Justharry44



Why has the representation of men changed over the last 40 years in action adventure films?Hello my name is Harry and will be looking at the representation of men in action and adventure films in the last 40 years.Action adventure films. One of the most popular genre of films. And one thing that doesn’t normally change for them is the male lead role. Strong, handsome, driven. Someone every man wants to be. However over the past few years we see a change. And this change is what I am here to talk about. The first thing I thought I’d look at is masculinity. The oxford dictionary definition says masculinity is the Possession of the qualities traditionally associated with men.“Handsome, muscled, and driven” these qualities are often desired by men of all ages because they think that it will help them gain respect from their peers and to also have a sexual appeal from this too. This is often seen in action adventure films. An example of this would be Indiana jones, the main protagonist of the 1981 adventure film Raiders of the Lost Ark who is played by Harrison Ford is able to lead a team of people who beat the Nazis to the lost Ark, Indiana jones also falls under the definition of masculinity, handsome, muscled and of course driven. He is what men want to be. And what women want to have.Laikwab Pang, the arthour who wrote, Masculinities and Hong Kong Cinema, once had this to say about masculinity, “The configuration of gender practice which embodies the currently accepted answer to the problem of the legditmance of patriarchy”This basically means that the arrangement of roles that men and women have in society is the currently accepted answer to the system of the father or the oldest male being the head of the family and that is why males are seen as stronger and better leaders. Meaning that men have more power than women but that is a problem for another day. To some, being masculine isn’t just about having muscle and being handsome. Sometimes that doesn’t matter. In the film Glengarry Glen Ross male characters are very different to this. D. Peberdy wrote about this film in Masculinity and Film Performance: Male Angst in Contemporary American Cinema and he made the point that the main characters define their masculinity by the land they sell. Which does make sense because if someone is better at something than you are you might feel threatened by them making them more masculine. At the same time if someone is good at their job you respect them for the work that they are doing ad by giving them respect it makes them more masculine.Also throughout this film there are quotes, which I feel says a lot about the attitude towards men and masculinity. For example things like, ‘Are you man enough to take it?’, ‘You don’t have the balls to run this office.’ And the classic one liner, ‘My balls feel like concrete’I think this says a lot about this phrase about men that has not changed to this day. If someone doesn’t have the ‘balls’ to do something it means they are scared or not capable of doing so, but I am sure everyone knows that already. It also can be used to put pressure onto someone into doing something. In this case it means they don’t have the work ethic so he has less respect from the people around him.Masculinity is about respect, strength and having a strong work ethic. But what happens in an Action Adventure film when the main protagonist does not have any of these qualities?In the film Zombie Land, Columbus, played by Jesse Eisenberg the main character of the film is just some geeky kid with a weak stomach. For a main character of a film like this to expect them to be strong, Brave and a brilliant leader. Some one who would compare to Rick Grimes, The hero of the hit TV series the walking dead. You would expect someone who has a lot of ‘balls’ to be the hero in a zombie apocalypse, someone like Tallahassee, the badass cowboy who loves killing everything he can. He is strong brave and driven. Everything you expect a hero in an action adventure film to be. However the hero we follow is someone who is more of a follower at the start.It is weird to see just your average teenager as a hero in a film based on peoples worst nightmares. Where most people could not deal with that pressure. Yet someone who is more of a coward becomes the hero who you would never expect.Another example of this would be in 2002 Spider-Man was released. Peter Parker played by Tobey Maguire is a small nerdy kid from Queens who has an interest in photography and doesn’t have that many friends other than The rich kid Harry Osborn, who looks after him and keeps him from being picked on by the other kids. He may not have been handsome and was seen as a “geek” but nobody could do the job he could and is always seen as masculine despite his geeky appearance and is seen as one of the best and most popular heroes of all time.Peter Parkers appearance demonstrates something called Geek chicThe dress, appearance, and culture associated with computing and technology enthusiasts, regarded as stylish or fashionable. Once upon a time if you wore glasses and had an interest in computers you would be called a “geek” and a “nerd” by as you approach the 20th century style started to change where these things where seen as fashionable. For this reason in the 2012 The Amazing Spider-Man would have been difficult to portray Peter Parker as geeky chic at this point is very popular. You don’t expect people like Columbus and Peter Parker to be the heroes because of their appearance and their personalities. Normally in real life and in films the ones who are geeky are often quite timid or shy that is what makes the change in character for an action adventure and to focus on the people who you do not expect to be the hero is strange. Yet it is more and more fashionable to have Geek Chic. Now if you say you do IT you expect them to be smart, as people who work with computers are the ones who will be leading the world in technology in the near future. If you ask me that’s pretty masculine I think that the change of fashion has something to do with to do with the first release of the magazine “Playboy”. The magazine was based on “masculine universe” consisting of “swaggering images of boisterous heterosexuality” which would lead to self-conscious consumption this was because the expectations from these magazines where just not achievable. Often consisting of pornographic pin ups and images this made the male readers often feel like heterosexual masculinity would be the only thing tolerated. I think that because of the images shown in these magazines when they feature men felt like this is how they should always look. Exactly the same as girls with Barbie Dolls.I think that this ‘self-conscious consumption’ would of lead to men caring about their appearance a lot more although this isn’t because of Playboy alone. Don’t get me wrong, this is not the only reason, however, Heterosexual men who care about their appearance are known as ‘Metrosexual’ the Oxford dictionary definition is: a heterosexual urban man who enjoys shopping, fashion, and similar interests traditionally