‘Only the hard and strong may call themselves Spartans’
Why is ‘300’ representing males with old fashioned Ideologies? Is the New Man Dead?
Is the New Man really dead? ‘300’ is representing males with masculine ideologies, thus showing men more dominant than the other gender. Although men in 300 are seen to be territorial, the message put across is the basic men’s stereotype of being 'Selfish, Loutish and inconsiderate... [They like] drinking, football and fucking, and in that order of preference ... [and are]... defensively masculine'[1] at present day. My study will debate whether these stereotypes are alive arriving at the conclusion of the New Man being dead. Or is it that the New Man is already dead and the old fashioned Ideologies are reborn to put women back in their place.
The 2006 film 300, directed by Zack Synder, promotes male violence by destroying the values of ‘more acceptable and appealing version of masculinity’[2] shown by the New Man. The New Man was created first in the 1970’s but has been recreated in a variety of forms since then. He is seen to be represented with more of the feminine ideologies, as he is in touch with his inner femininity and ‘attempts to form non – oppressive relationships with women, children and other men’[3]. The New Man and the masculine/macho man have opposite powers and roles, which are chosen by him. The masculine man plays the more dominant role in the house, playing the breadwinner where the husband goes out to work and make money for his family, and when arriving home, he will be expecting food from his housewife. These household stereotypes are referred as the nuclear family. The male is seen to nurture his family by controlling the household and bringing money home. This is known to be David Gilmore’s conclusion of one aspect of manhood to be the nurturing concept concluding that ‘Men nurture their society by shedding their blood, their sweat and their semen, by bringing home food for both children and mother’[4].
Leonidas from the film 300 follows Gilmore’s nurturing concept, as the film is based upon a war between the Persian King and Sparta, a common stereotype for men linking to ‘Levi Straus’s theory of binary opposition’[5]. Leonidas’s role is to fight for his country and for his wife with the opposing enemy the Persian King. This relates to how masculine men being so violent and linking to the fact of them always-causing problems for territory or power. This norm may conclude from the common male sport known as football. Each team comes from a certain area such as Chelsea or Manchester; the only way to see which area has more power is over a game of football. ‘Violence or aggression in sport is positively rewarded by commendations from other players on the same side, by coaches and sports fans[6]’. Relating to 300, the name of the film connotes that Leonidas took 300 men to war against Persia, this links to the common norm of for territory and power from the support of each other and the role of Leonidas coaching the team. However, as the team totals ups to 300, the Persian king throws almost more than a million soldiers at the Spartan warriors but still the Spartans provide a better team, as Leonidas states himself ‘ … a Spartan’s true strength is the warrior next to him. So give him respect and honour to him, and it will be returned to you’[7]. The quote connotes that the 300 Spartan’s were provoked to fight and strengthened by each other making them un-defeatable.
As 300 represents Sparta as a patriarchal society, where women are there to nurture the children and cook food and men are there to fight and protect. This can produce a connotation of a male dominant society, but as a Persian messenger approaches to deliver a message of war, the queen had given herself the power to talk as the protector of her country as well as King Leonidas. As the message is being spoken it shows that the Persian norms of men have the power to do anything and result speaking with violence and that all women should stay in their place and have no right to do nothing. The Persian messenger states ‘What makes this woman think she can speak among men?’[8]; as Sparta give the right for women to speak, but maybe only if the women is on the same side and supportive, giving the answer ‘Because only Spartan women give birth to real men’[9] showing that women are proud as where they are placed. Women may support men to help protect them and bring food as ‘the fact that men were usually the hunters and women the nurturers even today dictates our behaviour, beliefs and priorities’[10]. As men within 300 are shown to be the powerful beings, the film states only another being that is more powerful. There are known as ‘Ephors, priests of the old Gods. [They are] more creature than man’[11]. They are in their place as they are honoured and live off greed. As they are a step closer from God than humans, this increases their power. But as they state they are more creature than man, their hierarchy concludes that men are below Ephors, and that women are below men in power which this ideology links to the masculine man excluding the new man. Where would the New Man be in the hierarchy?
Looking at how the New Man can be identified within the text of 300, this can be identified through the caring and nurturing way of the husband. Leonidas; through conclusion, is shown as a very masculine man with dominant ideologies and power, in contrast this can be argued as some elements of the New Man can be found. Looking at how the Persian messenger is amazed by the speech of the Queen of Spartan. Leonidas’s expression shown through the close up shot clearly shows his disappointment of his queen interrupting. As she replies with the supporting answer of Spartan women giving birth to real men, this is then taken into account where Leonidas is proud of her but yet embarrassed, as she supports that men here are powerful but yet showing that women are the doing of this. The messenger then delivers his message, that Xerxes king of Persia wants to conquer Sparta and the messenger awaits King Leonidas’s answer. Leonidas is then left with an expression knowning he is going to war. A point of view shot with a slow montage sequence is shown and the images such as Leonidas’s land, young and people, finishing with the last shot of him looking at his wife waiting for an answer. She gives a nod which shows that her input is taken into account and her power is also valuable, and Leonidas concludes with his answer shouting with masculine power, that the messenger has insulted his people and his Queen, killing the messenger. This shows that Leonidas is caring for his wife’s power and is letting her enter the masculine world connoting that his queen’s power and role is upon the same level as his but with limitations.
