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The Full Monty: Reaction to and Against Feminism

Received: 22 November 2020     Accepted: 2 December 2020     Published: 8 December 2020
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Abstract

The development of feminism marks its influence on women’s and likewise men’s life, which is captured and presented by filmic works. The Hollywood film The Full Monty directed by Peter Cattaneo some 20-odd years ago, still reminds the world audience that we’ve already stepped out of the era when female body was the sole object to be gazed and now male body can also be on show. Superficially, the film seems to suggest that man is obliged to turn in their dignity, gazing power and above all, their authority to women partially because of the development of feminism. As the director Cattaneo says, this film is “a reaction to feminism”. However, below the surface the film is not only reaction “to” but “against” feminism by reason that the glorification of masculinity can be detected in many parts of the film with the help of film languages like montage, camera movements and angles. Therefore, this paper starts to explore for what purpose the public has changed its understanding and definition of masculinity, then questions whether the man-stripping phenomenon is a progress or setback for either the society or the development of feminism. Seeking recourse to Judith Butler’s “performative” statements and Michael Foucault’s theory on power, it intends to answer the question whether this film is a reaction against feminism, and to prove the hypothesis that this film demonstrates masculinity in an alternative “language” and thus glorifies it while man was disguised as victim of the feminism development.

Published in International Journal of Literature and Arts (Volume 8, Issue 6)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijla.20200806.15
Page(s) 335-340
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Man-stripping, Masculinity, Feminism, Performative, The Full Monty

References
[1] Hooks, bell (1994). Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representation. Routledge: New York & London, 73.
[2] Wiegman, Robyn (2002). “Unmaking: Men and masculinity in feminist theory”, in Masculinity Studies and Feminist Theory, Judith Gardiner Ed., Columbia University Press: New York, pp. 31-59.
[3] Holden, Wendy (1999). The Full Monty. Pearson Education Limited: Edinburgh Gate, IV.
[4] Potter, Alicia (1997). “Peter Cattaneo Flashes Some Cheek”, Aug. 28, 1997.
[5] Connell, R. W. (1995). Masculinities, Polity Press: Cambridge, pp. 22-67.
[6] Frosh, Stephen (1994). Sexual Difference: Masculinity and Psychoanalysis. Routledge: London & New York, 102, 65, 89, 76, 82.
[7] Tincknell, Estella & Deborah Chambers (2002). “Performing the crisis: Fathering, gender, and representation in two 1990s films”, in Journal of Popular Film and Television, Winter, 2002, 29: 4, pp. 146-155.
[8] Mao, Sihui (1999). Technoligising the Male Body: British Cinema 1957-1987. Foreign Language Teaching & Research Press: Beijing, pp. 70-81.
[9] Doane, Mary Ann (2000). “Film and the masquerade: Theorizing the female spectator”, in Robert Stam & Toby Miller, Eds, Film and Theory: An Anthology. Blackwell Publisher: Malden, pp. 495-509.
[10] Butler, Judith (1999). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Routledge: New York & London, 501, 179, 178.
[11] Addelston, Judi (1999). “Doing the full monty with Dirk and Jane: Using the phallus to validate marginalized masculinities”, in Journal of Men’s Studies, Apr. 30, 1999, Vol. 7, Iss. 3, p. 337.
[12] Clay, Andrew (1999). “Men, women and money: Masculinity in crisis in the British professional crime film 1946-1965”, in Steve Chibnall and Robert Murphy. Eds, British Crime Cinema, Routledge: London & New York, pp. 51-65.
[13] Dyer, Richard (2002). The Matter of Images: Essays on Representations, 2nd Edition. Routledge: London & New York, 13.
[14] Hines, Claire (2008). “‘Brave new world’: The New Q, Masculinity, and the Craig Era Bond Films, in Journal of Popular Film and Television, 46: 1, pp. 46-55.
[15] Awkward, Michael (2002). “Black male trouble: the challenges of rethinking masculine differences”, in Masculinity Studies and Feminist Theory, Judith Gardiner ed., Columbia University Press: New York, pp. 290-304.
[16] Cheung, King-Kok (2002). “Art, spirituality, and the ethic of care: Alternative masculinities in Chinese American literature”, in Masculinity Studies and Feminist Theory, Judith Gardiner ed., Columbia University Press: New York, pp. 261-289.
[17] Mao, Sihui (2003). “Framing the Asian male body in British cinema: with special reference to My Beautiful Laundrette”, in Decoding Contemporary Britain, Peking University Press: Beijing, pp. 285-309.
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Zhuang Qing, Li Yueming. (2020). The Full Monty: Reaction to and Against Feminism. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 8(6), 335-340. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20200806.15

