Historical Stereotypes of Australian Masculinity in the Film 'Two Hands and Strictly Balloon'

Historical Stereotypes of Australian Masculinity in the Film 'Two Hands and Strictly Balloon'

“Film is a powerful player in the construction of national identity.

In Australian films, men embody particular masculinities such as

rugged practicality and anti-intellectualism, ruthless independence

against all odds, and a willingness to die. These masculinities have

been embellished and perpetuated in film histories as the ideal held

as the standard for imitation”

Introduction

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Since the revival of Australian cinema in early 1970s, Australian

films have focused on certain themes of social perceptions and

representations of masculinity. We see dominant, recognisable male

images in our cinema – the bushman, the larrikin, the ‘mate’, and the

‘battler’. Masculinity stereotypes are projected in both Two Hands

(1999) and Strictly Ballroom (1992) to varying degrees.

Australia has a reputation for aggressive masculinity. This has its

roots when the first settlers, mostly male convicts landed in Botany

Bay who raised ‘hell’ when drunk. Then it was the outback pioneer,

battling the bush to build a new nation prior to the First World War.

The Anzac legend – bold and ferocious males, unwilling to bow to

military discipline, never flinched in battle defined the evolution of

the image of Australian masculinity. Professor Manning Clark in his

opus A History of Australia imaged the bronzed and noble Anzac as

males involved in sex orgies, having violent scuffles, and in Egypt

burned belongings of local people, brawled, got drunk and rioted and

patronised brothels. Hero and larrikin, ratbag and rebel, the Anzacs

...

... middle of paper ...

... bright as he is, it is now obvious.

Conclusion

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Both films Two Hands and Strictly Ballroom stereotype masculinity. Two

Hands, based on the rough living at Kings Cross with a gangster plot

stereotype the typical masculinity – criminal culture, swearing,

rough, tough, ruthless gangsters, fighting and boxing, drinking beer,

exercising, masculine attire, mateship, larrikinism, meeting at pub,

robbing the bank, and willingness to die. Strictly Ballroom, with a

ballroom and romance plot is more difficult to project the male

stereotype. However even in this difficulty area, it manages to still

capture the following masculine traits – mateship, trivialised

larrikinism, physical apperarance, durnkenness, determination to win

the ballroom dancing championship using new steps –the macho Spanish

pasodoble.