How film is redefining modern masculinity

Chris Fowles
Applaudience
Published in
4 min readMay 27, 2017

Films have always offered a window through which audiences, sat there in the dark, can observe human nature at a distance. A movie theater is where many a boy learned how to make things right, the way John Wayne did in countless iconic films, with either their fists or a gun.

Film’s suggestive powers quickly became so influential — so overwhelming in fact — that some argued it should be regulated. In the 1930s, the film industry created a code that laid out a set of strict rules for filmmakers, banning drunkenness, sex, revenge plots, all forms of immorality and stating explicitly that no movie should throw audience sympathy to the side of wrongdoing.

It wasn’t until the 1950’s that these rules were gradually phased out. At first this led to a rise in rebellious, nuanced filmmaking, but somewhere along the way, testosterone started to dominate cinema.

Nowadays, our cinemas are awash with heroic archetypal males — men in suits of armour that inhabit dangerous worlds and instinctively react to threats with acts of violence. It’s often excessively glorified, and always in cinemascope.

There are endless forms of masculinity, some associated with healthy and productive behaviours, others with destructive and harmful traits. Hypermasculinity (often also referred to as toxic masculinity) is one form of manhood that’s characterised by demonstrations of physical strength, domination, aggression and violence as a primary means of conflict resolution. This is a perilous and unhealthy form of masculine expression, and one that is unfortunately being portrayed fairly frequently in modern cinema.

Some films however, have decided to take a more mature and perceptive approach to what is slowly becoming a more widely discussed subject matter. Two films in recent memory come to mind, David Mackenzie’s neo-Western Hell or High Water and Moonlight, Barry Jenkins’ quiet masterpiece about growing up poor, gay and black in America.

Both of these only semi-fictional worlds are filled with men who are preoccupied with being men, characters assuming that masculinity means asserting dominance. These characters occupy self-perpetuating social groups which propagate aggression and reinforce the negative behaviours associated with toxic masculinity. Both main characters are also mentored by father-like forebears of their existential struggle.

In Moonlight, as Chiron grows older, he recognises the need to conform to this accepted idea of masculinity. He has two choices: embrace his homosexuality in the knowledge it will open him up to abuse and hatred, or perform the identity of a straight male and live a quieter life. In the final act of the film, Chiron (now an adult and dubbed “Black”) models himself after his paternal figure. He’s a drug dealer. He carries a gun while in his car. He even has diamond earrings like Juan used to wear. It is Juan’s image of masculinity that Black emulates.

The film Hell or High Water lends roughly half its runtime to Marcus (Jeff Bridges), a Texas Ranger at the end of his career who looks forward to a dreadfully hollow future in his twilight years. Marcus is unable to talk about life outside of his costumed career without referencing his dread or death; he knows nothing other than this dangerous role he has been playing for a lifetime.

Toby on the other hand, a career criminal, is at the very start of his life. At several points throughout the film we’re given visual clues related to his decision to carry on this path. At a diner, he lies to a waitress about how he makes his money. Indulging in a life he knows he’ll never have. We get a glimpse of the person Toby feels he is naturally but also the person his world never allowed him to become.

In the closing moments of Hell or High Water, sheriff Marcus and outlaw Toby finally meet to converse, promising to revisit their conflict at a later day. Each of them chose these lives, and we’re reminded of a line earlier in the film “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be”

In a year in which toxic masculinity has been so overwhelmingly present in politics and society, it’s hard to overstate just how important it is that Mackenzie and Jenkins both have managed to intricately explore the subject of masculinity. Moonlight and Hell or Highwater both strive to portray a male lead who defies expectations and in doing so are themselves helping to redefine what it means to be a ‘man’.

In the current social climate, men are statistically more likely to perpetrate violence. As young boys grow up into men, stereotyped beliefs about gender are relentlessly reinforced at home, and through media such as film and television. Hopefully the critical success of these films will encourage more filmmakers to explore the subject with sensitivity and honesty.

Further ignoring the problem has potentially lethal consequences. Real change starts with men recognising — within themselves — how current ideas of what it means to be a “real man” are potentially toxic and self-limiting.

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