Page 471 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

0 | Representat ons of Mascul n ty

new stereotypes of masculinity that reflected these new priorities also began to
appear in movies.
One of the key stereotypes of masculinity during the 1950s revolved around
the twinned concepts of the “breadwinner” and the “domesticated male.” This
figure reflected both traditional assumptions about men’s economic position in
the family as well as a more progressive belief in the need for a more equal dis-
tribution of responsibility in the home between men and women. This latter as-
pect provoked concern that traditional qualities of manhood were being eroded.
Consequently, this stereotype of 1950s masculinity quickly became a figure of
ridicule. In January 1954, Life magazine published a humorous article titled The
New American Domesticated Male, which poked fun at these men who struggled
to conform to the demands of work and home life. The following year, moviego-
ers were presented with one of the most memorable portrayals of this new type
of man in Nicholas Ray’s Rebel Without a Cause. While James Dean’s portrayal of
one of the era’s other key ways of representing men—the rebel—is probably the
best-remembered feature of the movie, the film’s depiction of masculinity in cri-
sis is enacted through Jim Stark’s (Dean’s character) relationship with his father,
Frank (Jim Backus), an almost cartoonish vision of the domesticated male. Jim
longs for a father he can look up to as a role model, someone who can show him
how to be a man, but Frank is a timid man who is afraid of his domineering wife
and possesses no authority in the home. In a key scene, Jim catches his father

MasCulinity and raCe

Within much of the debate about masculinity, it is possible to overlook one of the funda-
mental assumptions that often underlies both representations of masculinity themselves and
discussion about those representations: that the presumed normative masculine identity is
white. In the past, representations of nonwhite masculinities have either been sidelined or
have only taken center stage when they are presented as a problem. Despite the existence of
distinctive and assertive nonwhite masculinities—the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam,
for example, or the identities assumed by young men influenced by gangsta rap, which may
be less formally constituted but are no less distinctive, and signal clear affinity with an iden-
tifiable community—and despite the undoubtedly increased visibility of race in recent years,
white male characters generally remain the central figures, even in apparently liberal-minded
cultural productions. In The Shield (FX, 2002–), for example, while numerous African American
and Latino characters occupy positions of authority, their actions are repeatedly undermined
by the actions of a white male detective, Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis). Similarly, while 24 (Fox,
2001–) may provide the first representation of an African American U.S. president, his attain-
ment and continuing possession of power relies almost entirely on the actions of the maverick
agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland), a white man. The construction of Bauer’s character most
closely resembles that of the western heroes of numerous films from the 1950s: the maverick,
the outsider, the man who does “whatever a man has to do,” and his role in underpinning a
representation of a nonwhite president illustrates the extent to which conservative values and
assumptions continue to inform representations of racially marked masculinities.