In 2005, upon its release, Brokeback Mountain has received a lot of media buzz due to its controversial themes and is often referred to as the “gay cowboy or western” film. This title sticks out as an irony as generally, cowboys are representations of the hegemonic masculinity where as gay, or homosexuals, are often labelled as the opposite. Historically, it is rare to find masculinity in a gay romance narrative as homosexuality is often regarded as effeminate. Brokeback Mountain on the other end, separates itself from the other homosexual narratives by infusing both the hegemonic masculinity and the homosexual romance narrative in a way that is rarely seen in its time. This is a bold move my the filmmakers, which got it a lot of media attention. This essay intends to examine how ‘Brokeback Mountain’ steers off the gendered media stereotypes by establishing hegemonic masculinity within a homosexual romance narrative. To do so, I will be exploring the definition of a gendered media, the representation of non-binary characters in media and finally, how ‘Brokeback Mountain’ breaks off the stereotypes established by these representations.
Gendered Media
What is gendered media? Today, there are many forms of influences that shape how we perceive the definition of men and women. Amongst all these, the most prevalent and powerful form of influence comes in the form of media. Throughout our upbringing, we are constantly exposed to these messages that the media insinuates, which essentially becomes etched into our subconsciousness. Media, in all its many forms, whether it is prime-time television, radio or the cinema, convey representations of gender, many of which are delusive, stereotypical and narrow-minded point of views. In this section, I will be exploring three themes that describe how media characterises gender. First, the overrepresentation of men compared to women, which insinuates that men are more important than their female counterparts. Secondly, the stereotypical representations of men and women in the mass media. And lastly, the characterisation of relationships between men and women that creates the false idea of traditional roles. In each of these themes, I will be using ‘Brokeback Mountain’ as a case study to how it mostly adheres to the stereotypes created by the gendered media.
Overrepresentation of men
There are many ways that the media distorts reality, and one very noticeable way is through the overrepresentation of men. In most forms of media, whether its the television or the cinema, there are almost three times as many white male characters as compared to female. (“Study Reports Sex Bias,”, 1989). This in turn creates a false depiction of the actual proportions of the population of men and woman. And witnessing this as we grow up distorts our view of reality and which then instills in our subconscious that men are the cultural standard. And this is one way that the media has influenced our point of view of gender.
Stereotypical representations of men and women
People often arrange their vast comprehension of the world around them by categorising and generalising the information that they acquire (Wolska) These categorisation are often representations of the reality that exhibits its most archetypal and rudimentary elements and properties. These categorisations are then liable for defining how we view the world around us and plays a large role in our influence on social cognition. When placed in a social context, these categorisations are what is known as stereotypes.
Over the years, there is a recognisable pattern in which men and women are portrayed by the media. One does not have to look far to notice the stereotypical representations of men especially in highly popular blockbusters such as Die Hard, Robocop and majority of the comic book movies. Men are often represented as the bread-winner of the family, tough, confident, independent and without a trace of femininity where as their female counterparts, if working, are normally in a lower position than they are, if not, they would be caring wives and mothers who are in charge of taking care of the children and maintaining the home before their husband returns. In other words, men are recognised as the head of the family while woman are the housewives.
Characterisation of relationships between men and women
Continuing with the trend of the media’s stereotypical representation of men and women, it is to no surprise that the relationship between both men and women are and extension of these stereotypes. There are several themes that demonstrates how the media portrays this relationship, but the one that stands out is the men’s independence and dominance in the relationship. This dominance plays a huge part in the idea of hegemonic masculinity.
Since the early 1980s, the concept of hegemonic masculinity has been widely used to explain men’s dominance over woman. The common conceptualisation of hegemonic masculinity is described as an idealistic set of principals that has been set up by men of authority in order to organise the society in gender unequal ways. It puts together several themes such as a hierarchy of masculinities.
