Discuss the handling of what Claire Monk terms “the problem of male disempowerment” in The Full Monty (1997) and Trainspotting(1996)
Discuss the handling of what Claire Monk terms "the problem of male disempowerment" in The Full Monty (1997) and Trainspotting(1996)
Claire Monk states that "to an almost unprecedented extent 1990s British Cinema seemed preoccupied with men and masculinity in crisis."1 . The decline throughout the 1980s and the Thatcher government of traditionally male dominated professions such as semi skilled labour and middle management led to an increase in male unemployment while Female employment, partly due to their willingness to tolerate work which was "part-time, insecure and ill-paid"2 , was on the increase. This led to a climate in which the traditional male role as head of the family, both economically and as disciplinarian was under threat. The reaction to this changing of gender roles was not a progressive one but what Claire Monk describes as "post-feminist male panic"3 and a resurgence of misogyny as men attempted to justify their place in society. The feminisation of the work place was defined as a social problem for men and young male masculinity was increasingly defined as a problem in itself.
This disempowerment of men is dealt with in a variety of ways in films of the 1990s. The characters in films such as Trainspotting(Danny Boyle,1996), The Full Monty (Peter Cattaneo,1997) and Brassed Off(Mark Herman,1996) are generally unemployed or about to become so but their disempowerment is shown in other ways. The films deal with male impotence, drug abuse, petty crime and divorce as symptoms of this economic disempowerment. John Hill describes the male characters as returning to a "kind of adolescence"4 the job club in The Full Monty for instance is reminiscent of a classroom.
This essay will focus particularly on The Full Monty and Trainspotting and examine their different treatment of this male disempowerment and employment crisis. The Full Monty focuses on a group of middle aged men made redundant when the steel works in Sheffield close. They are facing unemployment and the problems this brings with it for the first time. In Trainspotting however the characters are young urban jobless males, they have not become unemployed they are facing a future where they will probably be unemployable. They face this by rejecting "the female pursuit of work and qualifications."5 and escapism through drugs and alcohol.
These films could be said to serve a ritual and mythic function in society because of their working through on screen a pressing problem in society. Although they cannot "offer their protagonists or their audiences a return to the days of secure male employment or the restoration of lost male power."6 they do seek to resolve anxieties about mens place in the world as it has changed. Monk states that "As the 1990s progressed it became increasingly evident that a central project of much British mainstream cinema was to work through such concerns and the wider sense of a male crisis"7 . At the end of The Full Monty the men have regained the sense of self esteem and community that they had lost along with their jobs, it is not unemployment that has disempowered them, the characters are all offered jobs throughout the film, it is the loss of a male community. Monk talks of the "healing powers"8 of this male community and explicitly links this with its exclusion of women. This is what is resolved on screen, not the unemployment crisis or the economic disempowerment of men, but the social disempowerment of men as they lose the spaces where they can be together with other men, such as the working mens club, which is now being used for women only nights. By banding together as a group and stripping the men reclaim this space as their own and regain their sense of self as part of a group with a common aim. It is also through the regaining of this space that they regain their power in other areas. Dave and his wife resolve their marital difficulties and Gaz's problems with his ex wife are seen to be resolved when we see her as part of the crowd cheering them on.
Claire Monk states that "to an almost unprecedented extent 1990s British Cinema seemed preoccupied with men and masculinity in crisis."1 . The decline throughout the 1980s and the Thatcher government of traditionally male dominated professions such as semi skilled labour and middle management led to an increase in male unemployment while Female employment, partly due to their willingness to tolerate work which was "part-time, insecure and ill-paid"2 , was on the increase. This led to a climate in which the traditional male role as head of the family, both economically and as disciplinarian was under threat. The reaction to this changing of gender roles was not a progressive one but what Claire Monk describes as "post-feminist male panic"3 and a resurgence of misogyny as men attempted to justify their place in society. The feminisation of the work place was defined as a social problem for men and young male masculinity was increasingly defined as a problem in itself.
This disempowerment of men is dealt with in a variety of ways in films of the 1990s. The characters in films such as Trainspotting(Danny Boyle,1996), The Full Monty (Peter Cattaneo,1997) and Brassed Off(Mark Herman,1996) are generally unemployed or about to become so but their disempowerment is shown in other ways. The films deal with male impotence, drug abuse, petty crime and divorce as symptoms of this economic disempowerment. John Hill describes the male characters as returning to a "kind of adolescence"4 the job club in The Full Monty for instance is reminiscent of a classroom.
This essay will focus particularly on The Full Monty and Trainspotting and examine their different treatment of this male disempowerment and employment crisis. The Full Monty focuses on a group of middle aged men made redundant when the steel works in Sheffield close. They are facing unemployment and the problems this brings with it for the first time. In Trainspotting however the characters are young urban jobless males, they have not become unemployed they are facing a future where they will probably be unemployable. They face this by rejecting "the female pursuit of work and qualifications."5 and escapism through drugs and alcohol.
These films could be said to serve a ritual and mythic function in society because of their working through on screen a pressing problem in society. Although they cannot "offer their protagonists or their audiences a return to the days of secure male employment or the restoration of lost male power."6 they do seek to resolve anxieties about mens place in the world as it has changed. Monk states that "As the 1990s progressed it became increasingly evident that a central project of much British mainstream cinema was to work through such concerns and the wider sense of a male crisis"7 . At the end of The Full Monty the men have regained the sense of self esteem and community that they had lost along with their jobs, it is not unemployment that has disempowered them, the characters are all offered jobs throughout the film, it is the loss of a male community. Monk talks of the "healing powers"8 of this male community and explicitly links this with its exclusion of women. This is what is resolved on screen, not the unemployment crisis or the economic disempowerment of men, but the social disempowerment of men as they lose the spaces where they can be together with other men, such as the working mens club, which is now being used for women only nights. By banding together as a group and stripping the men reclaim this space as their own and regain their sense of self as part of a group with a common aim. It is also through the regaining of this space that they regain their power in other areas. Dave and his wife resolve their marital difficulties and Gaz's problems with his ex wife are seen to be resolved when we see her as part of the crowd cheering them on.
