On Masculinity Crisis In The 1990s British Cinema

Masculinity has been constructed as a cultural form in British films since 20th century and it was featured by different types of male images in different eras. During World War Ⅱ, British films mainly depicted debonair gentlemen images and heroic images. In the ensuing decade, focus shifted to common man images. In the New Wave period, masculinity reached the peak, but there still reigned a sense of anxiety towards the future among men. After 1970s, the outbreak of oil crisis posed great threat to the heavy industry, which led to the reform of industrial structure. Thatcher’s governance facilitated industrial reform, leading to mass unemployment of males previously employed in heavy industry.Meanwhile, policies for equality between men and women strengthened women’s power which threatened traditional hegemonic masculinity. Moreover, with gay movement gaining momentum, homosexual relationship was gradually recognized in society and gay characters were profusely depicted in films, which further threatened traditional masculinity. In addition, youth subculture characterized by drugs, alcohol prevailed among young men who were unemployed with nothing to do. All these factors led to the decline and even crisis of masculinity which was bespoken in British films of post 1970s and reached the peak in 1990s.For British films, the 1990s is an interesting decade with more men’s films, mainly depicting middle class, working class and the youth. The three different types of men perform different features of masculinity crisis. This thesis will analyze masculinity images of the three types of men and how they perform masculinity crisis in the 1990s films in Britain. R.W.Connell’s theory on masculinity under gender structure is applied in the thesis. Masculinity is embodied in relations to production power and emotions. The thesis concludes that middle class men are confronted with masculinity crisis in the relations to power and emotions while working class in the relations to production and power and youth in the relations to youth heroin subculture and power. The thesis argues that the crisis is inevitable in the context of de-industrialization, the rising power of women, gay liberation, etc.