It continued to suffer in the 1960s with the rise of feminism and the cultural sexual revolution which was taking place at the time, creating a counterculture which rejected the conformity of the 50s and embodied a more liberal attitude. Characters such as James Bond were a staple of masculinity around this time, making the representation of a smooth, sophisticated male. A new breed of masculinity was introduced in the 1970s by Woody Allen and there were two different males personas consistently portrayed in film – the heroic authoritarian who dominated the narrative of films, and the insecure, emotional male, left displaced by second-wave feminism.
In films of the 1970s, conventional gender roles were experimented with and there was a reassessment of what it meant to be masculine. In contrast, the 1980s saw a huge rise in hypermasculinity and rejection of feminism in male ideology in the Action genre, with films such as Rocky, Rambo, Die Hard and Terminator almost dictating what the correct qualities in a male are. This erased all emotion and feeling from men unlike the 1970s male, and many of the protagonists in films possessed superhuman attributes like ultra-strength and ability to prevail in the most dangerous situations. In the 1990s, feminised masculinity made its way into society and film.
Toward the end of the 1990s, American males felt a repressed rage by feminisation of masculinity, and American society itself was feeling the dehumanising effects of the big increase in corporate consumerism. There were films which promoted post-war masculinity and embodied the ideological value of hegemonic society, and films which represented the frustrated, feminised male. American masculinity was in 'crisis', and as the nineties were coming to an end and the new millennium was about to begin, it was a time to reflect back and identify what had happened to masculinity since the alpha males of the 50s.
The opening of the 1999
film Fight Club portrays
this with the non-linear narrative it uses - as the film begins we see our
main character, referred to as Jack in the script but whose name is never
mentioned in the dialogue, with a gun cocked in his mouth, then the story
begins of what happened to land him in that situation. As the film's director,
David Fincher was quoted in the book 'Dark Eye - The Films of David Fincher'
'I liked the idea of starting a movie from thought, from the beginning on the
first fear impulse that went 'Oh
shit, I'm fucked, how did I get here?' we can see Fight
Club is literally a
reflection on what has previously been.
The film tackles two main issues in late 1990s America at that time - the obsession with consumerism and the masculinity crisis. The Narrator, 'Jack' is trapped in both of these at the beginning of the text. He states that he is a "slave to the Ikea nesting instinct" and that his wardrobe is "almost complete". These two statements do not exhibit masculine traits and are a prime example of the 1990s 'feminised male'. This is also highlighted as the prophetic Tyler Durden says "We are designed to be hunters and we're in a society of shopping."
In American Psycho, released in 2000, Patrick Bateman, has an intricate beautification and exercise routine and is so consumed by materialism he expresses 'a moment of sheer panic' when he realises his colleague Paul Allen's apartment is more expensive than his and gets so worked up that he starts sweating when he sees Paul's business card which 'even has a watermark'. A defining character in Fight Club which epitomises the masculinity crisis most illustratively is Bob, a former bodybuilder and steroid taker who meets the narrator at a support group for testicular cancer, 'Remaining Men Together'. As a result of his illness, Bob had his testicles removed and has developed enlarged breast tissue as the narrator refers to as 'bitch tits' as a result of his body producing too much testosterone and naturally increasing in oestrogen. The bodybuilding and steroid taking represents his desire to be manly and masculine but what he ends up with is having his testicles removed and developing breasts, which represents the conflict between the traditional man versus the modern, contemporary 'new man', representing the unstable perspective of the narrator. Bob also displays affection to the narrator in a maternal and feminine way, and even with his huge breasts he says to the narrator "we're still men". Here, Bob is trying to tell the narrator that a lack of testicles is not how masculinity and gender assigned roles are defined, but contradicts himself later when he joins Fight Club, as he feels he has to prove his masculinity through fighting, to compensate for a lack of testicles.
The narrator in Fight Club is also in an identity crisis as he has two personalities - his professional working persona, in which he describes himself as a 'drone', and the alter-ego he becomes out of working hours when he is at Fight Club. This lack of identity is also apparent in American Psycho, where Patrick Bateman also has two different day and night identities - the professional Wall Street yuppie by day and the brutal serial killer by night. However, Bateman's murders are mentally synthesised, similar to the character Tyler Durden in Fight Club, who is a figment of the narrator's imagination. This is a representation of how American males were left without a clear identity after social feminisation questioned the role of men and repressed masculinity, venting these frustrations through raw physical violence.
The film tackles two main issues in late 1990s America at that time - the obsession with consumerism and the masculinity crisis. The Narrator, 'Jack' is trapped in both of these at the beginning of the text. He states that he is a "slave to the Ikea nesting instinct" and that his wardrobe is "almost complete". These two statements do not exhibit masculine traits and are a prime example of the 1990s 'feminised male'. This is also highlighted as the prophetic Tyler Durden says "We are designed to be hunters and we're in a society of shopping."
