Masculinity in the Movies and War

This article is an interesting look at the current status of the masculine ideal in American film.

The author, Christopher Goodwin, is arguing that the gender paradigm has recently shifted away from stereotypical manly men (think Arnold in Conan the Barbarian or anything by John Wayne.) There are no movie stars who have the masculine appeal of Cary Grant or other early stars. The male romantic leads of the day are most often nerds, geeks, or others who have a "flawed" sense of what it means to be a true man.

He seems to think that this is a troublesome development in terms of how gender is viewed within American society.

(Shift to me postulating with some of the ideas from the end of the article:)
But it is definitely a reflection of a different time. Even as late as the end of the cold war, warfare was something that was fought on the ground against enemies you could mostly see. It required a certain amount of physical prowess and strength. Since the fall of the USSR, the American army has taken a very different role. Now, rather than being in a struggle for military supremacy with another militaristic super power, the American armed forces now find themselves more often in the role of peace keeper and occupier, not struggling against an army but controlling an "unruly" country. These roles are much more associated with traditionally feminine charactistics: placations, fairness, and keeping children (and many Americans seems to think of the Arabs and others as being beneath us, something like children.)

Also with the ever increasing role that computers play in our lives, the man as hunter, and later warrior, is becoming a surprising and somewhat unexpected casualty. Fighting is not as much about strength as it once was. Battles are not won but the muscles of the common soldiers. Battles are won by the techies. Computers are responsible for much of the American prowess. And computers are where "geeks" shine. In addition, the current regions of fighting that the US finds themselves in are focused less on hand to hand combat and more on guerrilla warfare , suicide bombers, and automated bombs. This means that the focus on the importance of "masculine" skills, fighting, strength, and ruggedness has lessened a great deal. And the "weaker" skills of more mental tasks have taken greater importance.

This Academy's Life

"This Academy's Life" audio Project about masculinity at the academy is underway. Topics include mother-son relationships, father-son relationships, masculinity and alcohol/drugs, and relationships with women. Click here for a short intro to the project.

More on Thomas Beatie

A few opinions about the pregnant transman Thomas Beatie.

CNN (Video)

Jeff Jacoby's Opinion (text)

Fox News's Take (video)

Fox News's Apology (video)

Testosterone

Thanks for the heads up on "This American Life" Adrian - we'll listen to this in class. - DC

This American Life

CNN Headline News: Mom Saw Warning signs

Just published today, it talks about what we have been reading in Raising Cain.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/11/boudreau.campus.rage/index.html

Family Roles

My favorite poem in this collection was Anna Grasa, mostly because it describes the opposite feeling I have for my family, and yet somehow the same feeling. When I think of 'home,' my mind is momentarily confused; it has no image to grab onto. I'm not saying I was raised horribly or implying that my parents moved around ever two months; I'm simple saying that I, as a legal 'adult' make my own home. Both my parents were extremely supportive in raising me; I was always encouraged to read more, always had a big present under the tree. It is just that, when it comes to father figures, I feel like I have had many half-fathers. My real dad represents something genuine; I have common threads with him that I can find nowhere else in the world. However, I almost never see him. My step-dad represents the value of hard work to me, as well as strong family values. However, there seems to be an invisible barrier around us, never letting us get as close as a 'real' father and a son. My grandfather is the closest thing I have to a dad. We have the bond that me and my real dad have, and I see him all the time. However, he is only one man; he cannot fill the void of a father and a grand-father at the same time. Only my mom has remained constant. However, even she, with all her motherly love, cannot become a father. So, I am left with a half-home, a hodge-podge of partial family members, all more than they should be, and yet, not enough. Sometimes I wonder if growing up means having your own home to go back to. The poem, to me, represent a bittersweet irony that I have begun to realize. That man had a dad and a grand-mother, both playing their tradition roles. He chose the mother's love as the greater example of home over his father's masculinity; this probably being due to his stay in his own personal hell of a war. Why can't I choose to feel the way I do about members of my family? Why can't my mom be a father figure, or my grandfather be a dad? Does society really choose what roles people have to play in a tradition home? I have yet to find out.

Men in War Poems

AB Negative (The Surgeon’s Poem) Compared to D.C. Berry

Both of these poems tell us about masculinity in the war. The first poem called AB Negative, which tells the story about a women, which turns in to the efforts of the surgeons trying to save her, and her drifting off, starting to zone out. In the poem it says “Thalia fields is gone, long gone” which can let us imply that she died. Then it says that the surgeons was in tears, and needed help from a nurse to be sat down. This shows the more feminine side, with the male surgeon breaking down, and being escorted by a woman. Also the author illustrates the women’s feeling by the colors she is seeing when she is drifting in and out of consciousness.
In the D.C. Berry poem, it tells what it feels like to be shot in the lung in a Vietnam rice field. The poem is staggering in its writing to give the feeling like the soldier is distorted in pain. “You are lungshot in a race paddy and you are taking a drink of your own homeostatic globules each time you swallow a pail of air”. This poem is showing the graphite effects of the pain, while The Surgeons Poem is softer, with the woman drifting in and out of consciousness easily, with no pain.
This can all be compared to the Vietnam video, were the soldiers were trained in boot camp to ‘kill, kill, kill’ and to “pray for war”. These poems show both the masculine and feminine sides of the soldiers. That getting shot in the lung is painful, and it takes your mind off everything except your lung and the pain you are feeling. While in The Surgeons Poem the male figure broke down from the pressures of war, and the death surrounded by it. These poems show how the war brought out different sides of males and how it was nothing that they had predicted it to be.

