Hegemonic Masculinity in Disneys Hercules:

How Going the Distance is Respected and Expected in the Modern Era

Kira Bakst
ARH4884: Walt Disney and the American Century
Robert Neuman
17 November 2015

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Introduction
In todays modern society there is a fairly small number of people who can claim to not
have ever heard the term feminism. The number of individuals who can be said to not truly
understand what this term means, however, is much, much larger. According to the Miriam
Webster online dictionary, feminism is defined as the belief that men and women should have
equal rights and opportunities.1 Essentially what this means is that everyone in the world should
be treated fairly regardless of their biological sex or chosen gender. While more and more people
are coming to grasp this concept based on the continuing fight for womens rights, more and
more people also seem to be forgetting the other half of the equation: that men, like women
(though on a completely different playing field), are currently fighting their own fight against
societal pressures as well.
Scholar Michael Kimmel describes the societal pressure placed on men as hegemonic
masculinity. This term, from Kimmels book The Gendered Society, is meant to illustrate the
ideal image of masculinity for a given era that it is the job of all other men in that era to emulate
as closely as possible2. For example, in the current era men are expected to be physically fit,
physically attractive, intellectually capable, and either musically or athletically talented if not
some combination of the two. They must have a particular kind of personality, a good sense of
humor, and be able to fit into the right groups seamlessly. Most importantly a true man must
never show emotion, for it is akin to weakness. All in all just as with women the standards for
what makes up the ideal man are growing endlessly to more unrealistic heights, and thus are
becoming harder and harder to actually reach. Nevertheless, when one looks at a man on the
street, on the screen, or even within the home, these are typically not the first thoughts that
come to mind. In his book Kimmel phrases this phenomena as follows: When we study men, we
study them as political leaders, military heroes, scientists, writers, artists. Men themselves are

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invisible as men. Rarely, if ever, do we see a course that examines the lives of men as men.3
Even in the magical world of Disney men can seemingly not escape this fate.
Hercules, released in theaters in 1997, is an animated film about how a young godturned-mortal struggles to regain his godhood and return to his rightful home on Mount
Olympus. Hercules begins this quest at what appears to be age sixteen, and only reaches his goal
upon reaching young adulthood (sometime between the ages of eighteen to twenty) (Figs. 1.1
and 1.2). Despite this long period of time and the great deal of growth (both physically and
mentally) that Hercules goes through during this time, he still experiences the same old
problems that he is said to experience prior to the films story. That is, he is constantly, by at
least one person or group of people, being told he is not enough regardless of his efforts to
please them. It is not until the end of the film that Hercules achieves his societys version of
hegemonic masculinity, and throughout the movie he is shown to be struggling with the fact that
he is seen as less than rather than as Hercules. In this paper I argue that the thoughts and
actions of the various characters of Hercules show their subscription to the ideas behind
hegemonic masculinity, and that these ideas can greatly affect the self-perceptions, thoughts,
and actions of men living in such a society. To accomplish this, I will examine the three most
influential groups and individuals of the film: the general populace of the movie Hercules, the
gods of Mount Olympus, and Hercules female cohort, Megara.
The General Populace
In this world where everyone is told to stick to the status quo, it is not at all uncommon
for those who deviate from it to suffer a wide range consequences. In the world of men in
particular, deviants can be made to endure a great deal of pain both mental and physical for
showing any sign that they do not prescribe to their cultures agreed upon version of
masculinity. That is, the cultures hegemonic masculinity. Despite his attempts to prove
otherwise, it is clear that Hercules is situated right in the middle of this group of deviants. The

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cruelty those around him exhibit towards him, therefore, is the result of his inability to grasp the
concepts of masculinity that his town believes in.
Hercules human parents, though they try their best to be supportive and clearly do love
their adopted son, let their own prejudices slip into view at multiple times during the first parts
of the film. This is shown in ways both large and small. For example, when Hercules and
Amphitryon first arrive to the market in chapter seven of the film a great deal of information is
provided within a very short amount of time. At first Amphitryon thanks Hercules for pulling
the cart, stating that when ol Penelope twisted her ankle back there I thought we were done
for. Immediately afterwards, however, he nervously requests that Hercules remains by the cart
rather than go off and interact with others. Not only this, but he releases a sigh of relief after
Hercules agrees to not wander off. Amphitryon, though he loves his son, is keenly aware of the
fact that his son does not exactly fit into society in the ways that he should. By telling Hercules to
stay with the cart he is not only putting societys concerns above his son, but showing that he
even agrees with society to some extent. When deviants dont fit in, isolation is a very common
technique used to try and get them to conform or at the very least keep them out of trouble. By
keeping Hercules with the cart, he is exposing himself as one who prescribes to the idea that
men should behave in a certain way, and also as one who believes that, whatever that way is,
Hercules is certainly not following it. This is why he breathes a sigh of relief upon Hercules
consent: because it will keep both society out of Hercules hair and Hercules out of society. Even
later on in the market scene, after the marketplace has been destroyed, Amphitryon begins to
ask Hercules what he has done and only comes to his defense after the townspeople begin
antagonizing him. Weakly, he claims that the damage is only a result of the fact that Hercules
just cant control his strength. In reality, he is saying so much more. He is admitting that,
despite being a man, Hercules has no idea how to act like one. Numerous jibes by the
townspeople further the idea that Hercules is an other as a man: Nice catch, Jerkules, That
boy is a menace!, and Hes too dangerous to be around normal people! are but a few. The

