Crisis Of Masculinity In The Films American Beauty And Fight Club

This thesis discusses the condition of masculinity at the turn of millenniumthrough an analysis of two American films produced in the late1990s, AmericanBeauty and Fight Club. Relying on R.W. Connell’s theorization of the multiplepatterns of masculinity, this thesis explores the decline of hegemonic masculinity andthe rise of subordinated masculinity, homosexuality in particular, in the malecharacters of the two films.Moreover, by examining the symbolic practice and social institutions of genderconfiguration, this thesis searches for the causes for the crisis of masculinity.Adopting Baudrillard’s critique of consumer society, this thesis studies masculinity inthis new social background and how the ever increasing commercial culture in thelatter half of20thcentury reshapes definition of masculinity by reducing it to an imageto be acquired through consumption. At the same time, feminist and gay liberationmovement in the1960s and70s have brought about a heavy blow to hegemonicmasculinity.Faced with such a crisis of masculinity, men in both films choose to return to thebody in order to form a new sense of self and thus of masculinity that is freed fromsocietal control. During their confrontation with the emasculating forces, thebrand-new men realize that the real way out of this crisis is to return to humanity—tothe true, kind and beautiful things in life.