Pop Stuff: Masculinity In Motion

In casting conventional masculinity aside or putting it on trial, Hollywood can embrace a long-overdue reckoning with what we tell men they need to be, something we often overlook on the path to empowering women, even as the two go hand in hand

- SOLEIL NATHWANI

IT SEEMS FITTING for an industry that awards gold-plated statuettes of a buff, naked, sword toting man standing atop a film reel, to cherish a certain kind of manhood. In years past Hollywood has handed Oscars to actors for playing men that are larger than life and fall into a handful of categories – the great leader, the phenomenal talent, the tortured antihero, the formidable champion. Consider the vaunted courage of Daniel Day Lewis’ Lincoln, Gary Oldman’s Winston Churchill (The Darkest Hour) or Colin Firth’s Prince Albert (The King’s Speech). Rami Malek’s Freddie in Bohemian Rhapsody and Eddie Redmayne’s Hawking in The Theory of Everything wowed by exalting genius. Matthew McConaughey’s foul-mouthed outlaw, Ron Woodroof, in Dallas Buyer’s Club was the transformative, tortured-hero role that elevated him from ‘dude’ to dramatic star. And what of the moment in The Revenant when frontiersman Hugh Glass is driven to eviscerate his horse and climb inside the carcass to survive the blistering terrain? Leonardo DiCaprio won his first Oscar for the role after several worthy nominations because Glass faced down death against unthinkable odds.

These Best Actor winners, all of the last decade, paint a picture of the kind of masculine greatness we elevated until we began to re-think patriarchy. Again. Hollywood’s most recent Best Actor trophy was awarded to Joaquin Phoenix for