What is it to be human? Are sexism and violence what makes up our ‘human nature’? Or just male human nature. Terry Kupers a psychologist describes toxic masculinity as ‘The need to aggressively compete and dominate others…’ Can this need be filled by violent behaviours, profound language or in some cases only by being god himself? Language features such as symbolism and costume work compellingly well with each other and with the intertextuality of the television show Westworld to establish a representation of males as apart of a spectrum of violent and depraved villains. WestWorld (2016) by Jonathan Nolan is a television series about a futuristic theme park intended for rich vacationers, the futuristic park – which is looked after by robotic “hosts” – allows its visitors to live out their fantasies through artificial consciousness. No matter how illicit the fantasy may be, there are no consequences for the park’s guests, a lawless society. This essay will explore how these language features are used to represent the guests, hosts, and staff members as being part of a utopia for toxic masculinity – Westworld.
The creators of Westworld have envisioned a ludicrously odd playground where humans (The Guests) can live out their deepest fantasies amidst robots that look, feel, smell, and act like sentient human beings. But what do the flesh and blood people do in this fantasy world? They rape and murder and pillage for fun, with no consequences. The guests who go to the park spend big money to indulge in an accumulation of toxic masculine affairs. These male guests find fulfillment not in the kind-hearted ability to love and create but rather in finding the desire to dominate, even if it means destruction – particularly when it means destruction. The representation of males being violent and depraved is introduced in episode one where the Man in Black is illustrated as a villain in his relationship with Teddy and Dolores. The camera angled underneath him asserts a sense of power and dominance over the rest of the characters. When we go to the scene of him at 12:25 his dialogue to Teddy: “Any special tricks for us? Did they teach you to sit up? Beg?” And “I didn’t pay to make it easy” highlights the idea of Westworld being a toxic masculinity society for men. The Man in Black gains a sense of fulfillment in diminishing others, it is the toxic masculinity mood of the amusement park that values dominance and control over others. This scene is further carried onto the relationship between Dolores and the Man in Black. He says “Is that any way to treat an old friend? I’ve been coming here for 30 years.” Following the Man in black abusing Dolores, he drags her by her hair while she screams for help and slaps her, leading her onto her impending rape. During the scene leading to her rape, Nolan’s input of editors’ choice has Dolores’s voice plays over where she is represented as naive and oblivious through the evidence: Dolores says that she “loves the newcomers” even though they are the source of her suffering. Westworld isn’t just a place where toxic men come to play but where seemingly innocent men entering the story in their white hats to come and to turn into these black hat people – William to the Man in Black. The more time men spend in the park, the more destructive they become. To compare Man in Black to William (young man in black). It is a dark vision of humanity, one where the lowest, meanest consequences of patriarchy are their truest nature.
Intertextuality and symbolism are used to highlight the representation of violent men using toxic masculinity to oppress their subordinates. This is specifically conveyed through the characters Dolores and Maeve. By design, everything the computerised hosts do and say is what is scripted in their line of code, with just a touch of self improvisation. They’re all just there to serve, and the park simply erases their memory at the end of every ‘story’. At the park the women are strong. Maeve Millay a “host” who currently plays the part of the saloon’s madam but who previously served as a mother archetype before her daughter was killed and something inside her broke (mentally). Then we see how Dolores Abernathy who at first seems like the embodiment and symbolism of a traditional ‘damsel in distress’, fragile and feminine. She is the farmer’s daughter, the girl next door whose innocence needs protection. But Dolores is not protected. She is rxxed and she is murdered. Along the way, she turns out not to be a young, sweetheart, but rather the oldest host in the park and the first to achieve consciousness. This awakening develops a viciousness inside her. Then we are introduced to Dolores’s father, Peter Abernathy who whispered to his daughter, “These violent delights have violent ends.” (It’s from the Romeo and Juliet speech the friar delivers when he’s secretly marrying Romeo to Juliet.) This hint that people will pay for all this excessive bloodshed. The ‘violent delights’ being the toxic masculinity that oppresses these hosts. These two, the damsel in distress and the whore, are the embodiment of men’s tired view of female endeavours. The question is, what does their consciousness mean in this WestWorld of toxic masculinity? Do they become human as defined by the context of the show, or is that definition of humanity useless when it has become so associated with violence and hate?
The oppressive patriarchal values held in this text lead us to ask our own morally afflicting question. Are we doomed to live within the confines of toxic masculinity and patriarchy forever? Or can we imagine our humanity another way? And if we can, what can we do to achieve it? This analysis compares compellingly to the film 28 Days later when one discusses relevant issues in the consciousness of non-human beings and the idea of being sentient. In 28 Days Later the ‘Scientist’ (engineers in Westworld) feed the monkeys (Hosts) a stream of violent media and anarchy to which the monkeys turn into violent savages turning against everyone and not considered monkeys at all anymore but, monster. For the robots, they are not human. Their memories are lines of code, their destinies initially drafted by writers/engineers just outside the western-themed park they inhabit. And when they are rxxed, dismembered, or murdered, that violence can seemingly be erased like a dream they don’t remember, but no the case for all. So will the oppressions of toxic men on these hosts turn them into rebellious monsters? (…yes.)
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