Although he is showing masculinity from shouting and his power, he still is revealing his care and love for his people, this is something a masculine man cannot do and the New Man and women normally do which is screening their feelings and emotions. Or this can be re-read as that she is only empowered because she is the Queen and ‘however, felt valued that her man would put his life on the line to care for his family. His success as a man was measured by his ability to make a kill… and his self-worth was measured by her appreciation for his struggle and effort’[12]. This concludes that his masculinity is shown more and that the New Man may have been identified but then was buried again by the masculine stereotype. Also the support of his Queen also increases how superior he is. To support this argument, a scene where Leonidas has taken his decision to go to war with the 300 Spartan soldiers, he leaves his wife and son with no word of love or sign of feeling shown. The narrator states his feelings: ‘goodbye, my love… he doesn’t say it… there’s no room for softness… not in sparta[13]’. Leonida’s norms are to show no sign of loving when dealing with his family and going to war. These norms may have been taught from his father, as his father was also seen as a masculine man. His father had trained him and ‘at age of 7 as is customary in Sparta… the boy was taken from his mother and plunged into a world of violence [and] … tossed into the wild’ showing his father had no care for what his mother thought and was more superior and powerful than her. The masculinity of Leonidas had been influenced by the way his father had treated him and by the norms and values passed down and that 'Gender is like fluid and can change within different contexts and over time’[14].
Looking at how the media can affect the audience’s norms or the New Man and the masculine man and how the New Man was born and may have died through the media. Looking at a film called Three Men & a Baby (1987) by Leonard Niomy, the film is based on three bachelors who find themselves forced to take care of a baby left by one of the guy's girlfriends. Through the beginning of the film, all three men are represented and shown with common ideologies known as the masculine or macho man. But as the baby enters their lifes, their roles change and they become more nurturing and caring producing the new ideology also known as ‘The New Man’. The three men first think the baby was a nuisance and caused many problems, as they were not familiar with linking to women’s roles. Women normally take the role of looking after the baby and changing its diaper; this can be very hard and takes a lot of patients according to women. But from a man’s aspect, any thing is possible. As but use their hand and mind do to anything their confident boosts making them think that if ‘I can draw a design structure, I’m pretty sure I can change a baby’s diaper’[15]. But in the end they can’t. It takes a lot of practise for them to get it right. The quote clearly shows that men think that looking after a baby is as simple as going to work and their job role. But is it really that simple? The film was produced in the 1980’s, which reflects the zeitgeist. The New Man was developed in the 1980’s through these types of films, were men show a more caring and nurturing role. The New Man began because of feminism. During world war two (1942), men were sent o war and women began taking over men’s jobs and roles, producing more active women and more powerful Women didn’t have equality in the work force and wasn’t as powerful as men, but they began to gain some power. This produced a fear upon men when returning from war; some women didn’t leave their jobs and refused to go back to the housewife roles. During the 1940s, the genre ‘Film Noir’ created a character called the Femme Fatal’, who was created to seduce the hero away from his journey and backstab him. He was promiscuous and seductive, more seen as a sin producing fear upon men. This reflects the zeitgeist of women taking a man’s role in the 1940’s, and produced a male backlash, so men could put women back into their place. But the New Man was produced in the 1980’s. In the 1970’s the second wave of feminism took place, where women wanted equality in the work place and home. Women began to gain their equality, producing another ‘male backlash in the 1990’s studied by Faludi’[16]. Men were jealous that women had increased their level in the hierarchy and wanted to prove women that men can complete women’s roles. This produced the New Man in the 1980’s and more elements of the New Man evolved such as taking female roles of nurturing children that ‘Three men and a baby’ reflected through the age of the decade. But how did these films help develop these roles for the New Man in society?
The film targets mainly C1 and C2 social-economical groups, which are the middle and working class groups. The audience would watch the film and consume the more caring roles and link it to reality and see them as positive. The audience may purposely take into account the role so they can seem as someone new, thus producing the new man. This is known as the Uses as Gratification theory, where consumers use the film as a personal identity and would identify themselves as the characters within the films. But looking at 300, the film may be using a different method of attracting their audience in the 21th century. The film targets a different age group from the age of fifteen to early thirties. The film uses a method called the ‘hypodermic model founded by Louis Althusser’[17], where the audience is being spoon fed information, in this case role and norms, linking the hegemonic model where the consumers think false consciously that the information being consumed are positive. The audience seem to be passive and consume positive information that their mind may see.
