Core Post #2 - Cailin O'Brien

Until I read through the readings by Steven Cohan and Gary Willis, I was a bit tripped up after first reading Christine Gledhill’s chapter from “Stardom: Industry of Demand”. Cohan and Willis present us with Cary Grant and John Wayne; two popular stars of the time who demonstrate the way in which Gledhill claims that stars themselves cannot exemplify an entire genre, but instead a subtype of the genre they are typically cast within. While ultimately sticking to conventional standards of the genre they are within, each of them notably transfers to different roles prescribed to the socio-cultural changes of the time of the film. Willis notes Wayne’s transitions from “leering ladies’ man”, to “obsessed adolescent” to “frightened cattle capitalist” to “crazed racist”, etc. And then also notes that, especially within his Western films, he maintains a certain subtype of masculinity & “cumulative authority” with each role, making him an embodiment of this subtype rather than Westerns as a film genre per say.

What was of particular interest to me, presumably due to my tendency towards the psychological, was the conceptual role that masculinity came to be in the time following World War II and how males underwent a significant transition in emotional repression that we still see today. During this time US citizens were afraid that masculinity was under threat, putting not only individual men in a vulnerable position, but the nation in a vulnerable position as well. Characters such as the ones Cary Grant was cast as were created to present us with a version of masculinity that was achieved thru not only authoritative action but thru marriage and containment to the ideal American nuclear family unit. It would be interesting to look further here at the repression of males’ emotions during this time. These kinds of characters pushed males in US society to adapt the idea that they had to learn to perfectly manage not only personal achievement but also life as a responsible, protecting husband.

I want to note also my surprise & intrigue at the concept of gendered warfare and “perverse sexuality serving as the dominant trope for representing perceived imbalances of power”, brought up by Cohan in “The Spy in the Gray Flannel Suit”. I had not realized that the masculinity in crisis theme played out by characters, such as Cary Grant  in films similar to North by Northwest,  may be hinting at the challenging force that the feminine sexuality of the Soviet Union embodied. It is bewildering to see how femininity had been so covertly labeled as having negative consequences at this time, and I am interested to see how this militarized role of gender plays out further within cinematic history.