Examples Of Masculinity In Full Metal Jacket

Masculinity is having qualities traditionally ascribed to men, as strength and boldness. The movie Full Metal Jacket spends an ample amount of time demonstrating the masculinity of the characters. Masculinity doesn’t mean the same thing for every man though because every man doesn’t prioritize things the same way. The things men prioritize in their lives they believe atribute to their masculinity. Kubrick demonstrates masculinity in different forms through different characters: Animal mother’s masculinity derives from his aggression and physical ability, Joker was more thoughtful and articulate, and Pyle goes insane because he couldn’t conform to the other men’s meaning on masculinity and they couldn’t understand his.

Animal Mother demonstrated his masculinity with his physicality. Animal mother sees the war as a slaughter. During the movie he makes jokes discriminating against people’s physical appearances. He is most concerned with beating the other team. He would say things to his constituents that could be considered rude but when they were up against the enemy he did not take losing men in combat very well. In the scene where he went in to help save his fellow soldiers he was most concerned with finding the sniper and taking her down. the shortcoming of his

masculinity was when he came face to face with one single enemy. He couldn’t kill her. It is not made obvious whether it was because of any of her characteristics or simply because he could not handle the pressure up close, but it did show that his masculinity had a limit. Animal Mother believed that violence was only an aspect of life he had to deal with and deal with by beating his opposing man.
Joker, unlike Animal Mother relied on intelligence to strengthen his masculinity. Joker questioned the very purpose in the war. By wearing a peace symbol while his helmet wrote “ born to kill”, Joker confused his fellow soldiers. He was never afraid to speak how he felt. He was not afraid of sergeant during his training, when some of the others were. Journalist became his duty in the military possibly because they could see that he had a way with his words. His ability to express himself on paper did not stop him from wanting to be apart of the action. Jokers yearning to be on the front line presumes that he felt the ability to be a killer was something he found masculine but he just needed a chance to prove it. Either by chance or by his own force Joker got his chance. This could have been the driving force behind his ability to kill the sniper while others were unwilling. Joker was intelligent and able to think critically but that wasn’t enough for him he had to become physical too by joining the other men on the front line.
Pyle couldn’t conform to being physically or mentally masculine which caused him to go insane.

The other men in his battalion grew tired of having to make up for his mistakes. Pyle was infantilized by the sergeant which contributed to his inability to become a man in the other soldiers eyes. Joker could see that Pyle wasn’t ready for the military when he told Cowboy he would be “section eighed.” Pyle could no longer take the pressure to transform into a soldier or what what the other soldiers wanted or needed him to be so he became a killer. He became what some would consider the opposite of masculine, a coward. A coward is a person who lacks courage in facing danger, difficulty, opposition, or

pain.
Full Metal Jacket is a movie about war but also about how men who value things the other one may not are still fighting the same fight. They each have different opinions of what masculinity means. Animal mother made his masculinity revolve around violence and winning. Joker used his intelligence to get in the minds of others but also became violent. Pyle couldn’t become masculine. He was not able to handle the world around him. These characters all became killers but one character couldn’t see beyond the killer.