Men & War

Poems: D.C. Berry and AB Negative

What can these poems tell us about men’s experiences in war and masculinity?

Both peoems D. C. Berry and AB Negative (The Surgeon’s Poem) deal with a person dying in war. On is a woman in Iraq who is flying to hosptial in Germany, but dies on her way and the other one is about a man in Vietnam getting shot in his lung. The narrators of both poems are soldiers and seem to be extremely moved by the brutality and cruelty of the each war.
In D. C. Berry the narrator is trying to express how the war changed his view of the world. It says: „The sun goes down in a different way, when you are lungshot.“ This is certainly true and it shows how this man has learned to appreciate the little things in life like a sunset, which happens every day.
In AB Negative the narrator describes the death of a female soldiers which is especially moving, because we do not hear very frequently about killed female soldiers. This event must have had a huge impact on the narrator. The scene is described with a lot of blood, so all the blood in the war has probably effected the narrator.
Both narrators seem to regret their decision to go to war, because they have seen so much cruelty and seeing people die everyday is a terrible thing. Even though it is considered very masculin to go to war, it does not seem like the two narrators care a lot about it anymore. Also, because in AB Negative it is a female soldier who is killed, it seems like they do not think that beeing a soldier proves your masculinty, but that most people probably should not go to war, because as said in the movie „they make you become an animal.“

Men and War

As a 17 year old young man in Westford, Massachusetts my favorite English class was "Men and War" taught by a wise, grizzly old English teacher named Jim McNiff who was a Vietnam veteren. Having a teacher who taught in 'Nam gave him a certain aura to an impressionable bunch of teenagers. With time, I've come to appreciate the devastating effect that war has on men. Some of that understanding has come through men who fought in Vietnam along with Jim McNiff. "Winter Solder" a sobering documentary about Vietnam veterens organizing against the war, illustrates the horrifying tragedies that many of them experienced and perpetrated firsthand. In poetry, we can find the deeper scars that men encounter on the battlefield. In "After Our War" we see the emotional scars that soldiers carry with them back home characterized as body parts. "Will the myriad world surrender new metaphor? After our war, how will love speak?" In "Anna Grasa," the vulnerable inner emotional life of veterens is revealed in a young man's love for the security and safety that his beloved grandmother represents. More recently, the Iraq War has become another crucible in which men are made and destroyed. "The Marlboro Marine" shows how the posterchild of the US military tragically became the posterboy for PTSD. Another soldier-poet (Brian Turner), in AB Negative (The Surgeon's Poem) flips gender roles on us as a tearful, caring surgeon breaks down over the death of a young American female soldier. Ultimately, in "Here, Bullet" Tuner takes us even deeper to consider how we may carry war's death wish inside us all. After thousands of years of men making war on this planet, Tuner may unfortunately be right, "here is where the world ends, every time."

You Spin Me 'Round - Dead or Alive

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This video is interesting, to say the least. The masculinity of the lyrics (Open up your lovin' arms, I want some) is directly contrasted by the androgynous clothing worn in the video. The main singer, Pete Burn, is a major celebrity in the UK. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Burns

Poetry on the Iraq War

http://www.alicejamesbooks.org/turner_poem.html

Read the examples of Brian Turner's poems about his experience in Iraq. The collection of his poetry is entitled "Here, Bullet"

Madonna - Express yourself

First video that shows half-naked men, which today happens in every other music video or so. In the video Madonna tells women to only take the best (Men used to be the ones that were able to choose) and not give up until their perfect fit is found. In the Chorus she sings „you’ve got to, make him express how he feels.“ With this she is saying that women need to make men express themselves and show their love to them, otherwise they are not worth it. She implies that she finds that men should be more sensitive and show feelings and not only be the way they used to be: same-looks, strong muscles and without feelings. Madonna does not want this role-model man anymore, she wants that men give everything to a woman, open up to them and confess their feelings.

Aha- Take on Me

This is the video from 1985 for Aha's "Take on Me". There are some special effects that were ahead of it's time but the video portrays some classic gender roles. The lead singer Morten Harket is portrayed racing a motorcycle in a comic book and plays the role of the classic bad-guy that girls hate to love. After some second thoughts, the girl reading the comic book joins him inside and they travel through the story partly in animation and in film. Eventually he saves her from motorcycle thugs and they embrace. While the video has aged, the symbols of gender roles are classic and very much alive in music videos today.

Video Killed the Radio Star

That was video killed the radio star by the buggles. This was the first video on mtv, it was very popular and started the music we see now. Not only does this video show the advance in technology, but the gender roles displayed in it. As you saw, the men controlled the technology while the woman were shocked by it. Also the women were sculpted by it, when the band had the future lab scene and when the girl turns into a women. It shows how the male is more dominant, with the lead singing being up fron with the small girl and the women, minimized in the background. Up next is Take on Me by A-ha.