In the wake of the #MeToo movement, filmmakers have explored toxic masculinity in every genre imaginable, with surprising results.
When the announcement came in 2020 that Greta Gerwig would direct the films Lady Bird: It’s time to fly (2017) e Little Women (2019) — would also be the director and one of the screenwriters of a film about Barbie dolls, his fans imagined that he would include in the film criticisms of consumerism and concern for one’s body inspired by the dolls.
And this is exactly what happened.
But, in one of the many surprises offered by Barbie, the two topics were mentioned only in passing. The main concern of the film – which achieved the highest box office of 2023 – was the bad behavior of men towards women. And one man, in particular.
The endearing Ken (played by Ryan Gosling), at first glance, seems like a nice guy.
But when Barbie (Margot Robbie) refuses to have a romantic relationship with him (mostly because she doesn’t know what a romantic relationship is), Ken enacts his evil revenge.
She moves into Barbie’s Dream House, decorates the room with saloon doors, and changes its name to “Mojo Dojo House House”.
He conspires with his fellow Kens to brainwash all Barbie dolls into foolish, submissive women.
Their plans also include reforming Barbielandia’s constitution, so that they now hold all the power.
Worse yet, Ken forces Barbie to listen to him play the song Push, by the band Matchbox Twenty, on his acoustic guitar for four hours straight.
Never had a Hollywood superproduction presented such an accurate parody of the fragile male ego.
But while the angle Gerwig chose was wonderfully bold and unexpected, she wasn’t alone.
It became clear over the course of 2023 that filmmakers around the world were fascinated by and loudly repudiated arrogant, predatory, mean-spirited men.
The fact is that, in cinema, this was the year of the “trash boy”.
Options for all tastes
In the same week in October, American audiences could choose from three new films tackling male toxicity: Cat person, Correctness AND The Royal Hotel.
Directed by Susanna Fogel, Cat Person is an adaptation of Kristen Roupenian’s viral short story, published in the American magazine The New Yorker.
The film stars Emilia Jones, who plays a student who flirts with a man in his thirties, Nicholas Braun. She ends up discovering that in person, she doesn’t have an ounce of the charm that she shows in her text messages.
It makes her uncomfortable, but she feels like she has to go along with whatever he wants, including watching Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back at the cinema where he works.
And when she rejects him, her reaction is similar to Ken’s: he starts sending her abusive messages.
Correctness was written and directed by Chloe Domont.
Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich play a new couple who work at the same Wall Street investment firm.
When she gets the promotion she wanted, he declares himself happy for her, but soon sinks into unhealthy jealousy.
It’s at The Royal Hotelfrom director Kitty Green, Julia Garner and Jessica Henwick play two American backpackers who get jobs as waitresses at a bar in Australia during the summer.
Before they began work, the warning came: “You will need to accept some male attention.”
But in reality, what they have to accept is misogynistic abuse disguised as jokes and lecherous men staggering into their rooms after the bar closes.
In 2019, the director and protagonist of The Royal HotelKitty Green and Julia Garner worked together on the film The assistant.
In it, Garner plays a production assistant with a boss similar to Harvey Weinstein (a former film producer convicted of sex crimes).
At that time, films related to these issues, raised by the #MeToo movement, were still a rarity.
But, in 2023, enough time has passed for the film industry to move forward and filmmakers to begin tackling toxic masculinity in every genre imaginable.
The film Anatomy of a fallwinner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2023, it is a legal drama combined with a murder mystery, but also a portrait of a marriage that is destroyed because the husband is jealous of his wife’s success.
How to have sexdirector Molly Manning Walker’s brilliant debut, is a British coming-of-age drama.
In it, a teenage student (Mia McKenna-Bruce) is forced to lose her virginity to an insufferable boy while on vacation in Greece.
AND Priscilla, by Sofia Coppola, is a biopic about Priscilla and Elvis Presley. The film tells the story of a young girl dominated by a powerful older man.
Until Poor creatures, by director Yorgos Lanthimos, follows the same pattern. It is the only film in this relationship not to be directed by a woman.
The film is a wild fantasy set in Victorian-era Europe, but it has a lot in common with Barbie.
The heroines of both films have no knowledge of the real world. In case of Poor creaturesEmma Stone’s character had her adult brain replaced with that of a child.
This ignorance allows them to initially face life with naivety and confidence. But both women’s paths are blocked by men desperate to control them, who become furious when they can’t.
More pathetic than threatening
It would have been easy to present male attackers as monsters in these films.
After all, the last time Hollywood invested so much in the battle of the sexes, neo-noir erotic thriller classics like Bodies on fire (1981), Fatal Attraction (1987) e Wild instinct (1992).
At the time, the trend was to portray women as murderous psychopaths. But the filmmakers of 2023 opted for a more subtle and sympathetic approach.
In Priscilla, Elvis can be kind and friendly. In BarbieKen is essentially a puppy.
Most men of Poor creatures AND How to have sex they are more pathetic than threatening.
Already The Royal Hotel, Cat person AND Correctness they only begin to experience the frenzy of suspense in the final minutes.
The result is that almost none of the men featured in these films are aware that they are doing anything wrong.
Why this containment?
One reason is that the filmmakers want to show that sexual abuse and coercive behavior isn’t limited to a few bad apples, easily identifiable brutes.
In fact, it’s so common that men may not even notice what they’re doing, and women may be tricked into not paying attention.
The Royal Hotel, for example, it always seems to prepare to present violent sexual abuse, but the director and screenwriter of the film does not go the route of sensationalism.
Kitty Green explained on the podcast Script aside that “if they had raped anyone, everyone [os espectadores] they could have said ‘no, that’s not us, we would never rape anyone’. But if [os homens] you’re just making jokes, I swear [as mulheres] and if they laugh at them, I think a lot of people did it when they were a little drunk and a lot of people have to look at their own behavior and say ‘my God, maybe I shouldn’t have done X, you know’ ?’ I think that’s the conversation I want to have.”
There’s a subtlety and maturity to these films that didn’t exist when Michael Douglas was menaced by Glenn Close and Sharon Stone in the ’80s and ’90s.
Current films dare to show female characters behaving irresponsibly and even disgustingly. Barbie herself ends up apologizing to Ken for hurting her feelings.
The point behind this position is not that men should be forgiven: in movies they all get the punishment they deserve.
The problem seems to be that the assumptions and conventions of a male-dominated society can lead women – and even men – to make harmful decisions, as exemplified by forced hedonism in women. How to have sex AND The Royal Hotel or from the male corporate culture in Correctness.
But the villain in each of these films, the most insightful of the year, is not a specific man.
The villain is the patriarchy itself, the system that enchanted Ken when he left Barbieland for reality.
It’s unlikely that many people will reject the patriarchal system as easily as Ken, but perhaps we can all learn something from his words of rich wisdom:
“To be honest, when I found out that patriarchy wasn’t about horses, I lost all interest.”
Read the original version of this report (in English) on the site BBC Culture.
Source: Terra
Ben Stock is a lifestyle journalist and author at Gossipify. He writes about topics such as health, wellness, travel, food and home decor. He provides practical advice and inspiration to improve well-being, keeps readers up to date with latest lifestyle news and trends, known for his engaging writing style, in-depth analysis and unique perspectives.
