The Role of the Female in

the Re-invention of White

Masculinity in the late
1990’s: Three case
studies of
Cinematography and
Mise-en-scene

Student Name: SeoHee Min(Lili)

Student ID: 19007273
Supervisor: Stefano Ciammaroni
University of the Arts London (LCC)- Film Practice
Dissertation Part 2
 2

Abstract

In the 1990's white men experienced a “crisis of masculinity” in the western world, especially

in America. Hyper masculine men we found in the 80s media have been replaced by

sensitive, domestic and more often than not, emasculated men. In the late 90s, with greater

awareness of race and class issues and ideas of gender fluidity becoming more mainstream,

white masculinity started to re-invent itself. I am proposing, in this dissertation, that images

and representations of the female and femininity appear to be crucial components in this

re-invention of white masculinity.

Rather than talking in general terms, I have decided to base my dissertation on a close

analysis of how the cinematography and the mise-en-scene frame the relationship between

the male and the female and how this redefines ideas white masculinity. For this, I have

dedicated each chapter to a film. The films are Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999) by Micheal

Hoffmann, Fight Club (1999) by David Fincher and American Beauty (1999) by Sam

Mendes. These films function as case studies. I have chosen them because they are all from

the same year 1999 and thematically explore oppositions and collisions between the male

and the female. I have priorities details over quantity in my analysis of cinematography and

mise-en-scene, meaning that for Midsummer Night’s Dream and American Beauty I will only

look at one scene each, whilst for Fight Club I have decided to focus on multiple framings

throughout the film that capture the developing relationship between the male protagonist

and his female love interest.

I have chosen to explore my topic through the analysis of cinematography and

mise-en-scene because of two reasons: Firstly, films are a visual medium, and the images

created are charged with meaning and subliminal messages that tell us about the

contemporary attitudes and feelings towards male and female relationships. Secondly, in my
 3

research I have discovered that articles regarding the themes of masculinity often fail to

include a close analysis of the film’s visuals when making their arguments, even though they

are rich in meaning. I will also relate relevant secondary sources and I will also engage with

them critically.

I will conclude that, through a close reading of the cinematography and mise-en-scene, we

can see that these films implicitly reveal attitudes towards masculinity and pose solutions

towards its re-invention. With the analysis A Midsummer Nights Dream will shed light on the

feminists ideas that promted the ‘crisis of masculinity’. Fight Club and American Beauty deal

with the re-invention of masculinity and it becomes clear that femininity and images of the

female become a vital part in the configuration and definition of this new masculinity.

Femininity is embraced by white masculinity, whilst also functioning as its polar opposite

from which masculinity can continue to define itself. The masculine cannot exist without the

feminine and vice versa.

 4

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………….5

Chapter 1 - Overpowered Women and the Emasculated White Male: Demetrius and Helena
in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Hoffmann, 1999)...................................................................7

Chapter 2 - She Completes His Masculinity: The Yin-Yang Symbolism Between the Narrator
and Marla in Fight Club (Fincher,
1999)...................................................................................11

Chapter 3 - The Female Embodying the Re-birth of Masculinity: The ‘Awakening’ of Lester in
American Beauty (Mendes,
1999)...........................................................................................15

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………17

Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………….19

Filmography……………………………………………………………………………………….21
 5

Introduction

In the 1990’s men in the western world, in particular America, experienced a “crisis of

masculinity” (Malin, 2003). This can be traced all the way to the first wave of feminism in the

60’s where traditionally ‘masculine’ trades were assumed oppressive and cruel, and woman

rebelled against assigned gender roles in the social structure. With women gaining more

autonomy throughout the decades, men began to question their perceived value in society. It

was in the 90’s that the ideas of white masculinity would be completely destabilized and

reinvented. Questions about gender fluidity, expressed for example in Butler’s book “Gender

Trouble” and issues with race and class, fractured the previous idea that the white male

experience is universal or “unmarked” (Marlin, 2003, p. 243). As Lauren Berlant explains:

“formerly iconic citizens who used to feel undefensive and unfettered feel truly exposed and

vulnerable. They feel anxious about their value to themselves, their families, their public, and

their nation. They sense that they now have identities, when it used to be just other people

who had them.” (Berlant, 1997, p. 2).