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latter two of these examples are even paired up with a literal pointed finger, drawing the blame
to Hercules and ridiculing him for not managing to be one of the many (Fig. 2). It is after this
pivotal scene that Hercules admits to Amphitryon that he feels he does not belong, and dreams
of finding a place where he does. Hercules despair mirrors that feelings of millions upon
millions of men around the world. He cannot seem to fit into the mold that society has made for
him, and thus he feels inadequate and inferior to those around him. As a result, he strives to do
everything he can to better fit that mold by changing his attitude, home, and most noticeably his
physique to try and become the man that others want him to be. At no point in time is it
considered that Hercules simply as Hercules is just enough. Scenarios like these occur not only
in Hercules teenage years, but reoccur numerous times during his transition into adulthood as
well.
After Hercules and Phil descend upon the city of Thebes, they almost immediately
encounter a group of men and women lamenting the recent string of disasters that have befallen
their town. When Hercules approaches the group upon hearing their desire for a hero, the only
response the gets is a rather rude Yeah, and who are you? Hercules even gestures to himself
when making the statement that it seems that Thebes needs a hero. He is presenting himself as a
new and improved man a hero but regardless of his new wardrobe and enhanced build the
townspeople of Thebes again refuse to acknowledge him. Several of them even go as far as to
laugh at his proclamation. He has never saved a town or reversed a natural disaster, and is
therefore nothing but a chariot chaser. He is not truly a hero not truly a man. When
Hercules saves the two young boys from the rockslide, he is only rewarded with a small round of
applause from a few scattered members of the audience. It is not until he defeats the Hydra that
he wins over their approval. That is, it is not until he meets the townspeoples version of what
constitutes a hero that Hercules is seen as one. Hercules becomes a man not through being a
good person, but by following the rules of society and aligning himself with the specific
hegemonic masculinity of the city. Later on in the film during the Cyclopes attack on Thebes the

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townspeople are shown to be cowering in fear asking themselves about Hercules whereabouts.
The oldest member of the group expresses a feeling of certainty that Hercules will come to their
rescue, but in doing so he references a statue of our hero rather than just making a statement of
his confidence in the man (Fig. 3). By doing this he emphasizes the idea that its not really
Hercules that the city admires; it is the idea of him that they hold dear. Hercules has finally
achieved the ideal of hegemonic masculinity and in doing so has become its new model, but in
reality he has lost an identity to call his own. He has become Hercules the Hero, but has yet to
find a place where he is loved and respected as a normal person. In this way it can be said that
even Hercules himself prescribes to the concept of hegemonic masculinity as he allows the
thoughts and beliefs of the townspeople of each city that he lives in the shape and dictate his
thoughts and actions so that he can, too, can be just like everyone else.
The Gods
If anyone at all in this movie can be said to prescribe to the concepts of hegemonic
masculinity it is the Gods of Mount Olympus themselves. The main plot of the movie is in fact
driven by the fact that Hercules cannot return to his home on Mount Olympus until he restores
his god-hood. Read another way, Hercules cannot find the place he truly belongs until he
becomes what the Gods define as a man. When Hercules meets with Zeus for the first time,
their conversation quickly veers away from the happy tones of reunion to the more somber tones
of Hercules insecurity. He asks Zeus why he was left on Earth if he was meant to be on
Olympus, and all Zeus can say in response is that Hercules status as a mortal prevents him from
returning to his birthplace. It is also important to note that when Hercules asks if Zeus and Hera
had loved him, Zeus responds in the past tense: Of course we did, your mother and I loved you
with all our hearts. This provides the implication that not only is Hercules not enough to
return to Olympus, his loss of godly status served as a cause for the loss of his parents support.
He isnt a God, and thus isnt the ideal, and therefore must work to become one in order to reach