Looking at common scenes within 300, where pure masculinity is shown through a fight scene, which is emphasised through editing skills. For example the first fighting scene, which produces the tension within the film, is amazingly edited with different effects and cinematography. The camera uses zoom in shots and zoom out shots one after the other, this is done to produce a main focus when a blade is swung and blood is sloshing out. The zoom out affect shows the agility of Leonias, of how fast he is moving from one enemy to another. The scene has no cuts or fades, but is a whole tracking side view shot, this helps produce the tension upon the audience as there is no time for a rest or break, connoting the power Leonidas has. Another familiar technique, which is used along side the zoom in and zooms out effects, is slow motion. When the zoom in shot of the blade slicing through enemies is used, a slow motion effect is used to stress the slice and blood from the enemy, the sound produces more tension as only the sound of the blade wielding through the air is used.
The example of this scene shows how the hypodermic needle is used, as the consumers see the characters from 300 as role models. Each character can be link to the opposition of Laura Mulvey’s theory of the ‘Male Gaze’[18]. Her theory states that the practice of the camera lingering on women's bodies is evidence that women were being viewed as sex objects for the gratification of men. But the text 300 shows scenes of the 'male gaze', but looking at the Spartans themselves, with their physique and their topless bodies showing their six packs, this is in contrast to the 'male gaze', concluding to the ‘Female Gaze'. As the society may link to the New Man and how men are now taking care of themselves to impress women or how masculine men produce the ‘Hyper masculinity, [which is] the exaggerated display of what are culturally taken to be macho traits’[19]. The masculine bodies within 300 are all built with their six-packs, big pecks and bold arms. This reflects the ‘Female Gaze’ where women desire a man as strong as they are, and the men consume this idea of women fantasies of built men producing the false consciousness of the masculine man being the positive, superior role ‘symbolically annihilating’[20] the New Man. The New Man’s ideologies are then replaced with the New Masculine or the Macho Man ideologies that 300 may distribute across to males to reborn the masculinity within them. Although the male body may have only been ‘an object of social practice’[21], but some consumers may think different about the masculine bodies like ‘Lekurde01 [stating] 300 is awesome no doubt about it, but I dont know theres is something.. . gay…maybe its the fact that 300 dudes are fighting...half-naked[22]’. This shows that although 300 may be seen as role models, some consumers decline the objectification of the female gaze to see that overly built and half naked men can be seen as homosexual.
Overall looking at masculinity in 300, ‘the male body takes a crucial role in masculinity. Because the body is so obviously there, and it is yet so obviously physical, the suggestion that if it is a male, its masculinity is natural[23]’. This annihilates the factor of the New Man, but some aspects of the New Man can be visible or present within the text, but is out represented with the masculine ideologies. The speech within the film is overly masculine such as ‘Into Hell's mouth we march, “is their equivalent of "I'll be off now then", and hardly any line of the script can be said without an exclamation mark and/or a sore throat. Lead actor Gerard Butler, as Leonidas, responds with lots of shouting and whispering, like a Govan rep version of Al Pacino’[24]. Besides the fact that the narrator is who brings the inner femininity of the characters explaining their feeling rather than showing it, destructing the values and the ideologies of the New Man. The beauty is obviously showing the feelings rather than someelse describing them, which clearly shows that the masculine man is becoming stronger. But as there are still signs of the New Man within the film, this concludes that the New Man is becoming weaker, thus being reflected upon society within the 21th century to be seen as a inferior persona and may always will be.
Films like ‘Troy (2004)’[25], which contain masculine fighting scene with a patriarchal society like 300, but the fighting scenes and the power of each masculine man isn’t emphasises through the media language of slow motion shots and zoom in and out shots. With Troy, the New Man can also be familiar within the text, as Achilles played by Brad Pitt, is seen to be a women’s man who is sweet and caring, but he is also seen superior, blessed by god thus being over represented with masculine ideologies, outwitting the representation of the New Man. The types of genre from 300 and Troy are based on the same genre of action and adventure. Troy was released before 300, so could this be another film that hides the representation of the new man? Troy may not have been as exaggerated with the masculinity, but could be a taster for the extinction of the New Man. Then in 2006, the main course; 300 was released completely trying to demolish the New Man. The purposes of both films could be for ‘regaining male dominance due to a diminishing in men’s power’[26], as the New Man was seen to be weak towards the female gender. After the 1980’s where Three Men & a Baby was produced, the New Man was more accepted within society, but through the years where men’s power had fallen due to the New Man’s power, in the 21th century films like Troy and 300 try to increase male power to make them more dominant in society making the masculine man more powerful. Although the masculine man has increased in power, the New Man can still be identified within society but the New Man may not have as much power as he did in the 1980’s and 90’s. Would another film like Troy and 300 with masculine powers produce more dominant ideologies than the New Man, completely annihilating the New Man, concluding with society leading to ‘aggressive male behaviour [and being more] accepted as a normal part of everyday life’[27]?