Susan Jeffords, Brent Marlin and many critics, recognise that a great shift happened in

attitudes towards white men and masculinity between the 1980s and 1990s in the media,

using Arnold Schwarzenegger’s changed image from hypermasculine roles such as in

Terminator into a sensitive and caring kindergarten teacher in the film Kindergarten Cop

(Reitman, 1990) as an example (Jeffords, 1994, p.153, and Marlin, 2003, p. 243).

Robert Bly in an article named “What do men want? A reading list for the male identity

crisis” published in the New York times magazine in 1994 makes clear how pervasive and

extensive the crisis of white males was in the 90’s. In this article he points to the constant

and harsh antagonism of women against men in society. In this post-modern world with no

“clear-cut borders or distinctions it has become hard to know what it means to be a man and

even harder to feel good about being one.” He explains that many books about masculinity
 6

in the 90’s are split between views that the ‘authentic self’ is genderless and those who think

that masculinity is an integral part of a men’s soul (Bly, 1994, p. 2). He concludes that the

men of the 90’s cannot regain their masculinity because “in our post-modern society we

have no respected tribal elders or deep secrets, only a male identity crisis literature, written

largely by men in their 40’s who are groping around in the dark for their dignity” as the

aftermath of first wave feminism (Bly, 1994, p.5).

In this dissertation, I will look at three films from 1999, A Midsummer Night's Dream by

Micheal Hoffmann, Fight Club by David Fincher and American Beauty by Sam Mendes as

case studies of how white masculinity was redefined in the late 90s. Each chapter is

dedicated to a scene from each individual film, conveying progressively the role of the

female and femininity in the image of masculinity through cinematography and

mise-en-scene. An analysis of Midsummer Night’s Dream builds the foundation, shedding

light to the feminist attitudes that forced men to strive towards a re-definition of masculinity.

Fight Club is an example of how the absorption of femininity is the preferred way to regain

masculinity and authenticity, abandoning hypermasculine behaviors. Lastly, American

Beauty uses the image of the female as a symbol of an attainable masculinity.

It will become, chapter by chapter, progressively clearer that femininity and the embodiment

of it in forms of woman (and other female marked objects) are vital parts in re-defining

masculinity in the late 90s in the visual medium of film. These case studies, with the help of

relevant scholarly material, portray how the emasculated man of the 90s regains his

masculinity and drive by embracing features of the feminine, overtly or implicitly, instead of

trying to remain or become hypermasculine.

 7

Chapter I - Overpowered Women and the Emasculated

White Male: Demetrius and Helena in A Midsummer Night’s
Dream

In the 1990s the works of William Shakespeare experienced a revival in popular culture

(Thompson, 2007, p.1052). The commercial success of Kenneth Branagh Henry V (1989)

charted his series of Shakespeare adaptations including Much Ado about Nothing (1993)

and Hamlet (1996) (Thompson, 2007, p. 1052). This Shakespeare fever even swept over to

America, where Shakespeare was adopted into contemporary settings, for example in

Romeo & Juliet (Luhrmann, 1996) and Hamlet (Almereyda, 2000). Another proof of

Shakespeare's popularity in the 90s is the commercial hit and Oscar awarded Shakespeare

in Love (1998). In 1999, the BBC named William Shakespeare the man of the millennium

(Thompson, 2007, p. 1052). Why is the revival of Shakespeare relevant for the re-invention

of white masculinity in the late 90s? Because, as Ayanna Thompson explains in the article

“Rewriting the “real”: Popular Shakespeare in the 1990s” Shakespeare’s works are

considered to reveal universal and timeless truths of human nature, functioning as ancestral

guidance in the ‘identity crisis’. This is important knowledge for the analysis of Micheal

Hoffmann’s film adaptation of A Midsummer Night Dream. It means that the events and

relationships portrayed in the film are unconsciously viewed as representations of universal

