Masculinity, Mateship and Mens Lives - Essay Example

? Masculinity, Mateship and Men’s Lives 24th Oct There has been a rise in the masculinity crisis over the years. This has really destroyed the foundational teachings of sound doctrines and the protection of the man society from engaging in dilemmatic options mostly in the course of exercising freedom and democracy. Body image has been an issue mostly affecting girls and therefore it has to be addressed to the boy child so as to develop self esteem in them especially of the physical self. It is important at this pointy to note that maleness and masculinity are different (Cohan & Hark 1993). While maleness refers to the biological aspect, masculine refers to the fullest will of a man to live in a certain way and it’s a matter of choice to do so and not simply having a male body. It deals with the behaviour, mental quality and personality. It can also be the sexual behaviour for a man to desire heterosexual behaviour. The Mighty Boosh is a television series that tries to express masculinity in its broader perspective from the social, historical and cultural representations. It has brought about surreal representation of humour with the protagonists in the limelight to have failed in their character as men. In this case, they have been brought about to have fallen in their endeavours to become great boxers, musicians, novelists. Howard T.J Moon and Vince Noir have been brought about as Barrat and Fielding as the protagonists. They are a male couple with Barratt considering himself as very intelligent and a lover of jazz (Frank 2000). On the other hand, Vince has been portrayed as a lover electro and a staunch follower of fashion. His is contradiction of the character expected in the male gender. Men are not to known to follow fashion as such. This is seen as a feminine character. The show depicts the two protagonists as a couple, something that is socially and culturally backward. This shows that he is the married playing the part of the wife here. His way of handling himself and his adoration of Howard is in way very demining. Men are known to own the lead and not to be dragged into issues that primarily do not concern them of which Vince has completely denied to follow. Vince is deeply obsessed with his appearance. He takes too long to prepare himself or to leave the house. His time in resetting the hair and his concentration leaves a lot to be desired. As a matter of fact, he takes too much time in the performance of make upon himself just as the ladies do. The overall result is that he owns up to it that he has to do it to please the one he is married to. To add insult to injury, he wears a combination of men’s attire and that of women. This allows him to be mistaken for a woman (Horrocks, 1994). His appearance does not so much differ from other women and the pretext form of Vince is much higher in favour of the weaker gender. This therefore renders him to be considered as the wife or the girlfriend of Howard or is otherwise the subject of the unwanted affection. In times when there arises a controversy, he is continuously abused or referred to in derogatory terms which are female in nature, like, bitch, tramp with a fringe and futuristic prostitute. The further brings in the confusion of identity. In the context of this, Vince is notably not annoyed by these as much as one would expect a normal man to react. In fact, he considers what he has done and apologizes or gives an excuse or flatters to show that these dint hit him hard on who he really pretends to be. In addition to this terms, his masculinity has been undermined through the labels that he has been given like the ‘French duke’, ‘rock ponse’, ‘cockney bitch’, ‘trendy modern wanker’ and ‘electro ponse’ after his love for that electro music. It is arguably notable that all these labels are not just for a mere female, but for one who has involved herself into immorality and sex as well as to music which is mostly identified with clubs, crazy parties and the like. On his own account, Vince makes mention of being in a confused state of sexual identity. During Howard’s birthday party, Howard mentions of his intention to go gay after having a bad luck as far as women were concerned. In his statement he says that his relationships so far had been controversial and sour but his intention would not have the option of Vince as he did not fancy him. Vince responds that he was the confuser and that all men did fancy him. He adds that he didn’t mind whether it was a woman or a man that came along (Horrocks, 1994). He would fit in the context of both, depending on what the other party wanted. This clearly brings out Vince as a person with an identity crisis and specifically a person who has betrayed the masculinity in himself to settle for a lesser position, that of subversion of the masculinity and having him being led by his strength and passion, activities and aggression. In this series, Vince has been placed as a spectacle and his positioning is left for men to take him as sex object, just as they do to the feminine. This controversial portrayal leaves him in weird positions and in many appearances in this series; he is seen to take the way of doing things like that of women. In one of the episodes, all of the yeti, he is seen to line up the outfits that he is going to match out with as he is in holiday for Bollo’s approval (Adrian 2008). This contrasts to the way the masculinity outlays naturally. He is so delicate on matters relating to his appearance and the matching of one thing and the other as the ladies do when they are going out as they always consider the possibility of catching a flier in the process of their holiday. He has constant attention drawn to him which further brings out the masculine crisis in the series in the episode. Special attention can be drawn from the episode on the priest and the beast where he has a lot of attention drawn to his body by wearing his skin tight jumpsuit which he calls the mirror ball suit. This is meant to reveal how his body looks like and to have much focus attending him wherever he goes. This is so much a portrayal of the feministic character that has entered him and therefore further raises the controversy as t the way of Vince, who he really is and what has become of him. This is not just a onetime activity but it has happened in other episodes as well where he still wears the tight body and more revealing suits. There is obsession in his part regarding his body. In the party episode, he states that the purpose of the party will be for the crowd to bask in the glory of his outfit. Tundra (2004) it highlights that it is like