This essay will focus on the treatment of masculinity in the
films Billy Elliot (2000), written by
Lee Hall and directed by Stephen Daldry, and This Is England (2006), written and directed by Shane Meadows, both
set during the 1980’s. The film’s both feature young male protagonists who are
‘coming of age’ in a time of political and social upheaval. The community and
family of Billy (Jamie Bell) in Billy
Elliot (From here on referred to as BE)
are involved in the miner’s strikes of 1984-5, suffering the closure of the
coal pits in a small town near Durham.
For Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) in This
Is England (From here on referred to as TIE), he faces the bleak future of life without
his father, who was killed in the Falkland’s war, and involvement with a group
of nationalists with racist principles. This essay will look firstly at what
the stereotypical traits of masculinity are, followed by how these traits are
subverted by various characters in the respective films, and finally at why
these traits are subverted. Masculinity, the possession of the qualities
traditionally associated with men, has become ingrained into society’s expectations,
however when the qualities are lost or changed, men can enter a state of
crisis. Billy and Shaun define their own form of masculinity, based on the
environments they live in and their ambition to move forward within them.
To begin with, this essay will observe some of the
stereotypical traits of masculinity in BE
and TIE. Both films are set in
the North of England, during a period of high unemployment partly due to the
cuts carried out by Margaret Thatcher and the conservative government. Mark
Schreiber writes “one of the main features of the working
classes in 1980s and 1990s Britain is that the greater proportion of them than
of either the middle or the upper classes is not working. Loss of work
to a class which defines itself as working is traumatic”(Schreiber,
2007, p.1). Schreiber identifies the catalyst for many of the
insecurities expressed by men in these films. One of the first traits of
masculinity to be explored is violence. BE is set in the fictional town of Everington, County Durham, with
boxing presented as a generational sport used for male bonding and the pinnacle
of masculinity. It is contrasted against the ultra-feminine dance form of ballet,
to which Billy is drawn.
Stood outside of the boxing hall, Billy is seen as submissive
when he is pushed out of the way by a boy who passes him, setting up the audience’s
expectations of his lack of aggression. Next to Billy and his friend Michael
(Stuart Wells) are two plaques, a large one that clearly reads ‘Everington Boys
Club, Second Floor’ and has a picture of a boy boxing on it, the other beneath
much smaller, reading ‘Dance School’. The masculine here presides over the
feminine in importance, shown by the size and visibility of the male and female
sports signage, but then again when the ballet lesson moves into the boxing
hall, up from the basement as their space was used as a soup kitchen for the
striking miners, another show of emasculation as the men are unable to provide food
for themselves or their family. The peaceful ballet is kept out of sights,
whilst the violent boxing is in a spacious hall above ground.
When Billy is knocked out in the sparring match, his coach yells,
“Billy Elliot, you’re a disgrace to them gloves, your father and this boxing
hall”. This statement flags up three traits of masculinity within the film; the
sport of boxing, the generational tradition and the local perception. Within
the film, boxing is a male orientated pastime involving fierce combat and
competitive spirit. It requires dedication and discipline, which Billy
evidently finds difficult as he rejects the sport for a more effeminate and
creative activity.
The generational tradition shows the pressure of Billy to
conform to his family’s ideals and not to break the mould, which ties in with
the local perception as public shame is to be avoided by maintaining family
honour, in this case through the boxing. For Billy’s father Jackie (Gary Lewis),
Billy’s lack of aptitude towards boxing “threatens patriarchal tradition”(Hill,
2004, p.104), as he tells Billy, “they were my dads gloves. You’d better take
better care of them”.
The preceding narrative of TIE includes the death of Shaun’s father, leaving him vulnerable to
dominant patriarchal influence. To begin with Shaun gravitates towards a
predominantly male group of friends who are all older than him, searching for a
place to belong. The two figures who Shaun finds particularly inspiring are
Woody (Joseph Gilgun) and Combo (Stephen Graham). Woody is in some senses a
patriarchal figure - he is the leader of the gang; he enforces goodwill between
members of the group and buys Shaun his first Ben Sherman shirt – part of the
uniform of the skinhead culture. The controlled violence of the scene where the
group of boys dress up and go and destroy abandoned houses shows a bond being
made through destruction, but the violence isn’t affecting or hurting anyone
directly; this violence is a release rather than an aggressive act. Clare Monk
writes that films that are youth-orientated “address the anxieties of young
male viewers by portraying the young male underclass in terms of an appealing
subculture of dissent from the demands of adulthood, women and work”(Monk,
2000, p.160). The film is set during Shaun’s school holidays, however most of
the male members of his gang are a lot older and don’t seem to work. Woody, as
a leader and a provider of fun, doesn’t assert his power over the group, rather
promotes equality between all the members.