Conclusion to Gendered Media
The media is a powerful tool that is able to manipulate people’s viewpoint of the world. The main goal of the mass media is to be ubiquitous and easily understandable by as many people as possible, therefore conforming to the use of stereotypes. However, the use of stereotypical representations of genders is incomplete as many subgroups who consider themselves outside of the gender norms are underrepresented or ignored. As we have seen, we are constantly being fed with the notion of male domination over women through the overrepresentation of men and the stereotypical ways that they are represented by the media.
‘Brokeback Mountain’ is yet another movie that is dominated by the presence of male characters, with both of its main leads being male characters. On top of that, the fact that both the characters are cowboys, fulfils the media’s stereotypical representation of men as being confident, tough and independent whereas their wives are having regular nine-to-five jobs in an air conditioned building. This shows that, despite the central theme of the movie being around a gay romance, the movie still conforms to the general idea and stereotypes of the gendered media. In the next session of this essay, I will be exploring the representations of non-binary characters in mass media.
Representation of non-binary characters
Queer characters are getting an increased amount of coverage in the mainstream media and entertainment over the years. And historically, there seems to be an ongoing theme where their representations which is that these homosexual characters are often devoid of a sense of masculinity. In this section, I will be exploring the representations of non-binary characters in the mass media and the counter-hegemonic nature of homosexuality.
During the early years in Hollywood between the 1890s to the 1930s, homosexuality was often portrayed as ridiculous and is presented as a joke. “Sissy” an archetype for feminine men, was widely used at that time to mock such characters. During that period of time, homosexual characters were mostly defined but heir sexual orientation rather than bearing any complex characteristics. Also, since Hollywood films are created to appeal to as many people as possible, the film producers are fearful that their focus on gay and lesbian characters may in turn offend a sizeable amount of their audience and also their potential investors.
However, in 2005, ‘Brokeback Mountain’ broke all expectations of gay romance narratives by grossing over $178 million, proving to Hollywood executives that portraying queer people in a large budget movie can in fact be lucrative.
In conclusion, as we can see, there has not been much progress with the representation of homosexuality in media. Film studios are fearful in approaching the topic as they do not want to offend any members of the society which could be the reason why the queer characters are often effeminate or lacking of character depth outside of their sexuality. Next, I will be talking about how homosexuality is commonly regarded as counter-hegemony.
Homosexuality and counter-hegemony
Male homosexuality is often regarded as counter-hegemonic and there are three main reasons why it is. Firstly, antagonism towards homosexuality, mainly gay men, is often viewed as fundamental to heterosexual men. Next, homosexuality is commonly portrayed to be effeminate. And lastly, homosexual pleasure is widely regarded as disruptive.
Opposition towards gay men is considered to be a requirement of hegemonic masculinity. Heterosexual men are often pressured to conform to the demands of hegemonic masculinity, which in turn instills a sense of homophobia to them. They are then rewarded for this through social support and a form of validation to their manliness. In other words, men maintain their heterosexuality through their hatred and fear of the homosexual men.
In the eyes of the society, homosexual and the lesbian subcultures are reversed versions of their hegemonic counterparts. This means that the homosexual men are socially classified as effeminate and is leaning more towards feminism rather than masculinity.
Lastly, homosexual pleasure is widely regarded as subversive. According to Connel, the hierarchical and oppressive nature of the relationship between men and woman is pitted against the egalitarianism in gay relationships. Heterosexuality and homophobia are the foundations for which hegemonic masculinity sits on. Its meaning is based on the idea and impression that usually, the relationship of men and woman is oppressive. An important element of hegemonic masculinity is that women are created to be potential sexual objects for men while men are invalidated as sexual objects for themselves. Heterosexual men receive sexual validation from women and they compete against each other for this.
