Hegemonic masculinity is very aparent in today’s society. The “ideal” male is tall, white, goodlooking, and muscular. He is unemotional and capable of getting “ass” from any beautiful girl that he pleases. The “ideal” male is the life of the party and is always partying. He has no care in the world other then which party to attend or which girl to “get with”. He watches porn and action films and knows everything about the latest sports teams.
In American Society it is not acceptable for a straight male to show or tell his feelings to another straight male. In actuallity, if a guy shows any emotion towards one of his male friend’s he is immediatly laughed off and called “gay” or a “faggot.” After a guy says something counterhegemonic he immediatly needs to reassert his masculinity. Bulman quotes Pascoe “‘cumpulsive heterosexuality’ and what she calls the ‘fag discourse’ as a method of asserting a heterosexual identity in public” (Bulman 69). In Superbad, Seth and Evan constantly speak about girls in a derogotory way. They comment on their classmates bodies and fantasize about how well they would do in bed. Being virgins, both boys are uncomfortable with their sexuality. To compensate for the lack of sexual action they recieve, Seth and Evan constantly talk about sex and porn in public. By speaking publicly about sexual topics, they are announcing to the community that although they may not be getting “ass” they are straight and love women.
I am glad I get to speak about the “male gaze” in this blog, because whenevr I watch teen movies, the “average” high school girls, are not “average” at all. The girls are dressed provocativly not only at both parties that Eric and Seth attend, but in school as well. At most schools across the nation it would be completly inapropriate to walk down the halls with your thong or boobs hanging out. The way girls dress in teen movies (including superbad) is a simulacra. No where in America do girls go to high school dressed like that. Yet, it is a constant in every teen movie (ex: Mean Girls, Clueless, Bring it on…(etc.) The way girls/women are represented in movies is a copy of a copy of copy. It is “a pure simulation bearing no relation whatsover to reality. Whith hypereality, the sign becomes more real then reality itself” (Roberts,305). The girls are dressed that way to please the male eye.
Superbad fits the “teen comedy” genre in more ways then how the women are dressed and portrayed. Superbad follows the same common plot. Everything starts out happy and functional, there is a dilema, the main characters hit a low point (the climax), but in the end everything ends up “ok”. Their several popular conventions aswell including; sex, partying, alchohol, coming of age, and losing one’s virginity.
I believe another common aspect of postmodernism prevelant in the movie is the dire need for Seth and Evan to lose their virginity. Postmodernism emphasizes that “images are more important then the real.” Not every male loses his virginity before college and losing one’s virginity does not dictate one’s “manhood.” It is current media and society that has brought boys to feel obligated to have sex to reach manhood. Who declared sex the only prerequiste for manhood?
Above is an add for “girl approved” hair. The whole concept of Superbad is to have sex with a hot girl. Both Evan and Seth are constantly searching for the approval of the opposite sex. It may sound cliche because the axe commericals are meant to sound corny. But many men only care about the way they look and how they smell to impress a girl. Sometimes, I wonder if boys would even shower if they were not concerned about being sexually attractive. The concept of “girl approved” is also hegemonic. Males are suppose to be straight, and hegemonic masculinity stresses the importance of being looked at favorably by the opposite sex.
Bibliography
Bulman, Robert. “Enlightened Teenage Masculinity”. Culture Reviews Summer 2008: 68-69.
Stam, Robert. Film Theory: An Introduction. Maiden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2000.
