The Oscars and the Spectre of Toxic Masculinity
Ever since the days when silent films entertained America’s increasingly diverse theater audiences, the film industry has had influence over how people act and treat one another, how they integrate into American culture, and which American characteristics they should mimic or bolster in order to get ahead — or even just stay afloat. Among the many messages transmitted through these films were notions of traditional gender roles and narrow limits on how to express the established, no-wiggle-room binary of femininity and masculinity.
A fascinating piece produced by NPR back in 2014 notes that “silent films used a kind of shorthand for American behavior — stereotypes, to allow directors to brush in characters quickly without dialogue: women were almost always domestic, delicate and passive, while men were outgoing, strong and active.”
These depictions helped lay the groundwork for a collective societal understanding of how things “should” work. While not entirely the fault of the film industry (we must consider all forms of social conditioning for a complete picture), these powerful, repetitive visual reinforcements have helped lead us to what we’ve come to know as “toxic masculinity,” or the concept of certain traditional male norms of behavior associated with harm to society and to men themselves.
Because there’s oftentimes controversy attached to the term, we want to explore it a bit. Referring to and addressing toxic masculinity is most certainly not meant to demonize men or create a sense of shame. Instead, it’s intended to highlight the social construct of masculinity, which puts undue pressure on boys and men to meet certain standards and repress certain emotions. In a recent New York Times article — written in response to this month’s mass shooting in Parkland, Florida — writer and actor Michael Ian Black discusses these limits, which can be crippling and dangerous.
“Too many boys are trapped in the same suffocating, outdated model of masculinity, where manhood is measured in strength, where there is no way to be vulnerable without being emasculated, where manliness is about having power over others,” he writes. “They are trapped, and they don’t even have the language to talk about how they feel about being trapped, because the language that exists to discuss the full range of human emotion is still viewed as sensitive and feminine.”
Toxic masculinity can manifest itself in bouts of deadly violence like the mass shootings we see all too regularly in the United States, but it can also show up in less drastic, yet still damaging ways. An article in Bustle details 6 Harmful Effects of Toxic Masculinity, including the suppression of emotion, discouragement of seeking help, homophobia, and sexism.
This toxic model is still being reinforced by the film industry today through outdated, unbalanced gender roles, pay discrepancies, and lack of full opportunity in front of and behind the camera. And in a country like ours, where pop culture is culture, and where one of our major national products is entertainment for ourselves and the world, the importance of fair, accurate, and representative media and entertainment portrayals can’t be understated. As we gear up for Hollywood’s biggest night, The Academy Awards this weekend, it’s important to consider how the industry continues to prop up and reward this dangerous strand of masculinity.
In a great piece on the topic written for the Financial Times, Kate Muir writes, “Until I saw Hollywood’s underbelly and machinations close up, when I became chief film critic for a newspaper seven years ago, I did not grasp the extent to which the movie industry was fueled by a tanker of testosterone. Like any upstanding member of the chattering classes, I would see a charming little French film or an Oscar contender at the Everyman Cinema on a Sunday night, and think all was well with the world. But once I was watching 350 films a year, I began to wonder where all the female, black, Asian and minority directors and characters were, and why about 70 percent of protagonists were male. Unlike any other art form, the production of popular movies seemed to be taking place in a mysterious gentleman’s club.”
She explains that as of her writing (October 2017), 97% of cinematographers for top-grossing films were men and just 11% of those screenwriting credits belonged to women. In other words, men in Hollywood have the keys to the storytelling-mobile and women are only able to get a ride occasionally, even while 52% of moviegoers are women who routinely prove the market for female leads, directors, and writers exists (and is profitable).
This year, for example, the number of women nominated for Oscars ties an all-time high of 40, which was set in 2016. It includes the 5th woman ever nominated for Best Director, the first-ever female nominee for Best Cinematography, and the first-ever black woman nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. The latter two are nominated for their work on Mudbound, a Netflix film boasting a purposefully-hired all-women crew — proof that the talent has always been there, but the opportunities have not. These are reasons to celebrate, no doubt, but they also bring about some questions. Is this a sign of a genuine shift in the cultural tide? Will Sunday’s Oscars ceremony reflect such a shift in a way that feels believable or will it feel like an attempt to capitalize on a popular moment in time? And if we are, in fact, seeing a lasting shift, what on earth has taken so long?
In Weir’s article, she gives us an answer to the latter question through a quote from her friend Melissa Silverstein, who founded Women and Hollywood to document and campaign for equality and diversity within the film industry.
“The lack of opportunities for women to rise up to the top has created a business run by men, and those men are protected by other men, and they are enabled by people throughout the business and the culture of silence that allowed 30 years of sexual harassment to flourish with impunity,” said Silverstein.
Toxic masculinity is what encourages harassment and the protection of harassers, and what prizes power over all else. The #MeToo movement is making this all the more clear. It’s now easier to see and understand the power structure working against women in the film industry, and it’s easier to understand how ingrained ideas of masculinity as power create toxic environments.
It’s important to emphasize that these environments are also bad for men — and destroying boys. While on the surface, the ‘boys club’ of Hollywood may appear to cling to its stronghold (even amidst the current outcry for change), underneath it all, the corrosive effects of exploitation are eating away at mens’ image of themselves, presenting impossibly warped role models that are neither attainable nor desirable, and further eroding our collective trust in one another. How many more Harvey Weinsteins or Matt Lauers need to be exposed before we recognize that the culture of masculine exploitation is also destroying the men who are driving it, in addition to those they abuse (though, of course, in very different ways).
Since its foundation, those in power in Hollywood have held the warped belief that this form of masculine expression was pure, and believed they had the right to use power as a weapon. They haven’t had any meaningful interest in opening doors to women or other minority creators in real ways, and haven’t had any desire to make room for stories that express different points of view about how systems of power stifle quality of life for all. They’ve failed to see how we are all the poorer for their own lack of vision.
It’s our hope that we’re seeing a true cultural shift right now, and that we’re collectively reckoning with just how toxic toxic masculinity can be. Sunday’s big show will tell us a lot about how Hollywood plans to conduct itself in the midst of accusations, firings, resignations, and seemingly endless bouts of bad press. How will Jimmy Kimmel address the issue as host? How will winners speak out during acceptances, especially the men (who were largely silent at the recent Golden Globes while women met the topic and challenge head-on)?
As creators and actors and storytellers, on platforms large and small, we need to keep applying pressure to the open wound — we must claim the art of storytelling as a platform for all people and take it out of the hands of the few. We have to — for the sake of a healthy culture and positive change — more fairly distribute the power of words and images and detoxify it all.
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