Because of this, Woody becomes a fraternal figure rather
than a paternal one, made especially clear when Combo returns to the group and
displays his alpha male personality. During his incarceration, Combo was
exposed to extreme nationalist thought, within which he thinly veils a racist
attitude. Shaun is attracted to his dominant personality and becomes his
protégée. When the government conduct violence and initiate a war in another
country, it shouldn’t be surprising that the violence permeates into our own
society. War connotes violence and dominance, both masculine traits that are
explored by Shane Meadows in the film. Shaun craves a masculine figure to look
up to, holding his soldier father in high regard, even fighting at school when
his name is besmirched.
Combo portrays the masculine trait of dominance through his
violence and aggression towards immigrants and non-English residents, however
mostly towards those who are physically weaker than him, such as a middle aged
shopkeeper, young boys and women. The reasons behind Combo’s aggression and
nationalist ideals could be because of the lack of employment, partly due to
his lack of education and criminal record, partly due to Thatcher greatly
diminishing industrial work and partly due to the influx of immigrants taking a
minority of the available jobs. Geoff Mayer writes “It has been noted by some
critics that issues relating to unemployment, poverty, drug and alcohol abuse
are constituents not merely of the decline of the traditional working class,
but symptomatic of a crisis in masculinity”(Mayer, 2003, p.25). In Combo’s
case, his idea of the traditional working class is one of industrial-working
English men, however in Meadows film, the only people who seem to be working
are non-white individuals and women.
In the scene where Combo intercepts Lol (Vicky McClure) on
her way to work at, the women who pass Lol and call out greetings are of Asian
heritage. Combo’s confession of love for Lol in his car is a pivotal moment of
his masculine crisis. Combo’s car is the place he feels most in control,
however he has L-plates on the back, which undermines his experience. Not only
is his love for Lol rejected when he tells her the night they spent together
was “the best night of my life”, and she responds “It was the worst night of my
life”, but when one of the young boys insults nationalist ideas whilst in
Combo’s car, Combo feels his masculinity and his position of power challenged,
and stops the car to physically eject him saying “Don’t you fucking ever
undermine me again in front of my fucking troops”. This assertion of dominance
isn’t believable as it is an extreme reaction that almost seems petulant and
immature coming from a man who believes he has some kind of military authority.
Combo’s subverted masculinity is evidence of how Meadows
takes the power away from the macho character in order to expose his humanity
and to question the definition of masculinity. The subversion of masculinity is
explored in both BE and TIE through themes such as ballet,
empowered women, and homosexuality in the former, and nationalism in the latter,
and unemployment in both. The mainly sympathetic view of the male protagonist
is largely due to “the perceived ‘losses’ the narrative signal: losses of work,
dignity, self-respect, familial and personal relationships, economic,
political, social and sexual power and ‘potency’”(Lay, 2002, p.108). When men
experience these losses, they fall into a crisis of masculinity because their
place is questioned.
In BE, ballet is
often referred to as being the pastime of the homosexual, which is viewed as
inferior, for example in the scene when Debbie (Nicola Blackwell) tells Billy
that “plenty of men” do ballet, Billy’s reply is a dismissive “poofs”. Behind
Debbie there is a huge poster that shows a man next to a washing machine, below
text which reads ‘At your service Susie. Your ever-faithful washing slave’.
This poster highlights how key masculine identities are changing around the
oblivious child protagonists as gender roles change to suit a society that
thrives on consumerism rather than labour and production, consumerism that
requires creativity to further advertising and entertainment.
Billy’s explanation to Michael of why ballet isn’t a
homosexual indulgence is filmed as the two boys are coming out of a tunnel.