‘human nature’. The film reveals hidden ‘truths’ behind complex issues between male and

female that are not just comically familiar but meant to teach life-lesson about human

behavior.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a comedy by Shakespeare about four young lovers (Hermia,

Helena, Demetrius and Lysander) escaping into a forest inhabited by magical creatures and

fairies. It deals with different forms of love, be it forbidden, unrequited, marital, short-lived or

sexual. It has changed the original setting of Shakespeare, locating it in late 19th Century
 8

Italy. I will focus on the scene between Demetrius (Christian Bale) and Helena (Calista

Flockhart) that charts the second act of the film.

Through an analysis of the cinematography, I will convey that Midsummer Night’s dream

reflects and encourages the troubling power dynamics between female and male that fuelled

the ‘crisis of masculinity.’ Woman are portrayed as the superior sex, ironically disappointed

about men’s weakness. There is equality between the powers of the sexes, but this equality

is created through undermining the masculine and giving an unnatural power to the feminine

(Helena). Demetrius, in love with Hermia, has come to the magical forest to stop her from

eloping with Lysander. Helena, who has told Demetrius about Lysander and Hermia’s

elopement in the first place, follows Demetrius, begging, relentlessly, for his love and

attention. Demetrius bruetly rejects Helena, so much so that he threats sexual violence

against her if she does not leave him alone. In the end, however, it is him that flees from her.

Demetrius, theoretically, has all the power – he has the emotional upper hand on Helena as

she wants something from him and he wants nothing from her, and secondly, as a man, he is

physically stronger than her. There is a clear power imbalance between the two, however the

cinematography does not reflect this, rather it balances them out, undermining Demetrius’s

dominance and conveying Helena’s desire for him as something intimidating if not physically

dangerous for him. The scene starts in a full- shot, Demetrius cycling in front, Helena behind

him. He stops the right of the frame at a fixed point, which causes the camera to softly pan

backward-and left, centralizing the two characters in the frame in a full-shot with only the

lower part of their legs cut off. The camera is held at around hip height, tilting slightly

upwards. This position allows the camera to remain almost static, even though Christian

Bale (Demetrius) takes a few steps towards Helena, then towards the camera, until he

settles in a crouching position to fix the tire of the bicycle. The camera follows his movement

very slowly and subtly. This panning actually softens his violent movements as he screams

at Helena whilst trying to fix his tire as quickly as possible. This is also complimented by the

editing, because everything up until this point is in one-cut, the fluidity of the shots
 9

juxtaposing the hecticness of Demetrius. The cinematography conveys that Demetrius

spouting’s against Helena are harmless, in fact, trivial.

The first actual close-up of Helena’s face, the camera is tilted slightly upwards, the

background is heavily blurred. The camera follows her, keeping her centrally as she bends

down to Demetrius, declaring that he can treat her like a dog as long he allows her to stay

with him. Her words and demeanor convey her clear submission to Demetrius to the point of

degradation of herself, yet the cinematography portrays her as coming from a superior

position – standing- to a leveling, equal position with Demetrius, as the camera follows the

‘lowering’ of herself. As I have explained earlier, in theory, Demetrius should have control

and superiority over Helena in this scene. The cinematography, however, implies that

Helena, until this point had the upper hand and, only now, by degrading herself, is on an

equal power level with Demetrius.It reflects two different thoughts of feminism in the late

90’s. Ehrenreich gives inisght into what she calls feminist “naivitee” in the 90s, seeing men

as “perpetual perpetrators” and “beasts” and woman as their “perpetual victims” and with

this justifying the feminist saying “If you think equality id the goal, your standards are too

low.” (Ehrenreich, 2007,p. 171). Secondly, essentialist Feminist Camile Paglia argues in

Sexual Personae published in 1991 that the surpression of woman in society because of

their natural superiority of the male sex, saying that they are incarnations of the nature,

powerful and predictable, whilst men are the embodiment of rationality and creativity

(Paglia,1991, pp. 9-15). These viewpoints combined, men are a degradation compared to

women, hence Helena has to bend down to him to be on the same level.

