masculinity

Nobody is an Action Movie That Questions ‘Toxic Masculinity’

Hutch Mansell (Bob Odenkirk) is (as his film title suggests) a Nobody. He’s a schlub who gets up for the same soul-deadening routine each day: he drinking his coffee, forgets to take the garbage out, and sits at his boring desk job. He then comes home to kids who barely tolerate him and a wife who literally makes a barrier of pillows between them in their bed. When he fails to protect their house against a home invasion–even though he clearly could have–the sense of disappointment from his family is palpable. But the incident awakens something long dormant in Hutch:…
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The Boys Season 2 Unveils the Daddy Issues Behind the Toxic Masculinity

This article contains spoilers for The Boys season 2. Most male monsters in fiction are made by women. Or, at least, it’s women who tend to get the disproportionate share of the blame when their creations turn out to be significantly less than civilized (perhaps because, historically, most of them were written by men). The most famous examples of murderer-moulding mothers are probably Norma Bates, Cersei Lannister, Olivia Soprano and, of course, Mrs. McAllister (momma raised a real little trap-setting psycho there). In real life, too, serial killers like Ed Kemper, Ed Gein, Ted Bundy and Dennis Nilsen were all…
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American Psycho: A Vital Satire of Fragile Masculinity

Patrick Bateman is almost in tears during one of American Psycho’s most famous scenes. Bedecked in a trendy raincoat that he surely purchased at Barneys, and dancing to his favorite Huey Lewis and the News song off their “masterpiece” album, Fore!, the yuppie is at his wits’ end. No, it’s not because of the axe in his hand or the coworker whose skull he’s about to plant it in. It’s because nobody, especially that bastard Paul Allen, understands the depths of “Hip to Be Square.” “It’s a song so catchy people probably don’t listen to the lyrics,” Patrick says with…
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