When Michael tells Billy he would look “wicked” in a tutu, this could be seen
as a literal coming out. John Hill wrote “The film is acutely conscious of the
popular associations of ballet with effeminacy and homosexuality and much of
the film is preoccupied with downplaying these connotations”(Hill, 2004,
pp.104). This is the first time Michael broaches his fascination for Billy. Hill
writes that the attraction to ballet “sets in motion within the film the
discourses of gender and sexuality, and a questioning of the heterosexual
masculinity that underpins the working-class community”(Hill, 2004, pp.104).
Apart from in the dance lessons with his teacher, much of Billy’s dancing is a
mixture of tap and Irish, as seen in the scene where he dances out of
frustration and seeks to “physically burst out of his environment”(Hill, 2004,
pp.104) in the outdoor toilet. Michael could be seen as representing the
working class homosexual, however he could also be seen as a foil for the
ultra-masculine, heterosexual grown up Billy in the end scene. So ballet in
Billy’s community is stereotyped as the indulgence of the homosexual, which
Billy constantly has to prove he is not. Steve Blandford writes of BE, “The film is clearly at pains to
avoid an easy correspondence between Billy’s aptitude for dance and the usual
clichés about gay men that so often accompany the portrayal of male dancers”(Blandford,
2007, p.29). By having a gay best friend, Billy’s own sexuality is up for
scrutiny, however James Leggot believes “the homosexual characters are mostly
pushed to the fringes…to dislodge any anxieties that the main protagonist might
be gay”(Leggot, 2008, p.88). Ballet is a vehicle for subverting traditional
masculinity in BE through opening up
a creative channel as a means of expression and redefining the boundaries of
what is an acceptable masculinity. Hill wrote, “Billy becomes an emblem of
economic rejuvenation through participation in the ‘creative’ industries” (Hill,
2004, pp.108).
In TIE, the minority
who are discriminated against are people of ethnic or non-Christian
backgrounds. Combo convinces Shaun that the war on immigration is more
important than the war his father fought in; echoing the sentiments of the
disillusioned British population who felt the influx of Asian Muslims into the
country was preventing white Anglo-Saxon people from having a job or a place to
live. He preaches that Thatcher sent “good, innocent” men on a “phony” war to
“fight shepherds with rocks and little rifles”. Nationalism subverts the idea
of masculinity by presenting an extreme territorial dominance that forces Shaun
to question Combo’s views by the end.
Both filmmakers show men feeling threatened by change in
their lives and communities, which in turn threatens their masculinity. The
anxiety about unemployment leads to explosive aggression from Jackie and Combo.
For Jackie this is directed towards the “scab” miners who cross the picket
lines and against his son which carries “accusations of class treachery” at his
“suspiciously non-masculine endeavour”(Leggot, 2008, p.94), whilst Combo blames
immigration. In TIE, Combo’s
masculine aggression could be perceived as deriving from his failure to fit
into society, and his refusal to accept how his community has changed since his
incarceration. He is visibly delighted in the scene where he passes on his
aggressive, racist behaviour in the scene where he encourages Shaun to pace
back and forth shouting “Fuck off, you Paki bastards”, calling him “son” and
congratulating him. This scene is preceded by a shot of the Combo’s gang all
walking towards the camera, shot from a low angle, with Gadget spitting; the
men looking aggressive and threatening. This is a direct contrast to a shot
previously with Woody’s gang where they were all laughing, looking friendly and
approachable.
The ‘male-panic’ of BE
with the men shown drinking, striking and barely being able to survive
financially has an underlying positive portrayal of women. The only main
character that is working and earning a living, as well as not drinking, is
Billy’s dance teacher, Sandra, (Julie Walters), and in TIE, Shaun’s mum, the shoe-shop keeper and Lol, are the main white
characters who are employed. All of these women represent the
“de-industrialised, consumer-led, feminised world”(Lay, 2002, p.105). In BE, Walter’s is one of the only
characters who has a car and lives in an area that is a complete dichotomy of
the run down terraced streets of Billy’s world. When Billy goes to Sandra’s
house, Sandra’s husband becomes an immediately detestable character, belittling
the strike and supporting the idea of pit closure. Debbie later reveals that
her father is “always pissed”, and at one point “pissed himself” as well as
having been made redundant. This revelation takes away from the dominant figure
in the previous scene that sits away from the family, in the foreground of the
shot, making him seem bigger than the other characters, and turns him into a figure
of ridicule. In the household, Sandra is the breadwinner whilst her husband is
an incontinent, unemployed alcoholic.