associated with women or homosexual men. Often being described as the “pea-cock male”.We see examples of this in the fourth Indiana Jones movie. Kingdom of the crystal skull with Mutt contently combing his hair and his dress sense.Now we have talked about the classic action adventure film, Indiana Jones and a few unlikely heroes but if we move forward five years from the first Spider-Man. In 2007 Transformers was released and the main character is also someone who is interesting to look at.Sam Witwicky is just your normal guy. No super powers. Not muscly. Nothing special at all but somehow he ends up being in the middle of an alien war several times. Often being thought of by creators as the “2007 version of Marty McFly” Sam has been seen as a coward but always come through as the leader and a hero even though he does not have most of the attributes of being masculine.People might even see him as ‘weak’ or ‘sensitive’. An example of this is when he is caring and consoling towards Bumblebee his car who he later finds out is a transformer when he tells him he cannot take him to college (because freshmen aren’t allowed cars) compare that to the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indi and Brody are talking about the Ark and Indi almost intently dismisses what Brody says about the Ark and its power almost mocking him. I think these quotes you can really see the difference in the characters. I think that these quotes and senses are a good example on how the representation of the different generations over the last 40 years and in a way how men have changed as well. The older, is stern and unwilling to listen to his friend but the younger one is trying to console his, alien, robot, and friend. Considering they are both meant to be main characters in Action adventure films why are their attitudes towards others so different?It is becoming less and less strange in an Action Adventure film for the lead male character to not really have most of the characteristics of being ‘masculine’.Anywhere between 1980 and 1995 you could expect your heroes to be Brave, afraid of nothing, hard as nails and demined achieve their goals and win a women’s heart at the same time. You would expect there to be a lead role like Harrison ford or Christian bale this is because they are seen as what a male should be, according to Hollywood. In an Action and Adventure film you almost expect there to be a strong male lead. But in actual fact most of the time this isn’t the case and men cannot achieve what the heroes of an action adventure film can. I think that Sam is meant to represent a realistic male of the 21st century. I also think that it also sends a message to men who are not seen as ‘masculine’. Even though you may be seen as weak or a ‘coward’ or lazy, if you put your mind to it you can be masculine.Males are often described as the ‘bread winner’ of the household. This means that they are the main person who makes money for the family. They also provide for the families and the people they support. This has been almost expected since the days of the bible. Men provide for their family while his wife stays at home, cook, looks after the children and cleans. But things have changed now. Women now have jobs just as much as men and there are now stay at home dads. This is even true in war. In almost all wars leading up to the 20th century including World War I and II most if not all of the soldiers were men. I think this lead to the serotype of men having to be strong and masculine and probably why it is so respected and is more than likely the reason why in earlier action adventure films the leads were strongly masculine.However, when men returned from war they found that women did not want to leave their jobs, which they had acquired because of the absence of men as they were off fighting. This made men confused, as they were no longer seen as the Breadwinners for their families and they did not know where they fit in into society. And after coming back from war this must have been difficulty to get their heads around, especially after the war where they would more than likely be damaged mentally. This is described as the Crisis of MasculinityThis crisis of masculinity is seen all the way up to the late 90’s as we see in fight club. In this film the main character, a depressed male, played Edward Norton, with insomnia forms a club with a strange salesman called Tyler Durden, played by brad Pitt, and his apartment is destroyed. The point of the club is for men who are bored of their mundane and dull lives to fight each other to blow off steam in a very weird way. Weird as this club may be, it does say a lot about masculinity in the 20th century. Men do not feel masculine anymore. What this film says is that men have started to care about pointless things, like decorating apartments and worrying about a job they don’t like or care about but only keep because they need to survive. But this club helps them feel like they have regained their masculinity, no matter how weird and violent.In conclusion I think the representation of masculinity has changed for a number of reasons.The first thing that would have changed the representation is the role models they are given on how to be masculine. For example Harrison Ford, from Indiana jones is different from Peter Parker or Columbus and they represent masculinity in different ways.Characters like Peter Parker and Columbus are meant to represent the men who are not seen as masculine. I think that also deliver a message and that message is that you don’t have to be big and strong to be a hero or to be masculine. Because compared to Indiana Jones these two seem to be weaker and do not have the qualities to be masculine.So for this reason I think that characters like Peter Parker, Columbus and even Sam Witwicky are meant to inspire the people who are seen as weaker in society. However by the end of their films they have all achieved their goals, whether that is saving a girl from hordes of zombies or defeating the Green Goblin. This would make their characters masculine even though they do not process all the characteristics.Another thing that has changed the representation of men in action adventure films is the quote from Laikwab Pang. I think that as time has gone on and women are getting bigger roles in society the representation of men in society has changed too as they are now seen as equals to women, rather than their hierarchy.The final reason that the representation has changed is because at is the end of World War II. When men were not given their jobs back after they returned from fighting. This made them feel out of place in society especially with the psychological damage after coming back.This would of changed it because they are no longer seen as a higher member of society because of their gender so there social grade would be seen as weaker and therefore is why the representation has changed because over time since WW II because they been seen to be just as strong and driven as women.Thank you very much for listen. ................
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