This establishment of equal power between the two sets up the high-point of the scene, in

which Demetrius threatens sexual violence. We start off with a full shot of Demetrius leaving

his bike against a stone. He walks towards the camera and slightly to the left, where he is

now captured in a medium shot, sharing the screen with Helena back (head and shoulder).

He has imposed himself into the frame as he walked in, appearing intimating and in control.

He is about one step away from Helena and with every step he makes towards her, she
 10

takes one step back. The camera does a soft panning movement, keeping them centralized

in the frame as they move. However, with every step, the actors actually get a bit closer to

the camera until the medium shot turns into the close-up of the two. This intensifies their

confrontation, and Demetrius, virtually leading the camera with his movement, is represented

as being in a position of dominance over Helena. This dominance is not only physical but

emotional, because the shot focusses on their faces, their emotions, rather than their full

bodies. He then implicitly threatens to rape her, almost kissing her, in this moment the

camera comes stand still suggesting the culmination point. Symbolically, the threat of rape is

the gesture of ultimate dominance of the male over the female body, as well the most

heinous act of degradation of a woman (Paglia, 1991, p.120). But this is not the end of the

scene. Rather, after the stand still, it is Helena that leads the camera, and as she takes steps

towards Demetrius he steps back. Helena comes in for a kiss and Demetrius, clearly

intimidated by her, flinches away. We end up where we left off – with Demetrius and his bike

on the floor. He then flees the frame with Helena chasing behind him. Her sexual desire for

him is portrayed as powerful and potent as his threats of physical violence. He cannot rape

her, as it is implied, she would not only give consent but in fact, seduce him. This takes away

the “God-given” physical dominance over the female body that defines his existence as a

biological man and thus his masculinity (Paglia, 1991, p. 33). Demetrius is emasculated.

In conclusion, Demetrius' advantages over Helena, both emotionally and physically in this

scene are negated through the cinematography. Under the guise of representing the truths

of ‘human nature’ and dynamics between the sexes, the cinematographic framing of this

scene is bias.. It follows feminist viewpoint of the superiority of the female over the male.

The capability to perform sexual violence typically characterized as masculine is ridiculed by

the feminine who deems lacking and unimpressive. Men are de-weaponized, and their

complaints are disregarded. They are compelled to re-invent themselves and their

masculinity, in order to restore their original position in society and bring back their dignity

and personal fulfillment (King, 2009, p. 367).

 11

Chapter II - She Completes His Masculinity: The Yin-Yang

Symbolism Between the Narrator and Marla in Fight Club

David Fincher’s Fight Club (1999) starring Edwards Norton (The Narrator) and Brad Pitt

(Tyler Durden) has a cult status (Davies, 1995, p. 146). It is identified as a central work that

deals with and encapsulates the “crisis of masculinity” of the 90’s and beyond. Other note

note-worthy movies in relation to this are Falling Down (Schumacher, 1993) and American

Psycho (Harron, 2000). When critics discuss portrayal of emasculation and the regaining of

masculinity in Fight Club, they focus on the physical violence and the organized crime

displayed in the film. It is rare that critics associate the issues with masculinity in Fight Club

to gender or femininity. Caroline Ruddell in “Virility and Vulnerability, Splitting and Masculinity

in Fight Club” identifies the narrator's split into Tyler Durden, as splits into a passive feminine

(the narrator) and an active masculine (Tyler Durden), an interpretation, I find, lacks close

visual evidence and continuity (Ruddell, 2007, p. 499). Claire Sisco King when analyzing

Fight Club is convinced that white masculinity is purposefully “amalgamated and diffuse” with

the ability to absorb “otherness” and femininity in its “incarnations” which is why it holds

“masculinity’s cultural hegemony” (King, 2009, p. 367). I agree that femininity plays a role for

the formation of the masculine, that the feminine is in fact part of white masculinity.

