Toxic Masculinity in Marvel Films Bachelor’S Diploma Thesis
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Masarykova univerzita Filozofická fakulta Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky Bakalářská diplomová práce 2020 Martina Šutovská Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Martina Šutovská Toxic Masculinity in Marvel Films Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Mgr. Petra Fišerová 2020 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature I would like to thank my parents, sister, family and friends for their unconditional support and also my supervisor, Mrg. Petra Fišerová, for her patience and guidance. Table of Contents 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 6 1.1. Toxic masculinity ........................................................................................................ 8 2. Tony Stark and Toxic Masculinity ............................................................................ 10 2.1. Iron Man vs. Captain America .................................................................................. 19 3. Black Widow Against the Marvel Cinematic Universe ............................................ 26 4. Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 36 5. Works cited ................................................................................................................ 38 6. Summary .................................................................................................................... 43 7. Resumé ...................................................................................................................... 45 1. Introduction Today, one of the greatest and the most powerful means of entertainment lies in the cinematic universe. Superheroes, in general, gained an enormous amount of popularity among a wide range of viewers over the last two decades. Marvel Comics, and later Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), had undergone an era full of experiments in order to establish their name in the film-making industry and, for the most part, becoming a leading giant. By definition, a superhero is someone with the task of saving and protecting the peace and justice in the universe, that is one of the reasons the leading group of MCU was formed out of the mightiest superheroes. In words of Salter and Blodgett “the modern geek hero is both larger than life and incapable of acting as a normal person” (37), which enables them to handle prodigious problems. But their chivalric actions are not always delivered in their purest form. Some areas of this gigantic part of the film industry are still presented with an old-fashioned example of masculinity – in this case, toxic masculinity. This paper examines these areas with the help of critical analysis, and identifies these problems assigned to toxic masculinity, focusing mainly on the character of Iron Man, whose specific ways of behaving, such as his confrontations with Captain America and his womanizing behaviour in the early films make him a problematic member among seemingly perfect group of superheroes. It also focuses on the only female character occurring in Marvel films since the beginning of the new era – Black Widow. This thesis provides an overview of what the concept of toxic masculinity means in general, because this topic is often neglected in academic literature, especially in connection with superhero world of this kind. Later, it takes a closer look at the relationship that Iron Man and Captain America have in the franchise, because this partnership is full of situations where it is possible to find the patterns of behaviour that could be considered as a part of the toxic masculinity scheme. Iron Man, in general, is one of the characters that is considered problematic in the cinematographic universe, for he is, without any doubt, portrayed as the most complex pillar in the Infinity Saga of the MCU. Lastly, it gives a certain amount of space to a leading woman in the MCU – Black Widow. Although she is not a character who could possibly embody toxic masculinity, there are several instances where she witnesses it or is a target of the toxic masculinity practised by her male colleagues in front of and behind the camera. 1.1. Toxic masculinity The term toxic masculinity has gained its popularity in recent years, especially within the feminist movement. However, it “was coined in the mythopoetic men’s movement of the 1980s and ’90s, motivated in part as a reaction to second-wave feminism” (Salter). This movement is defined as a rescue mission for what belongs to a term “deep masculine” (Salter) and “sought to reassert and cultivate an inner "essential" masculinity through all-male gatherings and rituals” (Carroll 170). Those male gatherings and rituals included “male-only workshops, wilderness retreats, and drumming circles,“ (Salter) which were supposed to resurrect the “male warrior” (Salter) because it operated with the thought that there is only one type of masculinity, the “essential” (Carroll 170), which should be adopted by men. This approach to masculinity was soon after rejected and a new trend was introduced by scholars led by Raewyn Connell: Connell’s work describes multiple masculinities shaped by class, race, culture, sexuality, and other factors, often in competition with one another as to which can claim to be more authentic. In this view, which is now the prevailing social-scientific understanding of masculinity, the standards by which a “real man” is defined can vary dramatically across time and place. (Salter) Connell rejects the idea of the concept of what a real man is as a globally set definition and operates with masculinity as a changeable term that changes with time and place. The term toxic masculinity “comes from these men’s social and political settings, the particularities of which set them up for inner conflicts over social expectations and male entitlement” (Salter). Today’s understanding of toxic masculinity is more of a cultural concept and, following Salter, becomes a term that describes the failures of masculinity and gendered violence. The term is more broadly described by Sculos, when he states that the term toxic itself “expresses the harmfulness of the practices and discourses that comprise this notion of masculinity” (3), and furthermore explains the term as a list of the traits that fit the cultural concept of toxic masculinity that is operated with today. He states that: Norms, beliefs, and behaviors often associated with toxic masculinity include: hyper- competitiveness, individualistic self-sufficiency (often to the point of isolation nowadays, but still, and more commonly in the pre-Internet days, in a parochial patriarchal sense of the male role as breadwinner and autocrat of the family), tendency towards or glorification of violence (real or digital, directed at people or any living or non-living things), chauvinism (paternalism towards women), sexism (male superiority), misogyny (hatred of women), rigid conceptions of sexual/gender identity and roles, heteronormativity (belief in the naturalness and superiority of heterosexuality and cisgenderness), entitlement to (sexual) attention from women, (sexual) objectification of women, and the infantilization of women (treating women as immature and lacking awareness or agency and desiring meekness and “youthful” appearance). (3) This list most likely defines the term as is used today for the analyses and description of the toxic masculinity traits embodied by men. Toxic masculinity, although containing the word masculinity, does not affect only men, but, as listed above, it affects members of society as a whole. This thesis tries to find some of those traits in the films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and their characters, although not all of them are present within the films, and identify them in order to provide deeper understanding of the term to the readers and showing them the dangerous effects coming from the acceptance of those values as a norm within society. 2. Tony Stark and Toxic Masculinity Tony Stark and his superhero self, called Iron Man, stand behind the successful start of the new era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which caused a hysteria among the geeks of the world, with the Avengers: Endgame still being the highest grossing film of all times, according to Box Office Mojo, with the revenue close to 3 billion American dollars. This rocket start caused the Marvel frenzy with action figures, T-shirts and other merchandise to expand rapidly. Iron Man, standing among the favourites of the Avengers team, as a poll taken from RottenTomatoes shows, while sharing his position with Captain America, is a hero that re- defined our perception of what a new era superhero should be and act like, however, his behaviour seems to be stuck in the past in which certain patterns, toxic patterns, of this behaviour would be considered acceptable. With Iron Man’s extraordinary act at the end of the Avengers: Endgame, where he finishes his character development in a form of going from a womanizer and a military equipment producer (Iron Man), drunk man in despair balancing on the edge of self-destructive behaviour (Iron Man 2), a man in despair dealing with PTSD (Iron Man 3) into a man willing to sacrifice everything for the people he loves (Avengers: Endgame) which makes the steps he made almost forgotten,