Crisis de la masculinidad hegemónica: (re)escrituras finiseculares de la batalla de los sexos en Estados Unidos

Abstract

The present dissertation explores the concept of masculinity as power, paying special attention to the production and resistance of the rigid narratives of masculinity. Such configuration has prescribed the role of men in society—both at an individual and collective level—placing man at the centre of the patriarchal system and thus conferring upon men superiority over women. Such ideological construction is based on an essentialist view of the world, where biology determines destiny. As Men’s Studies have been advocating since their emergence, the victims of such an inegalitarian system are mainly women, but there are others, such as marginalized groups of men and hegemonic men themselves. Our focus is centered on the so-called crisis of masculinity that North American men went through in the last two decades of the twentieth century, the consequences of which have not yet been completely overcome. While from an essentialist point of view such a crisis is questionable, the political, economic and sociological reality of the Reagan’s Age made visible the downsides and pitfalls of toxic masculinity. In order to face the problems derived from the damaging nature of a construction that constrains men, three broad responses to the problem were taken: pro-feminist, anti-feminist and spiritual. Except for pro-feminists, the main reaction of these groupings consisted of victimizing themselves and of defending their essentialist supremacy—lulled by the fantasy world fostered by the “politics of symbolism” (Dallek, 1999 [1984]) of Reagan’s escapist policies. Opposing this reassuring image of the United States, the Blank Generation addressed the crisis of masculinity from a nihilist perspective. Through the analysis of American Psycho, this dissertation will illustrate the darkest side of the hegemonic model of masculinity...