However, King is too general when she tries to relate these ideas to Fight Club, a movie that,

if we look closely, is very clear about its messaging. There is too little discussion of how

fears of emasculation relate to the Narrator’s romantic desire and obsession with Marla, the

only woman in the whole film. Their interactions are rich in visual symbolisms that solve

large parts of the film’s ambiguities. An analysis of the cinematography and mise-en-scene

of their scenes together will reveal that the narrator’s obsession with Marla is portrayed as a

kind of absorption of her which completes him. Her feminine energy, not the hypermasculine
 12

pursuits of senseless physical violence is what balances out his lack of masculinity. Through

this, the narrator finds fulfillment in his life.

At the beginning of the film, the narrator is lacking his balls, representing his masculinity.

This is suggested by the cinematography, which, at first, shows him persistently and

exclusively in medium shots, cutting off the lower half of his body, symbolizing his genitals.

Additionally, his first self-help group meeting is for testicular cancer, meaning the men in

attendance are likely to have part, if not all of their testicles removed. We find that the

narrator is mostly sitting, and when he is captured in medium-shot the camera slightly zooms

in on his face. This represents him as weak and a victim, intimidated even by routine

interactions with people. The zooming in on his face also suggests the significance of his

imagination which is vital for the events of the film. He is entrapped in rationality, constantly

numbing himself or over-thinking, out of touch with his primal desires, such as his sexuality

and willpower. Sexuality and willpower are part of the definition of masculinity and are

traditionally depicted as living in the genital area of the body (Paglia, 1991, p. 111).

The narrator is so entrapped in his rational mind that he initially does not recognize Marla as

attractive, rather she is represented as an extension of his mind. She is introduced to us in a

semi-montage, cutting to multiple self-meetings. In each shot, the camera is positioned

behind the heads of the participants of the meeting, panning from the left side to the right. In

the second meeting, the camera stops at the back of the head of the narrator in a

medium-close up. As he turns around it cuts to a zoom in of Marla sitting behind him. It cuts

to an extreme close-up of him, having turned back around again, Marla and other

participants are in a big blur behind his head. There is a sense of claustrophobia in the way

the camera only focuses on the heads and faces. It conveys that the narrator, and a large

part of his issues are his obsession with his thoughts. Prior to Marla arriving he was in some

sense able to connect to his emotions, because he was able to cry, but now must deny

himself emotional indulgences in order to keep his sexual desire for Marla suppressed and in

control.
 13

Marla becomes a representation of his entrapment, when see her walking off in the distance

as a black shadow, with the narrator being placed in the foreground on the left. She is

metaphorically entering his brain and his thoughts, causing him agitation, which he

vehemently tries to deny himself. The ultimate representation that the narrator has absorbed

Marla is when, in the next scene, she becomes his “spirit animal” in the meditation exercise

during a cancer self-help meeting. When he can no longer deny his natural desire for Marla,

he displaces his unconscious, his ideal self into Tyler Durden (Rudell, 2007, p. 499). Once

Tyler Durden has entered the life of the narrator, Marla is allowed to be recognized as

sexually desirable.

After Tyler and Marla first have sex, the narrator and Marla meet in the kitchen. Here, she

approaches him and touches his crotch, in a close-up, the cigarette in her hand becoming

phallic. It cuts to a close up of the two, Marla hugging the narrator from behind, whispering to

him. The camera is placed the height of Edward Norton and is down-tilted, cutting off the

upper part of the narrator's forehead. He is in extreme focus, Marla is not. The cutting of his

forehead represents that his mind has become secondary, having unleashed his primal and

“masculine” desires for sex and violence. Marla, being slightly out of focus further conveys

that the idea that the desire to her is something primitive, not rationalized by the sharpness

of his mind. In terms of lighting and mise-en-scene these two turn into the symbol of Yin and

Yang – the narrator is in a white shirt and front lit, whilst Marla has black hair and stands in

the shadows. The Yin and Yang symbolism has been established earlier in the film in the

form of a Ying and Yang coffee-table that the narrator bought in his interior design-phase

and was later seen again after his flat has burned down. This Yin and Yang framing of Marla

in the narrator is repeated later in the film when he checks her breast for breast cancer. A

reflection of them framed in a mirror reinforced the idea that they need to be together in a

union.