Word Count: 3,362
[1] Edwards, T. (London, 1997) Men in the Mirror: Men's Fashion, Masculinity and Consumer Society, p18
[2] MacKinnon, Kenneth. (2003) Representing Men, p15
[3] Whitehead, S.M. (2002) Men & Masculinities, p13
[4] MacKinnon, Kenneth. (2003) Representing Men, p10
[5] Chueh, Ho-chia. (2004) Anxious identity: education, difference, and politics, p39
[6] Brod, H. (1987) The Making Of Masculinities, p22
[7] 300 (2006), Directed by Zack Snyder, USA
[8] ibid
[9] ibid
[10] Pease, Allan & Barbara (1999) Why men don’t listen and women can’t read maps, p10
[11] 300 (2006), Directed by Zack Snyder, USA
[12] Pease, Allan & Barbara (1999) Why men don’t listen and women can’t read maps, p13
[13] 300 (2006), Directed by Zack Snyder, USA
[14] Foucault, M. (1981), The History of Sexuality, p67
[15] Three Men and a Baby (1987) Directed by Leonard Nimoy, USA
[16] Faludi, Susan, (1991) Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women p36
[17] http://michaelynch.com/blog/?tag=louis-althusser
[18] Mulvey, Laura, (1975) Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, p16
[19] Healey, M (1994): The Mark of a Man: Masculine Identities and the art of Macho Drag p86
[20] Gauntlett, D (2002): Media, Gender & Identity: An introductio, p8
[21] Messener, M.A (1990): When Bodies are Weapons: Masculinity and Violence in Sport p214
[22] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTXlWYdodnc
[23] MacKinnon, Kenneth. (2003) Representing Men p5
[24] Mackie, R http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2007/oct/11/dvdreviews.actionandadventure
[25] Troy (2004), directed by Wolfgang Petersen, USA
[26] Lacey, N. Loaded lads and lasses (1996) p12
[27] Lewis, G. 1983: Real Men Like Violence p11
Bibliography
Books and Papers
Allan, P., & Barbara, P. (1999). WHY MEN DON'T LISTEN and WOMEN CAN'T READ MAPS. London: Pease Training International,.
Brod, H. (1987). The Making of Masculinities: The New Men's Studies. New York: Routledge,An Imprint Of Taylor & Francis Books Ltd.
Chueh, H. (2004). Anxious Identity: Education, Difference and Politics (Critical Studies in Education and Culture Series). Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.
Edwards, T. (1999). Men in the Mirror: Men's Fashion, Masculinity and Consumer Society (Sexual Politics). London: Cassell.
Faludi, S. (1991). Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women. New York: Crown.
Foucault, M. (1990). The History of Sexuality: An Introduction. New York: Vintage.
Hearn, J., & Morgan, D. (1990). Men, Masculinities, and Social Theory. Sydney: Allen & Unwin Pty., Limited (Australia).
Lewis, G. (1985). Real Men Like Violence: Australian Men, Media and Violence. Kent Ridge: Intl Specialized Book Service Inc.
Mackinnon, K. (2003). Representing Men: Maleness and Masculinity in the Media (Arnold Publication). London: A Hodder Arnold Publication.
Messener, M.A (1990). When Bodies are Weapons: Masculinity and Violence in Sport
(International Review for the Sociology of Sport)
Mulvey, L. (1975). Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Whitehead, S. M. (2002). Men and Masculinities: Key Themes and New Directions. University Park, PA: Polity.
Films
Snyder, Z. (Director). (2006). 300 [Motion Picture]. USA: Warner Bros.
Nimoy, L. (Director). (1987). Three Men and a Baby [Motion Picture]. USA: Walt Disney Video.
Petersen, W. (Director). (2004). Troy (Two-Disc Full Screen Edition) [Motion Picture]. U.S.A.: Warner Home Video.
Magazines
Lacey, N. "Lads and Lasses ." Loaded Spring 1996
Websites
01, L. (n.d.). 300 Insane Fight Scene. Retrieved December 11, 2008, from www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTXlWYdodnc
Mackie, R. (n.d.). 300 Film guardian.co.uk. Retrieved February 11, 2009, from
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2007/oct/11/dvdreviews.actionandadventure
Lynch, M. (2009, March 8). Michaelynch - Blog. Retrieved May 4, 2009, from http://michaelynch.com/blog/?tag=louis-althusser
