Masculinity In The Man From Snowy River

= Since the revival of Australian cinema in early 1970s, Australian films have focused on certain themes of social perceptions and representations of masculinity. We see dominant,

David Fincher’s Fight Club, 1999, contains strong themes of masculinity and enforced gender roles. It is subjective, however, whether or not the gender narrative within the film complies with modern feminist values, or serves as nothing more than masculine empowerment. The two critical texts I have chosen to study are Masculinity in Crisis and Private Satisfactions and Public Disorders: Fight Club, Patriarchy, and the Politics of Masculine Violence, both of which analyse Fight Club through a feminist lens. My first critical text views the film as a feminist statement on the toxicity of masculine violence, while my second text finds more faults with the gender roles in the film.

Within comptemporary society, there are many ways to define gender. Gender includes all the characteristics that differentiate masculinity and femininity. The existence of masculinity create problems for every men because they are constantly pressured to behave in a certain way in order to look masculine. In the story “The Maltese Falcon” by Dashiell Hammett, masculinity is negatively depicted as problematic toward men. In this story, the author displays the negativity of masculinity through the conduct, manliness and reputation of the main character.

Masculinity, the attributes applied to the male gender, has continuously manifested itself within the matrices of literature, with many writers using narrative fiction as a vehicle to explore ideas of the historical underpinnings of manhood, and more generally, alternative constructions of the male ontology and modality. Transcendental notions of masculinity have inevitably constrained the contemporary man within set ideologies and values — those which often enforce unrealistic and toxic expectations. This conundrum is especially relevant in Australian society given the stereotypical and diffused archetype of the ‘Aussie Man’; which characteristics such as apathy, nobility and strength forming the bedrock of the national identity. Tim Winton, a prominent Australian author, has recognised and highlighted this issue in his collection of short stories The Turning, effectively challenging timeless stereotypes and portraying distinctive

The movie surveyed a wide array of the troubles faced by boys and men as they try to navigate the realm of masculinity. A common theme was the command “be a man” and the cultural baggage that comes with living up to that ideal. To “be a man” means to not cry, to not be sensitive, to not let people mess with you, to respond with violence, to be angry, to drink, to womanize.

Throughout history, leaders have romanticized war to convince men to leave their lives behind and fight, while women are forced into independent roles while still expecting to maintain proper lady like mannerisms and behaviors. Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier, shows how the Civil War forced both men and women to become more masculine in order to survive the Civil War in Victorian America. Victorian America is one of the many terms used by historians to discuss the wealthier sections of the southern states during and after the Civil War, and this is where the story, Cold Mountain takes place. Cold Mountain is a historical fiction novel about a southern soldier’s odyssey to return to home to his love, Ada. Cold Mountain depicts how war forces

The perception of masculinity within Australian films is a reflection of our society’s views and opinions of what it is to be considered masculine. It is continually reinforced in our society by the constructions of the male character in movies, just like Archie and Frank, in Gallipoli and particular male figures within our nation’s history, such as Ned Kelly. Peter Weir’s reflection of masculinity through the use of his two main characters Archie and Frank, in his 1981 film Gallipoli, helped to perpetuate this construction of the Aussie male stereotype

The “New Man” as described by Ken Gillam and Shannon R. Wooden in Post Princess Models of Gender: The New Man in Disney/Pixar explains the way in which men are portrayed in children's films today and how that varies from older films. Contrasting this “New Man” are all the dangerous and traditional men Michael S. Kimmel describes in Gender, Class and Terrorism because these men are “uber macho males” as explained by Gillam and Wooden. Pixar’s “New Man” definition has evolved from the original definition of what it means to be male and have masculine qualities which escapes the rhetoric of masculinity(a term coined by Kimmel) which if incorporated into modern society would lessen negative events that happen in the world. When speaking of negative events that covers all damaging behavior that comes from following what C.J. Pascoe explains in “‘Dude, You’re a Fag”: Adolescent Masculinity and the Fag Discourse”. In Pascoe’s work he describes the way in which men treat each other to diminish each other's manhood.

the winning and holding of power and the formation (and destruction) of social groups in that process” (644) such that it is crucial that the ruling class establishes and maintains its domination. Moreover, it includes persuasion of a big part of the population, especially through the media and the organization of social institutions. Homophobia and heterosexuality form the foundation for hegemonic masculinity and all comprehension of its meaning is predicated “on the feminist insight that in general the relationship of men to women is oppressive” (644). Hegemonic masculinity is grounded in form of the hero and displayed through forms that deal with heroes, e.g., sagas, and westerns, in television, books, and movies (Connell qtd. in Donaldson 646). To define a specific form of masculinity as hegemonic, it is important to note that “its exaltation stabilizes a structure of dominance and oppression in the gender order as a whole” (Connell qtd. in Donaldson 646).

Both The Man from Snowy River and Return to Snowy River are set in Australia and are about wild horses, mountain men and Australian gold. However, there are some elements that set them apart. The details that set the first movie apart from the second are the photography of scenery used in the film, the quick development of the plot throughout the film, and also the first film can be categorized in many genres such as Comedy, Western, and Romance. The Man from Snowy River is clearly better than the second installment Return to Snowy River.

The documentary is about problems with masculinity definition of most American boys and young men when they cannot live true to themselves under media, their peer groups, and the adult pressure. They have to live in gender stereotypes, which courage them hide their emotion, devalue authentic friendships and solve conflicts by violence. Specifically, a character named Ian, he grew up with his grandfather's voice - be bigger, stronger, faster. He always proves himself and has to change every natural thing from his voice to his hair so as to show masculinity. Next is situation of Branch- an educator and youth advocate, he usually puts on a tough mask and never let people see any of his vulnerabilities. In my family, it's very easy to catch these

The film, then, is a portrayal of a masculine friendship breaking down, as well as an examination of masculinity as a whole. I will describe the various representations of the masculine in our experimental film. After a brief, mysterious opening showing Ryan isolated in his apartment intercut with shots of him running away from something, we cut to a flashback and introduce our two main

Media, especially Hollywood Film, has been one of the foremost vehicles for the perpetuation of masculine hegemony, not only in the West, but the world over. Much of our behavioural cues are taken from what we observe on-screen. The question of whether or not life imitates art is central in attempting to understand how our desires come to exist in the first place, and to what degree these desires are natural, or a byproduct of the incessant behavioural suggestions we consume via the screen. The concept of what is masculine is not cut-and-dried, but Hollywood has had a way of portraying a clear hegemonically ideal man -- he is suave, intelligent, usually wealthy (or at least highly agentic by other means such as sheer force of presence) ; he

ABSTRACT Hyper-masculinity, defined as the exaggeration of physical strength, aggression and sexuality that essentializes masculinity (Mosher & Sirkin, 1984), appears to be a prevalent feature of contemporary science-fiction films in Hollywood in the year 2000s. The films’ ability to influence the masses lies in its ability to reach many people at the same time, thus transcending boundaries of time and space. Since the American film industry is a dominant force in world television (Tudor, 2013), the portrayals of masculinity in contemporary Hollywood sci-fi films have the potential to penetrate the minds of people around the world, across different time zones. In this paper, we argue that contemporary Hollywood sci-fi films perpetuate hegemonic

In A View From The Bridge, Arthur Miller explores what it is to be a man in many ways, such as the jobs and skills the characters have, power within family, sexuality and having honor. Many of these ways are shown directly, but are also shown indirectly in what the characters say. Eddie Carbone as he main protagonist of this play, a lot of the themes of masculinity are linked to Eddie and his views.