The concept of Yin and Yang dates back to the 3rd Century BCE China and is prominent in

eastern thought. The symbol Yin and Yang symbolizes the idea the world is made up out of
 14

oppositional forces that are balancing each other. One cannot exist without the other, this is

why there is a white dot in the Yang side and a black dot in the Ying. Examples for

oppositions are night and day, light and dark, male and female, each attributed to either Yin

or Yang (Britannica, 2022). Marla, with her black hair, represents Ying, which is also the side

to which femininity is located. The narrator has split himself into two – himself and Tyler

Durden, but this scene makes clear that Marla is missing a piece that will balance him out

and complete him.

This proposes the idea that the white man of the late 1990s needs to accept and embrace

the parts of himself that are deemed “feminine” in order to be comfortable with himself. The

re-invented masculinity consists or needs to consist of femininity. This has little to do with the

idea of gender fluidity, the narrator never ceases to be depicted as fully male. Rather, the Yin

and Yang symbolism clarifies that the Narrator, as every human being, consists of

oppositional forces in which one cannot exist without the other, and everything needs to be

in balance. It explains that his desperate attempt to fight his emasculation through actual

physical fights with other men was always fruitless, because the masculine can never exist

by itself. The Narrator needs Marla, a spark of feminine energy in order to produce ‘true’

masculinity which balances him out and stabilizes his mental state. The films happy ending

is the Narrator and Marla holding hands as the buildings explode, representing not only that

they are a couple but that the narrator has found peace with himself internally.
 15

Chapter III - The Female Embodying the Re-birth of

Masculinity: The ‘Awakening’ of Lester in American

Beauty

American Beauty by Sam Mendes was an Oscar sensation winning eight times in total,

including best cinematography for Conard Hall (IMDb, 2022). Like Fight Club, this film still

enjoys relevance today dealing with timeless issues such as mid-life crisis, violence,

consumerism, and ideas of beauty (Clark, 2019). However, some aspects of the film have

not aged well, and an article called “The Troubled Legacy of American Beauty, 20 Years On”

by Alex Hess condemns the protagonist Lester as a “middle-aged pervert indulging in the

crudest instincts, wallowing in self-pity and, at the end of it all, being granted heart-warming

redemption” (p.1). As early as 2004, Erica Arthur in her article “Where Lester Burnham Falls

Down – exposing the facade of victimhood in American Beauty” despised the protagonist for

being an abusive manipulator executing his white male privilege under the aspect of a

largely unjustified victim-narrative (p.127) . She says that he uses his new-found masculinity

as a weapon to degrade the woman around him. Once again, how exactly his masculinity is

constructed in Lester Burnham’s characterisation lacks interrogation. Because what she

condemns as ‘masculine’ predatory behavior is actually embodied in the form of Angela, a

hyper female.

This scene is established in Lester’s ‘love at first sight’ moment with Angela, beginning 15

minutes into the film. In this scene Angela is transformed, through the mise-en-scene, not

only in an object of desire for Lester but into a symbol of his re-invented masculinity. Lester

and his wife come to their daughter’s high school to watch her perform as a cheerleader

during the break of a basketball game. The camera pans over the other cheerleaders from a

slight bird-eye view as the cheerleaders position themselves a horizontal line. The camera

then stops and zooms in on Angela. It jumps cuts to Lester, framed in the same medium shot
 16

as we have seen prior, but this time the camera also slightly zooms in on him, establishing a

connection between Angela and Lester (it is obvious from Lester’s facial expression that he

is mesmerized). We cut again to Angela now in a medium shot, seemingly looking upwards

at Lester. It jumps cuts back to the same shot of Lester, zooming in on him further. We cut

back and there is a spotlight shining on her, the camera is position to capture her in a

medium shot, slightly down tilted. This the smooth transition into Lester’s fantasy: it could be

plausible that she looked upwards, and it could be plausible that there is a spotlight on her.