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his goal. Again, it isnt about accepting Hercules for who he is, but rather forcing him to become
something he is not in order to be accepted.
Throughout the film the terms hero and God can easily be replaced with the term
masculinity and the meaning would essentially remain unchanged. Until Hercules reaches the
point at which the Gods see him as man enough based on their own hegemonic masculinity, he
is seen as nothing but someone who should be working harder. Zeus even tells Hercules that
there is nothing he can do personally to assist Hercules on his way; it is completely up to
Hercules to become a true hero, though he is given absolutely no context as to what that might
mean. Hegemonic masculinity works in a very similar fashion. Each society, culture, and
sometimes even generation has their own concept of that the ideal man is, and while that ideal is
toted around on a pedestal every average male citizen is given no assistance in regards to how to
achieve it. They are instead ridiculed for not grasping the concept sooner. Further on in the film,
following Hercules rise to fame, he returns once more to meet with Zeus to ask to return to
Olympus. Zeus once again denies him access, stating that while Hercules has been working very
hard he is not quite at the level that the Gods expect him to attain. At this Hercules becomes
agitated and tries to bring up all of his achievements as well as his great amount of popularity,
but Zeus awkwardly stands his ground, leaving the temple with only the words look inside your
heart.
Immediately after this, Hercules falls to the ground in anguish (Fig. 4). There seems to
be nothing he can do to achieve the ideal he is looking for despite all of his work to appeal to
others. He is utterly distraught by this fact, and his feelings of inadequacy in his own masculinity
compared to the supposed ideal of the gods can be seen in how his form is juxtaposed with that
of Zeus statue. Hercules is small and hunched over while Zeus sits proud and tall (Fig. 5). Even
though Hercules is supposed to be able to reach Zeus godly ideal he is lost without anywhere to
go and no one to truly turn to for help. In the real world many men also feel this way, as the

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hegemonic masculinity of the modern era often prevents men from expressing how they truly
feel. Men, Hercules included, tend to follow the examples of those before them in how they
should act, think, and live, but the result of that is that they often are seen as the act they are
putting on rather than the person they truly are. In Hercules case, this faade only breaks when
the size of the task in front of him becomes fully apparent: no matter what he does he will never
truly be able to reach the standard the Gods are looking for. In the next scene, Hercules literally
exclaims Whats the point?! to Phil while Phil reads off the teams newest daily schedule. He is
so overcome by grief at the thought of never being able to become what others want that his
repressed emotions actually explode out of him. For the briefest of moments the Hercules inside
the hero, the Hercules inside the faade of hegemonic masculinity, becomes apparent. This
moment quickly vanishes, however, when he is reintroduced to Megara, causing his outer shield
of manliness to reappear almost instantaneously.
Megara
Across space and across time, men have always acted differently around women than
they have around each other.4 Oftentimes this is a direct result of the hegemonic masculinity in
play: men cannot act freely around women because they have to prove that they are masculine
enough to be worth the second look. Evolutionarily this makes sense because the goal of the
human race has always been to survive, but in modern times there is no fear of mass extinction
and thus there should be no real reason to act unlike a real person in the presence of the
opposite sex. Many men fall into this trap, however, and though he isnt real Hercules shows us
that he is unable to escape the traps pull either.
Hercules and Meg first meet while Hercules is en route to Thebes with Phil and Pegasus.
Meg has found herself in an altercation with a river guardian, and Hercules sees it as his duty as
a hero (man) to help this D.I.D (damsel in distress). He walks up to the pair in an exaggerated
manner, forces his voice deeper, and puffs out his chest, demanding that the river guardian set

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Meg free (Figs. 6.1 and 6.2). As this is his first real act as a full blown hero Hercules actions are
stiff and obviously rehearsed. He is still playing the part of the hero by acting as he has been
taught a hero should. Rather, he is emphasizing his masculine attributes (his body and voice) to
try and prove that he is aligned with societys idea of what a man should be. His performance is
briefly cut off when Megara tells him to leave, causing him to deflate slightly and his voice to
return to his normal pitch, but he quickly remembers his training and puts the mask of
masculinity right back on (Figs. 7.1 and 7.2). In this short exchange one can clearly see the
effects of hegemonic masculinity. Hercules sticks to a very strict script of proper speech and
action, and is thrown off when he is faced with something that doesnt go along with the ideas of
masculinity that he has brought himself into alignment with. The idea that Hercules journey
towards masculinity is one he must walk alone is accentuated again after Hercules is sent flying
by the river guardians punch. Pegasus, Hercules trust steed, immediately attempts to go help in
the fight, but Phil forces him to stop and says that Hes gotta do it on his own. It is not only In
Hercules actions around Meg that we see the effects of hegemonic masculinity, however. Meg
herself has a deep rooted belief in the idea that all men act and think a certain way, and it isnt
until nearly the end of the movie that she overcomes this sort of thinking.
It is revealed to us during the course of the film that Megs previous love had left her
behind for someone else after she quite literally gave everything up to save him. As a result her
opinion on men in general is quite negative, and she refuses to see Hercules as someone who is
his own person. She is not striving to meet the expectations of masculinity herself, but is
nonetheless convinced that such expectations exist and therefore cause all men to act in certain
ways. Meg refers to masculinity in an extremely sarcastic way throughout the film. To try and
take Hercules down a peg she repeatedly refers to him as Wonder Boy, showing that in her
eyes, despite his clear physical strength, he is no more a man than she is. Other examples of
Megs casual digs at masculinity include sarcastically asking if he had a name along with all
those rippling pectorals, telling him that Phil can explain what she means when she speaks of

