A QUALITATIVE TEXTUAL AND COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE REPRESENTATION OF MASCULINITY IN THE ACTION AND ROMANTIC COMEDY GENRES by GERALD JAMES PASCOE submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in the subject of COMMUNICATION at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA SUPERVISOR: DR JULIE REID CO-SUPERVISOR: MR CHRISTO CILLIERS June 2012 Student number: 46293442 I declare that A QUALITATIVE TEXTUAL AND COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE REPRESENTATION OF MASCULINITY IN THE ACTION AND ROMANTIC COMEDY GENRES is my own work and that all the sources that I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete references. 15 June 2012 GJ Pascoe Date SUMMARY Title: A QUALITATIVE TEXTUAL AND COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE REPRESENTATION OF MASCULINITY IN THE ACTION AND ROMANTIC COMEDY GENRES By: GJ Pascoe Degree: Master of Arts Subject: Communication Science Supervisor: Dr J Reid Co-supervisor: Mr C Cilliers Summary: This study is an exploration of the representation of masculinity in film, with particular focus on the way in which the leading male characters in a purposive sample of action genre and romantic comedy genre films represent masculinity. It is posited that masculinity is a construct, the meaning of which is dependent on the social context of the individual. Film being a social artefact could then possibly influence individuals understanding of the construct. Therefore an exploration of the kind of masculinity, the variations thereof across genres, and masculine characteristics of masculinity prevalent in each genre, is a first step in understanding possible influences of the definition of masculinity. In order to accomplish this exploration, a combination of methods is used to analyse these fictional characters according to a set of codes and „real‟ world norms. The real world norms are based on seven theoretically derived norms of masculinity developed from previous research on masculinity conducted by Levant, Hirsch, Celentano, Cozza, Hill, MacEachern, Marty and Schnedekerl (1992). The results of the findings from this study indicate that the way in which male characters are created for each genre are different, with male lead characters from the action genre having more characteristics that align with the „real‟ world norms of masculinity (Levant et al 1992). Alternatively, the male lead characters from the romantic comedy genre, have fewer characteristics that align with the seven theoretically derived norms of masculinity. The masculinity represented in the romantic comedy genre is more emotionally available and expressive, less aggressive, more compromising and reliant on others; while in the action genre masculinity is more independent, stoic, aggressive and more physically adventurous. The male lead characters in the romantic comedy genre are more about the emotional aspects of masculinity while the male lead characters in the action genre are more about the physical aspects of masculinity. Key terms: masculinity, gender, film, genre, directed qualitative content analysis, three-stage coding process, social construction of reality, symbolic interactionism Table of Contents Page 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.2 CONTEXT OF THE STUDY 3 1.2.1 Purpose of study 3 1.2.2 Relevance of the topic 3 1.2.3 Background of the study 5 1.2.4 Relationship of the topic to the discipline of Communication 6 1.3 TYPE OF STUDY 7 1.4 FORMULATION OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM 10 1.4.1 The research problem 10 1.4.2 The sub-problems 10 1.4.3 The research question 10 1.5 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 10 1.5.1 Collection, analysis and interpretation of data 11 1.5.2 Feasibility of the study 13 1.6 SUMMATION AND OVERVIEW OF REMAINING CHAPTERS 13 2 THEORETICAL LANDSCAPE 16 2.1 INTRODUCTION 16 2.2 SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONISM 18 2.3 SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM 23 2.4 SUMMATION 26 3 MASCULINITY 28 3.1 INTRODUCTION 28 3.2 GENDER 30 3.3 SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF GENDER 32 3.4 GENDER ROLE STRAIN 37 3.5 MASCULINITY 46 3.6 HYPER- VS HYPO-MASCULINITY 50 3.7 MALE ROLE NORMS INVENTORY 51 3.8 SUMMATION 53 4 GENRE 55 4.1 INTRODUCTION 55 4.2 GENRE THEORY 57 4.2.1 Audience classification of genre 58 i 4.2.2 Semantic classification of genre 59 4.2.3 Syntactic classification of genre 60 4.3 MASCULINITY IN FILM AS A REPRESENTATION OF SOCIAL ‘REALITY’ 63 4.3.1 Character representation as social constructions 65 4.3.2 Evolution of the representations of masculinity in film 67 4.4 MEN’S VS WOMEN’S FILM 70 4.4.1 The romantic comedy 73 4.4.2 The action film 76 4.5 SUMMATION 79 5 METHODOLOGY 82 5.1 INTRODUCTION 82 5.2 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH DESIGN 83 