The next shot however establishes that this was all in his fantasy, when the music changes

and see her dancing completely by herself in a sexually provocative manner framed in that

down tilted medium shot. She turns from a teenage cheerleader into an object of desire, the

trigger of his lust. The smooth transition between reality and fantasy is significant: it softens

the predatory nature of Lester’s desire for a teenage girl, making it more palatable to the

audience. Secondly, the transition foreshadows that is fantasy is rooted in reality, because

his fantasy actually comes true at the end of the movie when Angela consents to have sex

with (although he ultimately declines). When Lester declines the offer to sex her, it confirms

he did not view Angela as a person perse, but rather as a symbol of his masculinity.

Because he was regained masculinity through the course of the movie, his sexual desire for

Angela vanishes.

At the beginning of Lester’s fantasy, we see him in a long shot with an upwards tilt, sitting

alone on the tribune, a single spotlight placed on him. This portrays the reality that the

intimacy with Angela is only imagined. Even in his fantasizing about her, there is the feeling

that she is unreachable, that he cannot attain her. It jumps cuts back to Angela. There are

multiple jump-cuts, repeating the same action of looking over her shoulder until the jump

cuts again to Lester’s gaze in an extreme close-up. The jump cuts convey his increasing

agitation and sexual arousal. The repetition of Angela’s motion paired with Lester’s extreme

close-up suggests just how trapped he is. To prolong and intensify his fantasy he needs to

loop her actions, he is entrapment because for one Angela’s naked body is a mystery to him,
 17

and secondly, he knows that his fantasy is morally forbidden. He is stuck with Angela

taunting him with her dance over and over again, he cannot come to his climax because he

cannot imagine her naked. In this sense he is an oblivion between pleasure and pain. If we

recall Camille Paglia’s essentialist ideas, Angela becomes the archetype of women in the

eyes of men – the mysterious, the unpredictable, the powerful and the unattainable, basically

nature itself (Paglia, 1991, p.12).

Lester’s attraction towards the feminine is what motivates change in his life, re-awakening

his masculinity, his sense of self. In Lester’s imagination the image of Angela, a female,

represents his masculinity and his lack thereof reflecting it back on himself. This way she

becomes an embodiment of his masculinity, which he can attain back by seducing her.

Equally, she remains hyperfeminine in her appearance. This reinforces that the masculine is

reliant on the feminine to develop.

Conclusion

The ‘crisis of Masculinity’ in the 90s was not only an issue prevalent in the stories of films of

this period. Related world views and ideas seeped into the cinematography and

mise-en-scene, exploring and resolving complicated relationships between the male and the

female. By analyzing we were able to uncover that the female and representations of

femininity both contributed to the crisis of masculinity but also ultimately supported in the

re-invention.

Looking closely at a scene from Micheal Hoffman’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, we were able

to see how the cinematography embodies feminists ideas of superiority that emasculate the

male, robbing him of his physical strength and emotional impact. It exemplified the

experience of the white male during the 90’s, compelled to re-invent masculinity in a way
 18

that would regain his favors within society, thus towards a model that perhaps allows for

typically feminine characteristics to be incorporated.

We see this incorporation of femininity to heal the emasculated and depressed male in Fight

Club. Here, the cinematography and mise-en-scene work together to convey the narrator's

journey from depression to contentment is related to his relationship with his sexuality

(related to his masculinity). A lack of female energy in his life is equal to him having no

genitals, as a symbol of masculinity. Highlighted by the Ying-Yang symbolism and aesthetic

cues, it is implied that Marla, the female, re-ignites his masculinity once she enters his life. It

is through the embrace of the feminine that he attains a ‘ true’ masculinity which actually

vitalizes and fulfills him.

Similarly in American Beauty, Angela becomes a symbol of Lester’s masculinity because her

hyperfemininity reflects his lack. Femininity prompts him to re-invent himself, his life, his

masculinity. However this play of mise-en-scene means that Lester's masculinity aspires

towards the feminine, the seduction and intimacy with Angela.