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how men hear women speak, and saying that shes a big tough girl when Hercules asks if shell
be alright walking by herself (Fig. 8). In each of these instances Megara is drawing attention to a
different aspect of masculinity. She comments on how mens physiques are most often their
defining feature, that it is the duty of men to know how sex works and to actively seek it out, and
that being big and tough are really the only things men see as important. To her, these
expectations for manhood are ludicrous and thus she treats them as jokes by using a dry and
sarcastic tone of voice. Nevertheless she still believes that they are present, because every man
that she meets exudes some level of similarity to every man that she has met before. This is why
she refuses to believe Hercules has honest intentions towards her until they spend an entire day
alone: she cannot trust him because all men have an unspoken code that they must behave a
certain way. In the end this is likely why she continues to call Hercules Wonder Boy even
though he has proven himself as a hero. Boys, as they are not full grown men, have yet to fully
embrace the ideas behind hegemonic masculinity. Hercules, in spite of his countless attempts to
do so, remains true to himself throughout the film, and is unable to ever fully reach the
masculine ideal until he abandons all pretense and acts based on his own feelings. In doing so he
shows that he, like the boy he was in the beginning of the film, has yet to solidify his spot within
the realm of hegemonic masculinity. For Meg this is a good thing as it shows he can be trusted,
but for Hercules himself and for many men in the real world the dichotomy between the self and
the ideal is almost too much to bear.
Conclusion
The main theme music of Hercules is the song entitled Go the Distance. In this song
Hercules discusses his feelings of isolation from everyone else and how he would go most
anywhere to find where he belongs. He is desperate to fit in and find his place in society, and
feels that the only way to do so is to follow the ideals that hegemonic masculinity has set out for
him. He becomes the physically strong hero that the people around him desire, and he

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eventually becomes the emotionally strong hero that the Gods of Olympus desire, but it is not
until the very end of the movie that Hercules is truly accepted. Even then, Hercules has finally
achieved a place in society but it was only after he followed the rules of others that he was able to
do so. Hegemonic masculinity prevents men from truly ever acting as themselves or being seen
as anything but a player in the larger game of life. It gives them a strict set of rules that
absolutely must be followed in order to prevent all sorts of penalties. Hercules experiences this
sort of world first hand, as the thoughts, actions, and beliefs of those around him dictate his own
thoughts and actions throughout the film. Fortunately societys views are beginning to change.
Men are still expected to act in certain ways, but the consequences for deviating from those
norms are slowly decreasing in severity. To go the distance has become more about being a
decent person than about being the perfect man. By the end of the film Hercules is beginning to
grasp this concept, and with any luck men in the real world will come to grasp it more strongly
as well.

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Notes
1. Miriam-Webster, s.v. feminism, accessed November 11, 2015, http://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/feminism
2. 1. Michael Kimmel, The Gendered Society (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 10-11.
In his book Kimmel presents the arguments that the differences among men and women are
much greater than the differences between the two, and that gender differences are the outcome
of gender inequality rather than the other way around. To do so he brings in data from a variety
of sources and applies it in a variety of different way, including using the concept of hegemonic
masculinity to describe the reasons behind male actions and beliefs.
3. 1. Michael Kimmel, The Gendered Society (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 5-8.
4. I make this statement in accordance with the actions and feelings of the majority of the male
group. However, this statement in no way represents the totality of man.

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Bibliography
Kimmel, Michael. The Gendered Society. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Miriam-Webster, s.v. feminism.

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Illustrations

Figure 1.1

Figure 1

Figure 1.2

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

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Figure 6.1

Figure 7.1

Figure 6

Figure 7

Figure 8

Figure 6.2

Figure 7.2