In American Psycho, released in 2000, Patrick Bateman, has an intricate beautification and exercise routine and is so consumed by materialism he expresses 'a moment of sheer panic' when he realises his colleague Paul Allen's apartment is more expensive than his and gets so worked up that he starts sweating when he sees Paul's business card which 'even has a watermark'. A defining character in Fight Club which epitomises the masculinity crisis most illustratively is Bob, a former bodybuilder and steroid taker who meets the narrator at a support group for testicular cancer, 'Remaining Men Together'. As a result of his illness, Bob had his testicles removed and has developed enlarged breast tissue as the narrator refers to as 'bitch tits' as a result of his body producing too much testosterone and naturally increasing in oestrogen. The bodybuilding and steroid taking represents his desire to be manly and masculine but what he ends up with is having his testicles removed and developing breasts, which represents the conflict between the traditional man versus the modern, contemporary 'new man', representing the unstable perspective of the narrator. Bob also displays affection to the narrator in a maternal and feminine way, and even with his huge breasts he says to the narrator "we're still men". Here, Bob is trying to tell the narrator that a lack of testicles is not how masculinity and gender assigned roles are defined, but contradicts himself later when he joins Fight Club, as he feels he has to prove his masculinity through fighting, to compensate for a lack of testicles.
The narrator in Fight Club is also in an identity crisis as he has two personalities - his professional working persona, in which he describes himself as a 'drone', and the alter-ego he becomes out of working hours when he is at Fight Club. This lack of identity is also apparent in American Psycho, where Patrick Bateman also has two different day and night identities - the professional Wall Street yuppie by day and the brutal serial killer by night. However, Bateman's murders are mentally synthesised, similar to the character Tyler Durden in Fight Club, who is a figment of the narrator's imagination. This is a representation of how American males were left without a clear identity after social feminisation questioned the role of men and repressed masculinity, venting these frustrations through raw physical violence.
On the surface, Patrick Bateman appears to be society's ideal embodiment of a man; powerful, successful, handsome, self-sufficient, wealthy and emotionless. However, these pressures from society of what is expected of males, especially of Bateman's role in society, causes him to destabilise and lose self-control, describing himself as "an empty shell" and making the self-confession "I am simply not there" and "I just want to fit in", the latter of which most eloquently illustrating the pressures which were imposed on males by society and the strain of living up to society’s ideology and upholding an ideal reputation. Rather than yielding to society, the narrator in Fight Club channels his frustrations against it, to the extreme of devising Project Mayhem. Tyler Durden is the physical manifestation of what the narrator wants to be and possesses all these attributes the narrator wishes he has; he is good looking and physically well defined, free from materialism and consumerism, rejects 'the system' and dares to do what others are afraid to do, the binary opposite of the narrator, who is weak and oppressed. Tyler acknowledges this by saying to the narrator "I look like you wanna look, I fuck like you wanna fuck, I am smart, capable, and most importantly, I'm free in all the ways that you are not." Bateman and Tyler’s characters are paradoxical to the conventional male protagonists used in American film at this time – which generally promote Post war masculinity and embody ideological value of hegemonic society, such as Saving Private Ryan (1998).
There is a scene in
American Psycho which has an intertextual link with a similar scene
in Fight Club - Patrick Bateman encounters a homeless person, Al, who he lectures
about being a tramp and tells him "get a goddamn job, Al. You've
got a negative attitude, that's what's stopping you; you gotta get your act
together." This relates to the scene in Fight Club where Tyler
Durden holds a convenience store clerk, Raymond K. Hessell at
gunpoint and threatens him that if he does not fulfill his dream of
being a veterinarian in six weeks, he will be dead. These scenes represent
the effect consumerism and convenience made on American society – that people
refuse to push themselves and endeavour if something seems too difficult
because of the disposable society and disregard for what is important –
education, utilising opportunities and being a worthwhile human being –
something which Bateman decides Al is not, as he subsequently murders him. This
very much ties in with Tyler’s ethos and the motivation behind Project Mayhem,
which he testifies in his speech to the men present at one fight club,
mentioning how the mens' potential has been 'squandered'; how an entire
generation has ended up being "slaves with white collars" and raises
the issue of consumerism - "Advertising has
us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't
need."
The
protagonists of both films are in an identity crisis and have different
personas; Patrick Bateman’s daytime persona of a professional, successful,
business orientated yuppie is similar to Jack’s character – ‘trapped’ inside a
suit and feeling empty and oppressed due to the feminised society and social
expectations placed on men in that professional role. Both Jack and Bateman are
consumerists and display greed in their materialistic behaviour and habits, but
do not gain fulfilment from this. Bateman seems to have more awareness of this
than Jack and acknowledges he has ‘not a single, clear, identifiable emotion,
except for greed and disgust. Bateman also has an alternative night-time
persona of a deranged, hypermasculine psychopath who brutally and remorselessly kills his victims, usually females after sleeping with them and having them meet his every demand, but Bateman also murders Paul Allen with an axe as he feels Paul rivals him in social stature. The equivalent of this persona for Jack is Tyler. As is revealed when the movie reaches its climax, Tyler is