In conclusion, it becomes clear that the female is indispensable in the re-imagining of

masculinity, acting as its opposite but also an ingredient. The embrace of femininity becomes

a pathway to a masculinity that appears to be authentic, self-fulling and empowering to the

white male in the late 90s. However, this is still handled self-consciously, only visible through

the close analysis of the cinematography and mise-en scene.

Word Count: 4,824

 19

Bibliography

Arthur, E. 2004. ‘Where Lester Burnham Falls Down: Exposing the Facade of Victimhood in
American Beauty’, Men and Masculinities, 7(2), pp. 127–143. doi:
10.1177/1097184X03257512.

Britannica. (2022). Topic: Ying Yang. https://www.britannica.com/topic/yinyang.

Berlant, L. 1997. The Queen of America Goes to Washington City: Essays on Sex and
Citizenship. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Butler, J. (1990). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. London and
New York: Routledge.

Clark, A. (2019). ‘Moving Past the Midlife Crisis - American Beauty: Twenty years later,’
Medium. https://medium.com/lonely-pioneer/moving-past-the-midlife-crisis-23f8863fa18a.

Davies, Jude. (1995). ‘‘I’m the bad guy?’ Falling down and white masculinity in 1990s
Hollywood.’ Journal of Gender Studies, 4(2), pp. 145–152.
https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.1995.9960601

Ehrenreich, B. (2007). ‘Feminism’s Assumptions Upended.’ South Central Review, 24(1),

pp. 170–173. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40039968

Hess, A. (2019). ‘The troubled Legacy of American Beauty: 20 years on,’ Esquire.

https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/film/a28757915/the-troubled-legacy-of-american-beauty-

20-years-on/

IMDb. American Beauty - Awards. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0169547/awards/

Jeffords, S. (1994). Hardbodies: Hollywood masculinity in the Reagan era. New Brunswick,
NJ:Rutgers University Press.
 20

King, S.C. (2009). ‘It Cuts Both Ways: Fight Club, Masculinity, and Abject Hegemony.’
Communication and Critical/Cultural studies, 6 (4), pp. 366-385.

Malin, Brent. (2003). ‘Memorializing White masculinity: the late 1990s “crisis of masculinity”
and the “subversive performance” of Man on the Moon.’ The Journal of Communication
Inquiry 27(3), pp.239–255. https://doi.org/10.1177/0196859903027003002

Paglia, Camille. (1991). Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence. New York:Vintage Books

Ruddell, C. 2007. ‘Virility and Vulnerability, Splitting and Masculinity in Fight Club: A tale of
Contemporary Male Identity Issues.’ Extrapolation (pre-2012), 48 (3), pp. 493- 502.

Shweder, R. (1994). “What Do Men Want? A Reading List For the Male Identity Crisis.” New
York Times Book review 3.

Thompson, A. (2007). ‘Rewriting the “Real”: Popular Shakespeare in the 1990s.’ Journal of
Popular Culture, 40 (6), pp. 1052- 1072.
 21

Filmography

American Beauty (1999), Dir. Sam Mendes, USA: Universal Pictures.

American Psycho (2000), Dir. Mary Harron, USA: Lionsgate Films.

Falling Down (1993), Dir. Joel Schumacher, USA: Warner Bros.

Fight Club (1999) Dir. David Fincher, USA: 20th Century Studios.

Hamlet (1996) Dir. Kenneth Branagh, USA: Columbia Pictures.

Hamlet (2000), Dir. Michel Almereyda, USA: Miramax.

Henry V (1989), Dir. Kenneth Branagh, UK: BBC Films.

Kindergarten Cop (1990), Dir. Ivan Reitman, USA: Universal Pictures & Paramount Pictures.

Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999), Dir. Michael Hoffman, UK: Searchlight Pictures.

Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Dir. Kenneth Branagh, UK:BBC Films

Romeo + Juliet (1997), Dir. Baz Luhrmann, USA: 20th Century Fox.

Terminator (1984), Dir. James Cameron, USA: Orion Pictures.