5.2.1 Basic research 84 5.2.2 Exploratory research 85 5.2.3 Descriptive research 85 5.3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 86 5.4 POPULATION AND SAMPLING 86 5.4.1 Population 86 5.4.2 Sampling 87 5.4.3 Unit of analysis 88 5.5 DATA COLLECTION METHODS AND TECHNIQUES 81 5.5.1 Validity and reliability 92 5.6 DATA ANALYSIS 93 5.6.1 Stage one 93 5.6.2 Stage two 95 5.6.3 Stage three 97 5.6.4 Stage four 98 5.6.5 Comparative analysis 98 5.7 SUMMATION 99 6 ANALYSIS 100 6.1 INTRODUCTION 100 6.2 CODES 102 6.2.1 Description of the codes 102 6.3 ACTION GENRE 106 6.3.1 Knight and Day (2010) 107 6.3.2 The Tourist (2010) 107 6.3.3 Unstoppable (2010) 108 6.4 ROMANTIC COMEDY GENRE 108 ii 6.4.1 Killers (2010) 109 6.4.2 Just Go With It (2011) 110 6.4.3 The Back-Up Plan (2010) 110 6.5 SUMMARY OF CODED DATA 110 6.6 THE ACTION GENRE ANALYSIS 119 6.6.1 Fear and hatred of homosexuality 119 6.6.2 Self-reliance 120 6.6.3 Achievement and status 122 6.6.4 Aggression 124 6.6.5 Non-relational attitudes towards sex 125 6.6.6 Avoidance of femininity 126 6.6.7 Restrictive emotionality 126 6.6.8 Comparison of action genre characters 128 6.7 THE ROMANTIC COMEDY GENRE ANALYSIS 131 6.7.1 Fear and hatred of homosexuality 131 6.7.2 Self-reliance 132 6.7.3 Achievement and status 134 6.7.4 Aggression 135 6.7.5 Non-relational attitude towards sex 136 6.7.6 Avoidance of femininity 137 6.7.7 Restrictive emotionality 138 6.7.8 Comparison of romantic comedy genre characters 139 6.8 ROMANTIC COMEDY AND ACTION GENRE COMPARISON 141 6.9 SUMMATION 148 7 CONCLUSION 150 7.1 INTRODUCTION 150 7.2 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES REVIEWED 150 7.3 LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 154 7.4 CONCLUDING REMARKS 155 REFERENCE LIST 157 ADDENDUM 174 Filmography of action and romantic comedy genre films described in the study 174 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 5.1 Conceptual framework of the combined data collection methods 91 Figure 5.2 Visual representation of the stages of the comparisons 99 iii LIST OF TABLES Table 6.1 Summary of coded data 112 Table 6.2 Visual representation of character alignment with themes 145 iv CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 INTRODUCTION It is rare to find analyses that seek to specify in detail, in relation to particular films or groups of films, how heterosexual masculinity is inscribed and the mechanisms, pressures, and contradictions that inscription may involve. (Neale 1993:9). Identity constructs such as gender, ethnicity, class, nationality, and sexual orientation are social constructs which differ across time and culture (O‟Dowd 2003:41). The study of masculinity, in particular, is predicated on the theory that there is a difference between an individual‟s sex and gender. An individual‟s sex is considered to be the biological identification as either male or female, and gender is the socially constructed roles that are hinged upon a culturally and historically determined set of possibilities which come to be associated with masculinity and femininity (Benshoff & Griffin 2009:214). These socially constructed roles could come from film; as Gross (cited in Hart 2000) states that there are elements of individuals‟ knowledge of the social world that are derived from media representations. It is, therefore, important to examine what kinds of representations are being included in the media, as individuals are likely to form opinions of others, as well as themselves, from those representations. Furthermore, it is important to analyse the representations in film when certain genres are produced for audiences according to gender and as Livingstone (cited in Chandler 1997) argues are “concerned to establish different world views”. Taking the differences between film characters (whether main characters or supporting characters) at face value one can assume that there will be differences between film characters from different genres. Different genres are produced so that audiences are aware, on entering the cinema, what to expect from the story line, characters and film techniques (Bordwell & Thompson 2001:97). However, as stated by Schatz (2004:694) “we can appreciate difference only when we begin to examine Gerald Pascoe 1 SN:46293442 films systematically, when we consider the systems whereby an individual film “makes meaning”. A systematic analysis of the representations of masculinity in film, would offer more meaningful insight as to how masculinity is represented in modern film across genres. Benshoff and Griffin (2009:228) state that „chick flicks‟, „weepies‟ and „tearjerkers‟ are considered woman‟s films as they are produced to attract a predominantly female audience. Benshoff and Griffin (2009:229) continue by stating that there is a lack of a matching „man‟s film‟ genre “because most of the rest of Hollywood cinema is „man‟s film‟”.