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    ACS Style

    Zhuang Qing; Li Yueming. The Full Monty: Reaction to and Against Feminism. Int. J. Lit. Arts 2020, 8(6), 335-340. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20200806.15

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    AMA Style

    Zhuang Qing, Li Yueming. The Full Monty: Reaction to and Against Feminism. Int J Lit Arts. 2020;8(6):335-340. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20200806.15

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijla.20200806.15,
      author = {Zhuang Qing and Li Yueming},
      title = {The Full Monty: Reaction to and Against Feminism},
      journal = {International Journal of Literature and Arts},
      volume = {8},
      number = {6},
      pages = {335-340},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijla.20200806.15},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20200806.15},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijla.20200806.15},
      abstract = {The development of feminism marks its influence on women’s and likewise men’s life, which is captured and presented by filmic works. The Hollywood film The Full Monty directed by Peter Cattaneo some 20-odd years ago, still reminds the world audience that we’ve already stepped out of the era when female body was the sole object to be gazed and now male body can also be on show. Superficially, the film seems to suggest that man is obliged to turn in their dignity, gazing power and above all, their authority to women partially because of the development of feminism. As the director Cattaneo says, this film is “a reaction to feminism”. However, below the surface the film is not only reaction “to” but “against” feminism by reason that the glorification of masculinity can be detected in many parts of the film with the help of film languages like montage, camera movements and angles. Therefore, this paper starts to explore for what purpose the public has changed its understanding and definition of masculinity, then questions whether the man-stripping phenomenon is a progress or setback for either the society or the development of feminism. Seeking recourse to Judith Butler’s “performative” statements and Michael Foucault’s theory on power, it intends to answer the question whether this film is a reaction against feminism, and to prove the hypothesis that this film demonstrates masculinity in an alternative “language” and thus glorifies it while man was disguised as victim of the feminism development.},
     year = {2020}
    }
    

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    AB  - The development of feminism marks its influence on women’s and likewise men’s life, which is captured and presented by filmic works. The Hollywood film The Full Monty directed by Peter Cattaneo some 20-odd years ago, still reminds the world audience that we’ve already stepped out of the era when female body was the sole object to be gazed and now male body can also be on show. Superficially, the film seems to suggest that man is obliged to turn in their dignity, gazing power and above all, their authority to women partially because of the development of feminism. As the director Cattaneo says, this film is “a reaction to feminism”. However, below the surface the film is not only reaction “to” but “against” feminism by reason that the glorification of masculinity can be detected in many parts of the film with the help of film languages like montage, camera movements and angles. Therefore, this paper starts to explore for what purpose the public has changed its understanding and definition of masculinity, then questions whether the man-stripping phenomenon is a progress or setback for either the society or the development of feminism. Seeking recourse to Judith Butler’s “performative” statements and Michael Foucault’s theory on power, it intends to answer the question whether this film is a reaction against feminism, and to prove the hypothesis that this film demonstrates masculinity in an alternative “language” and thus glorifies it while man was disguised as victim of the feminism development.
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Author Information
  • Faculty of English Language and Culture, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, China

  • School of Foreign Languages, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, China

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