About ‘Brokeback Mountain’
‘Brokeback mountain’ stands at the intersection between representation of the stereotypes of gendered media, hegemonic masculinity in particular, as well as the representation of homosexuality in mass media. As I stated earlier, the notion of masculinity is rarely discussed along with homosexuality. ‘Brokeback Mountain’ breaks this trend by constructing a narrative around two protagonists who engaged in a gay romance while being portrayed as tough cowboys who are also extensions of hegemonic masculinity. From the moment that the two characters meet each other, the filmmakers have constantly establish their masculine identities through the challenges they face and the environment that they are in. In this section, I will be examining how the filmmakers have established the masculine identities of the two protagonists through three elements, the setting, their gender and parenthood. After that, I will be elaborating on how the filmmakers steer away from the general representations of queer characters as I mentioned earlier.
Firstly, the setting of ‘Brokeback Mountain’ screams a sense of masculinity. It is framed as an expansive, barren and mountainous terrain that supports the wilderness and freedom that hegemonic masculinity yearns for. As Clancy points out, the usage of wide angled shots and highly saturated colours brings out the magnificence of the landscape which is often used as a backdrop for independent and tough heterosexual men (Clancy, 2006). Nature provides men with the capacity and strength to dominate and take control of their environment which is a theme that is recurring throughout the film to establish the two character’s goal to achieve a hegemonic masculinity. To illustrate this even further, there are scenes where the characters are scene riding on horses amongst a flock of sheeps and the filmmakers deliberately used a high-angled shot to give the characters a strong sense of dominance and commanding presence over mother nature. These recurring images of masculinity amongst the two characters as presented by the filmmakers is in stark contrast from the common representation of homosexual men as effeminate.
Secondly, the filmmakers develops the masculine identities by approaching the discussion of gender as the binary of masculinity and femininity. The traditional perception of ‘masculine’ men and ‘feminine’ women are derived from the notion that we are assigned a gender role and we have to utilise it to construct our identities. In the eyes of the society, there is a fixed set of behaviours that are associated with each gender, such as our gestures, our posture and our speech. Based on this, the perception of masculinity can be identified boy examining the performative behaviours of the protagonists. In Western trope, cowboys are usually personified by their silence and being emotionally reserved (Needham, 2010). Both these traits are exhibited bye Ennis who constantly mumbles in his low voice, and hardly ever talks throughout the whole film. Furthermore, the silence exhibited by Ennis reflects a male’s unwillingness to be affected by the women.
Thirdly, the filmmakers develops the masculine identities of the characters by establishing how the characters internalise the influence of parenthood. Using Ennis as a case study, we can see that his father condemns the idea of homosexuality by the events that happened to Earl. As I have stated earlier, the antagonism towards homosexuality is considered to be a requirement of hegemonic masculinity. Ennis’ father tries to instil this perspective into Ennis by distorting the image of a gay men as effeminate. Therefore, the influence of parenthood causes homophobia on Ennis and the fear propels him to maintain a heterosexual lifestyle and eventually get married and set up a traditional family of his own.
All in all, it is clear that the filmmakers have taken steps to steer clear of the stereotypical way of representing queer characters. The nature setting creates a base for the masculinity in the two characters to be developed with their desire for both dominance and freedom. Furthermore, the behaviours of the two main leads are representations of their masculine traits situated in the western context. Lastly, the role of parenthood in the the lives of the two main character has a strong influence on them which causes them to grab hold of the value of their masculinity,
In conclusion, the stereotypes of gendered media has shaped the way we think and perceive the ideal male and female should be. Since we have been exposed to such media from a very young age, it has been etched into our minds that in order to be masculine or feminine, we have to adhere to certain social norms. This stereotypical way of thinking has extended to how we perceive non-binary genders, where it is considered fundamental for heterosexual males to be hostile towards homosexual males in order to gain social acceptance and gain affirmation of their manliness. ‘Brokeback Mountain’ however, transcends these stereotypes by portraying two homosexual characters who possess qualities of masculinity in the eyes of the society. The filmmakers have taken steps through the setting, the camera angles and the story in order to emphasise on the hegemonic masculinity of the characters and avoid the norm then where queer characters are effeminate.