Sterotypes of Mascalinity in the Film Big Lebowski

We’re all familiar with the stereotypes and myths about what it means to “be a man.” The victorious leader gets what he wants using aggression and does not accept failure; he is smooth with the ladies, and he is often good with a gun. He is usually rich and in control, especially in control of women, like a father who loves his daughter dearly but will be damned if she’s going to go out dressed like that. The list could go on and on with the stereotypes. But the Coen Brothers’ cult-classic film, The Big Lebowsk (1998), with its hero “The Dude,” contradicts these notions of masculinity. The Coen brothers offer several familiar stereotypes of masculinity (the Vietnam vet, the successful capitalist, an oversexed bowler, some aggressive German nihilists), yet it is these characters that throughout the film are shown to be absurd, insecure, and even impotent. It is these stereotype men that the Coen brothers criticize. “Sometimes there’s a man,” says the narrator over and over again, pointing out the Dude’s non-stereotypical masculinity as the true representation of what it means to be a man. The brothers then illustrate that the men who give no thought to their identity, who ignore the pressure to conform to cultural expectations, are to be regarded as “real men.”
About 20 years after Vietnam, Walter is still obsessed with his service in the Vietnam War and views his entire life and the world around him through its lens. He wears an army vest over his bowling shirt, carries a pistol with his ball, and is very quick to anger. We are given the impression that perhaps during the war, Walter was a man, but has been stuck in those glory days ever since, never allowing himself to change or be flexible, something central to the Coen Brothers...

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... the Dude, to Los Angeles for no particular reason, along the way symbolically transitioning from the freedom of the Wild West to the structure of modern times. The tumbleweed transforms into a bowling ball rolling down a lane, symbolizing the confinement posed by gender norms. The previously free tumbleweed is now locked into a tight, narrow, path; should it stray from its course, it will wind up in the gutter instead of merely blowing a different direction. As it follows the forced path, the bowling ball approaches a collection of phalluses, the bowling pins, and proceeds to demolish them. This scene visually depicts how confining oneself to the strict rules of culturally accepted masculinity is, paradoxically, the surest way to destroy ones own masculinity. Instead, let us take comfort and example in the Dude, who’s “out there takin’ her easy for all us sinners.”