a man who is confused and frozen in the ice of his own reflection. In (Bollo 2004) it reflects that it would not be a bad thing for anyone to be trapped in a world of mirrors. In (the power of the crimp 2007) Vince is under depression because somebody else is supposedly copying his style. This is a more feministic approach to issues where they so much value uniqueness. They never want the others to be like them or to attain the same glory as in them especially if they pioneered to do or be in a certain way. This they consider to be a threat, unlike the masculine in men which do not allow them to behave in such manners and when it happens, this brings about conflict among men. To represent the women in this way in the television is problematic. According to this series, the women or the feminine are depicted to so easily direct the male gaze to them. His is what Vince does to them on several occasions that he happens to be among them, noting that some of them take him for a female and a sex object. In Bollo, when Howard is developing the hamlet soliloquy in shakes pear, Vince has the camera directed to him and gives an assurance that if they tire of from Howards life and death solo performance, they can switch to see him dancing the Bollywood music buy just pressing the red button and see him dressed as a hedgehog. There is a plot device that has not yet been revealed to Howard but when the camera is directed to him, he reveals it beforehand. This is a set back to the plot as he gives pre information which is a character known among the women who are not able to stay put with this information. This therefore contradicts the male character in the brad context. This also contradicts with who Vince really is as I portray him as passive whereas he has played the hero on different occasions. He has been noted to make a statement to Byran Ferry that he has had to go on several occasions to rescue Howard who constantly attracts trouble wherever he goes and this has had a chance of occurring almost every week as depicted in ( Hitcher 2004). Vince takes on a characteristic of subcultures by which he is known with but the conspicuous one s that of glam rock, a period of music performance that allows individual interaction with that of the image, the reality and fantasy in the everyday life. This, Stratton said became the base for the questioning on the gender. These performances condensed the reality with image whereas the male personality and sex were being put into reciprocated questions and the roles had become socially constituted images and these were culturally embodied. Glam rock set the pace for questioning the issue on the gender (Adrian 2008). This is what Vince had joined in. A new system of doing things, a gender that was not masculine, neither was it feminine. It cuts across the two of them and leaves the society to wonder what the role of women is. The western cultures awareness through Vince is of notable importance as it sensitizes them on the changing culture because this developed even in the 21st century in the contemporary society. The masculinity arises due to different needs. It may be due to dissatisfaction or a societal need. It is such like the adoption of the glam rock by Vince that brings about the gender confusion as well as the revolution in the meaning of masculinity. In the third series, it is implied that he had bisexual tendencies. This is especially noted in the journey to the centre of the punk when a remark was given to Howard by his singular brain cell that he swings both ways although he really didn’t feel it within him. Such occurrences are amicably seen in other episodes which depict him to be very controversial to his gender. In the episode, “party” he is noted to have kissed Howard very passionately. This, he did not to face Dennis the headshamen who would otherwise have beheaded him had he noted who he really was. His style of walking was more feminine and almost developed from that of other ladies as his had to be fabricated to suit who he said he was outwardly In chapter five of the series book, Howard and Vince are talking about how people mistook him for a child’s doll for how he was looking like, so flowery and attractive to the eye. Beautiful as it may be for the ladies but not fitting the description of a man, with Howard saying that he is in the body of a maverick, a true man’s man (Bob 2001). Howard adds to say that he is in the body of everyone’s man and that everybody is attracted to him because he transcends gender, meaning that there is an identity crisis of who Vince really is as far as his gender is concerned. He would attract the feminine as well as the masculine, the gay men and therefore ended up in anyone’s room. Vince later remarks that he has a fancy hairdo and he is a baby bird who is attractive to sequin fetishists and near sighted lesbian. This is a series where we see Vince in crisis over who he really is. He plays the part of a new evolutionary who brings in a new age of a mixed gender with the him sometimes playing a hero and sometimes having to bow down and be treated as a lady or behave like one himself. In the whole series, there is confusion as to who he might be especially when he is with people of different genders (Robert 2000). He outwardly behaves like a feminine including having make ups, the walking style and even the time that he takes to prepare himself is far much unlikely of a man .men do not demand attention from the public, they don’t attract the public but their appearance and make (Cohan & Hark 1993). He has the tendency not to like competition at all especially when he notes that there is competition that is arising and is similar to the one that he is having. This especially stresses him. In addition to this, he is very much sensitive to how he looks although men are known to be a little concerned about their appearances, this brings him out to be like new age revolutionist or outlaw for that matter REFERENCE Adrian K (2008), Men at play: masculinities in Australian theatre since the 1950s Amsterdam: Rodopi publishers. Bob P (2001). A man’s world?: changing men’s practices in a globalized world New York Rout ledge publishers Berger, M, Wallis, B & Watson, S (Eds) 1995, Constructing Masculinity. New York Rout ledge publishers Cohan, S & Hark R (1993). Screening the Male: Exploring Masculinities in Hollywood Frank Lay (2000). Subverting masculinity: Hegemonic and alternative versions of masculinity in contemporary culture. Amsterdam: Rodopi publishers Horrocks, R (1994). Masculinity in Crisis, The Macmillan Press, London. Robert F (2003). Colonialism and homosexuality New York. Routledge Read More