Masculinity and Monstrosity in Contemporary Hollywood Films

Combe, Kirk; Boyle, Brenda M.

doi:10.1057/9781137359827

Cited by 7 publications

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“…While tighter gun control is unlikely to be the antidote for M-S, it does seem reasonable to prospectively evaluate if reducing the number and restricting the types of guns (i.e., high powered, automatic) results in fewer cases of M-S and/or reductions to the number of murder victims in M-S. In the context of gender, guns have been linked to masculine identities ranging from law enforcement officers to gangsters—and such “good guy”–“bad guy” binaries continue to feature whereby the central character(s) (villains and heroes) are men using guns ( Combe & Boyle, 2013 ). One central challenge here is to distance, and ideally dislocate masculinity from the reactive and fatal use of guns by modeling and affirming alternatives to wielding power and asserting dominance with such aggression and tragedy.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Men, Masculinities, and Murder-Suicide

et al. 2014

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Murder-suicide (M-S) is a complex phenomenon that can involve a multifaceted set of interrelated biological and social factors. M-S is also sexed and gendered in that the perpetrators are most often male and their underpinning motives and actions link to masculinities in an array of diverse ways. With the overarching goal to describe connections between men, masculinities, and M-S, 296 newspaper articles describing 45 North American M-S cases were analyzed. The inductively derived findings revealed three themes: (a) domestic desperation, (b) workplace justice, and (c) school retaliation. Cases in the domestic desperation theme were characterized by the murder of a family member(s) and were often underpinned by men’s self-perceptions of failing to provide economic security. Workplace justice cases emerged from men’s grievances around paid-work, job insecurity, and perceptions of being bullied and/or marginalized by coworkers or supervisors. The school retaliation cases were strongly linked to “pay back” against individuals and/or society for the hardships endured by M-S perpetrators. Prevailing across the three themes was men’s loss of control in their lives, hopelessness, and marginalized masculine identities. Also evident were men’s alignments to hegemonic masculinities in reasserting one’s masculine self by protesting the perceived marginalization invoked on them. Overall, the findings give pause to consider the need for men-centered M-S prevention strategies to quell the catastrophic impacts of this long-standing but understudied men’s health issue.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…to feature whereby the central character(s) (villains and heroes) are men using guns (Combe & Boyle, 2013). One central challenge here is to distance, and ideally dislocate masculinity from the reactive and fatal use of guns by modeling and affirming alternatives to wielding power and asserting dominance with such aggression and tragedy.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Men, Masculinities, and Murder-Suicide

et al. 2014

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“… See Combe and Boyle, in particular their introduction, “Introductions: Of Masculine, Monstrous, and Me.” Recent films involving this kind of masculine/monstrous inversion include District 9 , Avatar , V for Vendetta , and Peter Jackson's King Kong . …”

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confidence: 99%

Homeland Insecurity: Macho Globalization and Alien Blowback in Monsters

Combe¹

2015

The J of Popular Culture

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A SMALL-BUDGET, INDEPENDENT FILM WRITTEN, DIRECTED, AND visually enhanced by British filmmaker Gareth Edwards, Monsters (2010), features a story concept clearly with the potential for a big-budget, alien-invasion action film. However, this movie goes out of its way to disappoint such spectacular expectations for that popular genre. 1 Monsters depicts a private-life view of an encounter with large monsters rather than the usual pitched and very public military struggle against such terrifying outsiders. The tone of the movie is intimate and meditative. Moreover, Edwards delivers a deliberate and observant political-economic treatment of such an incredible event, something not typical of most monster films. In effect, the action-packed backstory of an alien life form being brought to earth by NASA, but getting accidentally out of control with the consequence being an "Infected Zone" taking up the northern half of Mexico, is skillfully told in the background of Monsters. That is, through glimpses of television news reports and public service announcements, by reading the innumerable public signs, maps, and murals attempting to deal with the situation, or via the constant flyovers of fighter jets and helicopters or the ubiquitous wreckage of buildings, trains, boats, and military hardware, the viewer is able to piece together not only events, but the fact that six years of alien presence on earth bizarrely has naturalized this disaster. It seems that a migration/expansion of habitat by "the creatures" has become a yearly event producing an anxious time for both Mexico and the United States. The Mexican government and people are hard-pressed to cope with the outright invasion of their territory, while the US government and military work hard to keep the aliens-that they

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Lawful Lawyer, Vigilante Father

Dorey¹

2015

A Companion to Robert Altman

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Masculinity and Monstrosity in Contemporary Hollywood Films

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

Men, Masculinities, and Murder-Suicide

Men, Masculinities, and Murder-Suicide

Homeland Insecurity: Macho Globalization and Alien Blowback in Monsters

Lawful Lawyer, Vigilante Father

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