MASCULINITY

• " Every man is a king " - Stanley - S8

  • Huey Long says this - U.S. Senator in 1932 - coming from an impoverished background - maintained his power through intimidation – control of all civil service positions in Louisiana by 1934.
  • Stanley seems to echo the exact man Long aimed to inspire with his policies, and Long’s control over Louisiana indeed parallels Stanley’s patriarchal, new-money position.
• 4 TYPES OF MASCULINITY - CONNELLY (Masculinities)

  1. Hegemonic - Dominant , Heterosexual , middle class + white - Stanley represents it
  2. Complicit - Stanley's friends - speak " quietly + lovingly to S " - after hit Stella - admire hegemonic even if not fit in
  3. Marginalised - Unable to conform or benefit from hegemonic - if non white
  4. Subordinate - Opposite of hegemonic - Being effeminate , gay , too emotional - Allan Gray
• MALE GAZE - LAURA MULVEY

  • Act of illustrating women from masculine + straight space
  • Sexual objects for pleasure
  • Stella birth to child - Stanley rapes Blanche - culmination of his sexual act with Stella coincides with the tragic culmination of his destined “date” with Blanche.
• " Under the Napoleonic code " - S2

  • Stanley owns part of Belle Reeve
  • Female entrapment - passive responder to male sexuality - S11 - fingers find the opening of her blouse "
  • Economically dependent
• " heaves the package at her " + " catch meat ! " - S1

  • Stanley = breadwinner
• Is Mitch complicit or marginalised masculinity?

  Complicit
• " Not clean enough to bring in the house with my mother - S9

  • Gender inequality
• " Just a boy " - S6

  " Quicksands and clutching at me " - S6 - Blanche about Alan
• " He'd stuck a revolver in his mouth "

  • Victim of hegemonic masculinity - ostracised
• " What I've been missing all summer " - S9 - Mitch

  • Complicit - lack of promiscuity - TRIES to sa her
• " We've had this date from the beginning " - Stanley - Scene 10