle, 1996) slate the country the film is based in for example Renton’s
speech whilst in the middle of the Scottish Highlands ‘’Its Shite being
Scottish, we’re the lowest of the low’’. Julia Hallam (2000) states that Trainspotting, (Danny Boyle, 1996), Twin Town (Kevin Allen, 1997), Brassed Off (Mark Herman, 1996) and The Full Monty (Peter Cattaneo, 1997)
rearticulate the male identity of the working-class in using stereotypes and
‘geographical marginalisation’(Julia Hallam in Ashby and Higson, 2000, pg. 268)
The
problems with masculinity are class specific, Claire Monk argues that
‘working-class masculinity functions as the sign for a wider, cross-class range
of male experience’ (Claire Monk in Robert Murphy, 2001, pg. 161) the problems
that occur in these films can represent different class problems the issues of
family and respect and the breakdown of industries could also affect the
upper-class. These films appeal to men as it gives reassurance that a solution
can be found to the problems that they are suffering. The films are not focused
on the problems of unemployment per se, but the focus is on the disruption of
the male-community, for example the working-men’s club being taken over by the
women, traditionally a men only establishment. It is the male community that is
threatened and this shows why this film appeals to men ‘Play out a drama in
which the male social and emotional bonds once associated with the workplace
and the working-men’s club are threatened, mourned, struggled for- and finally
restored.’ (Claire Monk in Robert Murphy, 2001, pg162) The term ’new lad’ or
‘laddism’ was often used as a platform for films to become successful. Claire Monk
argues, ‘laddism was one answer to current male fears of women, a misogynist
response to a ‘post-feminist male panic’.’ (Andrew Spicer, 2001, pg192) The insecurities of men and the loss of
‘self-identity’ use the phrase ’crisis in masculinity’ and I believe that this
is appropriate in the situation at the time, when the industries were becoming
de-industrialised. Trainspotting (Danny Boyle, 1996) and Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (Guy Ritchie, 1998) had the lad
appeal, and was centred on male characters. The only two female characters in
the film Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (Guy Ritchie, 1998) were a card dealer and a girl who was under the
influence of marijuana and this stoned girl was treated as a piece of the
furniture. She never moved or spoke and people would literally sit on her because
the men would not notice she was there. This shows how women were marginalised
in films of the 1990’s.
The
way men gain back their masculinity is originally thought to be a woman’s
profession. They become male strippers- like the Chippendales but without the
toned bodies. This gets the men worried about their appearances and bodies-
formerly a problem women worried about. The final scene reinforces the joy the
men feel for regaining their masculinity and respect back from the women. Richard
Dyer expresses that ‘the actual display of the male penis ‘can never live up to
the mystique of the phallus’ and the films discretion in this regard makes the
men’s recovery of their masculinity symbolically more potent.’ (Claire Monk in
Robert Murphy, 2001, pg. 185). The
reasons for not ‘going the Full Monty’ was to give the characters (and the
actors) some dignity and to reinforce what Dyer said this was a much more
powerful representation of the regaining of their masculinity. Even though this
film was about restoring men’s masculinity, it was also a film women watched
for the issues involving role reversal, where the women are empowered as they
‘bring the money home’.
Another
film that is centred on the ‘crisis in masculinity’ is Mark Herman’s Brassed Off (1996), in which the main
characters struggle with keeping the male community together that was originally
held together by their work in the steel industry. Brassed Off (1996) shows how the group of ex-miners regain their
masculinity when they finally reach the final at The Albert Hall and
successfully win. The character Danny states that the trophy is not important
and human beings are. He also states that
Government
has systematically destroyed an entire industry. OUR industry. And not just our
industry – our communities, our homes, our lives. All in the name of 'progress'.
And for a few lousy bob.
(Danny, Brassed
Off, Mark Herman, 1996).
Another element of the film is the fact that a
woman is allowed to play in the band, the woman who was sent to the town of
Grimley where the film is set. She has to conceal the fact that she is there to
determine the profitability of the coal industry and the only reason that she
is allowed to play with the band is that her grandfather was a steel worker
just as they are so she has the connection with the industry. She also tries to
help the group get to the final at Albert Hall through financing the group, so
they accept her, and in return win the final and regain their masculinity.
I
conclude that masculinity is present in many films of the 1990’s but ‘these
films offer no realistic solution to the problems only ‘unconvincing closure’.
(Claire Monk in Ashby and Higson, 2000, pg. 281) The viewer is given no
evidence that the problems and crises have been resolved at the end of the films.
The Full Monty’s narrative does
resolve the problem of its male characters loss of confidence and self-esteem,
and it also improves the relationship between male and female characters relationships
in the film (Gaz and his ex-wife in The
Full Monty). British cinema has increasingly become preoccupied with a ‘crisis
in masculinity’, I agree with this statement, different genres drama, romance,
crime, drugs, comedy use different kinds of representations of the ‘crisis in
masculinity’ and women were marginalised in the films that dealt with male
issues with masculinity. The similar base plots are based on Thatcherism and
de-industrialisation, and the effects the breakdown had on men, their families
and their social lives. The films do not give a realistic solution to men but
it encourages them to make the most of what you can, and in doing this gaining
back their masculinity.
Bibliography
Dave, P., (2006) Visions of England: Class and Culture in
Contemporary Cinema. Oxford: Berg.
Higson, A., and Ashby, J.,
(2000) British Cinema: Past and Present.
(Eds.) London: Routledge.
Lehman, P., (2001) Masculinity: Bodies, Movies, Culture
(ed.) London: Routledge
Murphy, R., (2000) British Cinemas of the 90’s. London:
British Film Institute (BFI)
Murphy, R., and Chibnall,
S., (1999) British Crime Cinema
(eds.) London: Routledge
Pomerance, M., and Gateward,
F. (2005) Where the Boys Are: Cinemas of
Masculinity and Youth. (Eds.) USA: Wayne State University Press.
Powrie, P., Davies, A., and
Babington, B., (2004) The Trouble With
Men: Masculinities in European and Hollywood Cinema. (Eds.) London:
Wallflower Press.
Spicer, A., (2001) Typical Men: The Representation of
Masculinity in Popular British Cinema. London: I. B. Tauris and Co Ltd.
Filmography
Brassed
Off
(1996) Mark Herman [FILM] UK: Channel Four Films
Jack
and Sarah (1995) Tim Sullivan [FILM] UK: British Screen Production
Lock
Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) Guy Ritchie [FILM]
UK: Summit Entertainment
The
Full Monty (1997) Peter Cattaneo [FILM] UK: Redwave Films
Trainspotting
(1996)
Danny Boyle [FILM] UK: Channel Four Films
Twin
Town
(1997) Kevin Allen [FILM] UK: Agenda
By Lea Weller BA
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