Essay 1st draft

This essay will explore the representation of masculinity in the American crime films; The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), Drive (2011), The Silence of the Lambs (1991) A representation is the portrayal of something in a particular way. Representations are important in the media as they can influence the way in which the audience views the subject. The media is able to shape people's opinions on certain things easily due to the popularity and the amount that is in the media now in which people take in. 

Stereotypes are held all over the world about different groups of people. A stereotype is a belief held about a certain group and can be either positive or negative. Masculinity has both positive and negative stereotypes and these are displayed within the three films that have been explored. John Price states that 'Masculinity tries to stay invisible by passing itself off as normal and universal.' (2003, p115). George Fields states that 'The association of male value with aggression, dominance, and power is one of the most destructive forces in the world'. These two quotes show the dominance that masculinity can have in society. Laurie Penny states "Labour MP Diane Abbott is not the first person to kick up a fuss about the 'crisis of masculinity' (The Guardian 16th May 2013). "The concept of  'The new man' set to challenge the preconceived notion about masculinity by aiming new ideals to young middle-class males: Emotional vulnerability, Be more in touch with their feminine side, Treat women as equals, Take pride in their appearance" (A2 sociology mass media representations prezi.com). These two quotes show the change in masculinity over the years and how different it has become from what it used to be and how it is perceived now. Society has several different stereotypes regarding masculinity including; asserting power (fighting and being aggressive), manipulative, serious, strong, successful, dominant, humorous, work on cars, drug users, rich, serial killers.

The three films which i have investigated; The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), Drive (2011), The Silence of the Lambs (1991) focus the different stereotypes that are attached to masculinity and therefore reinforce the stereotypes.

In the film The Wolf of Wall Street the stereotypes that are reinforced are; power, control, rich, manipulative, successful and drug users. The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) is based on a true story about Jordan Belfort, who was a wealthy stockbroker who lived the high life showing the story of his dramatic fall involving crime, corruption and the Federal Government. The Wolf of Wall Street is based on true story that rose a wealthy stock broker and lived high life to his fall from crime. Belfort is a stock broker who's career as a stock broker is terminated by the Black Monday and takes up a job in a penny stock where he makes a small fortune. Jordan and friend Donnie Azoff create their own company called Stratton Oakmont where Jordan recruits his friends and trains them into the art of hard shell. Jordan becomes highly successful and slides into a lifestyle of drugs and prostitution. The film displays power as Jordan's ability to teach people things and to be in control of making the business he has one of the best of the lot. He makes himself rich by selling fake stocks to clients and ripping them off and ends up in a mansion with his wife, which shows that he is rich and successful. Jordan is manipulative as he rips off people buying stocks on the phone to make money for his company throughout and teaches other people to do it order to make even more money. Jordan is successful for making millions out of nothing, even if it isn't the legal way to do it. Jordan and his friends are also drug abusers as they take a drug called 'ludes' and cocaine all the time as seen throughout the film.

The film Drive reinforces the stereotypes of masculinity; working on cars, serious, power, serial killer and strong. Drive (2011) is a film about a stuntman and getaway driver who gets in trouble trying to help his neighbour out. The Driver gets to know his neighbours family however, as seen in the film, he helps people commit robberies by driving them away once they have committed a crime. The Driver gets a bag full of money that belongs to the people who forced the father in the family of his neighbour’s child to rob it and resulted in his death meaning he is blackmailing the people who were the cause of it. The driver shows dominance by defending himself kills people along the way and gives the people an ultimatum, which causes them to go after him. He ends up meeting to give money back which leads to him getting attacked and leads to him killing the man and drives off in the distance. Also just before he meets to give the money back, he kills the main culprit by drowning him in the sea after driving into the side of his car off a cliff after spinning it off the road prior. The film shows the driver as enjoying working on cars as he is a mechanic by trade with the secret of being a getaway driver, which conveys his interest in cars. He is serious throughout the film as he doesn't speak much and hardly cracks a smile at any point in the film and keeps to himself most of the time. The driver shows power by asserting dominance over the men who are trying to go after him who's debt is on the family he is friends with. The driver is shown as a serial killer as he commits several murders he drowns the main culprit in the sea after crashing into his car to send it off a cliff; he beats someone to death who attempts to attack him in a lift, which he is in with his neighbour.

The film the Silence of the Lambs (1991) reinforces the stereotypes of masculinity; power, serial killer, manipulative, serious, strong and in control. The Silence of the Lambs is a film about a young F.B.I. agent who must confide in a manipulative killer to receive help on catching anther killer who skins his victims. During the film the F.B.I agent visits Hannibal Lecteur not knowing her mission of getting information of another killer who kills people almost the same way he did. He helps her get information on the killer but is very difficult about it and is transferred to a different prison in which he escapes. The serial killer is eventually caught due to the information given by Hannibal and is named as Buffalo Bill and the F.B.I agent goes to find him on her own to make the arrest, however has to be careful as he is hiding a victim in which he has kidnapped down a well in his house. Two characters, Hannibal Lecteur and Buffalo Bill, show the power. Hannibal shows power when he is in prison as he always seems like he is in control of the prison guards and that they fear him and Buffalo Bill shows his power by kidnapping Catherine Martin and keeping her at the bottom of a hole and winding her up. The serial killer is both Buffalo Bill who decapitates his victims and Hannibal who eats the body parts of the people he kills. There is an enigma code that Hannibal is manipulative, as he seems to have control over prison guards and over many people. Clarice and Hannibal are both serious characters. Clarice is serious throughout her investigation of Hannibal and Hannibal is serious at all times especially when talking to Clarice although he seemingly seems to relax more around her than anyone else. Hannibal and Buffalo Bill both like to be in control, which is seen when Hannibal escapes from the prison by tying up the officer with the handcuffs he has escaped from and eats his face before escaping through a lift. Buffalo Bill shows control by having Catherine Martin at the bottom of the well and continues to mock her throughout the film from the top of the well. However within this film, unlike Drive and The Wolf of Wall Street, this film challenges the stereotypes of masculinity. This is shown in the scene where Buffalo Bill dresses up as a woman, which is not something that as an audience member is expected of a butch serial killer in this film. This goes against the usual stereotype that Buffalo Bill has for a large majority of this film as he is seen as someone who has very masculine features and is stereotypically very masculine and this film shows Buffalo Bill deviating against the norm of masculinity rather than everyone being the same. This makes you think that Buffalo Bill is mentally ill and gives you the feeling that much of his serial killing could have been avoided if this would have been apparent. 

All three of the films show similar masculine stereotypes such as men being powerful and being in control. There are a lot of similarities within Drive and The Silence of the Lambs as these films are more similar than The Wolf of Wall Street as this film is a more unique film than the other two. However The Wolf of Wall Street shows different stereotypes that may not be shown in many other crime films. 

Overall, my research has conveyed how masculinity can be shown in different media texts and the different ways in which masculinity can be shown within these three texts. The research has shown very similar results in how the media shows masculinity and that many of the stereotypes surrounding masculinity are reinforced. However the example of Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs shows the 'crisis of masculinity' mentioned by Laurie Penny and that sometimes stereotypes are seriously challenged. However the media can sometimes be biased but the amount that people get from the media is a lot more than they used to get and people can be tricked into believing something which is all over the media which may not well be the case.