Mark Schreiber, in his study of masculinity in Contemporary
British Film described Britain as a “post-industrial scrap heap” after the
decline of traditional industries, with the north hit especially hard because
of its “consequential inflexibility for economic change” (Schreiber, 2007, p.1). It would seem however, there
is consequential flexibility for a change of masculinity. In BE, Tony wakes in the early hours, takes
his father’s hammer and attempts to leave the house when Jackie tries to stop
him by hitting him, however this doesn’t work and Jackie is shown as being
entirely powerless as Tony walks straight passed him and out of the door. With
no work and no money, Tony and Jackie begin to fight like animals, which added
to the shots of the striking miners with the verbal and physical missiles,
indicates feral behaviour. However, Jackie comes through for Billy as a father
and overlooks his prejudices towards ballet, even though it is an alien world
to him. Even though Billy’s father is struggling with his changing identity,
Billy is valiantly forging his own path, Leggot describing him as “angelic”(Leggot,
2004, p.168), accentuated through Billy’s literal balletic flight.
In TIE, Woody’s
group are shown as sitting around in café’s and crowding into small rooms to
shave Shaun’s hair or drink. They seem to have no space in society and little
purpose or drive, with no real desire for employment, which gives them no need
to provide therefore little expression of stereotypical masculine traits. Monk
writes “The youth-orientated films present young male joblessness and social
exclusion as taken-for-granted states with no history, no proposed solution and
no expectation of change. With detached irony, they framed the male underclass
not as a ‘social problem’ but as a subcultural ‘lifestyle’ with certain
attractions for a young, post-political male audience”(Monk, 2000, p.160).
Woody’s gang have rejected the violence of masculine models like the soldiers
of the Falklands, instead creating their own utopian tribe of equality that has
a new form of masculinity. Unemployment and a lack of political interest means
the members of the crew are treated like family, with love and respect rather
than a patriarchal hierarchy based on power.
Both films feature children as the protagonists, which begs
the question; how do we identify with young boys from working-class, northern
backgrounds? The masculinity of Billy and Shaun is examined through the male
stereotypes imposed upon them by their families and friends, but what
stereotypes are we imposing on them? To attempt to answer these questions, the
audience need to understand that the traits of masculinity explored previously
can be interpreted as being subverted because of reasons that supersede the
narrative and characters of both films. BE
was created as one of the first lottery funded films, winning three BAFTA’s
including Best British Film. It was created in Hollywood style for a worldwide
audience, with the strike being an inconsequential background to the real
struggles of the arts in a society based on consumerist and industrialist
values. Blair’s strategy with the UK’s Film Council funding, launched in 2000
was that it would finance popular films that entertain people and make them
feel good, which is what BE does. It
takes a period of time that the audience can relate to as being dismal and
bleak, and gives it a utopian twist We identify with the Billy’s desire for a
better life, for a brighter future. Meadows created TIE as a reflection of the bullying and violence he’d experienced
in his own life and his involvement in the skinhead movement of the 80’s. He
openly states, as does Stephen Graham, that he identified strongly not only with
Shaun, but also with Thomas Turgoose. Through using real clips of soldiers in
the Falkland’s war and playing popular upbeat music over the top, Meadows comments
on the futility of war and the twisted perception civilians may have garnered
from the footage shown to them at home. Masculinity is challenged in the film
by Shaun’s various patriarchal role models, whilst representing the different
forms of masculinity as a person changes with age. Meadows film allows the
audience to identify with the idea of a child finding their own identity, their
own voice in a society that ostracizes anyone outside of the mainstream.
Although BE and TIE are similar in so many aspects, from
the young male protagonists to the disillusioned and unemployed man, the desire
for change to the struggle for continuity, the treatment of masculinity is
multifaceted. Blandford writes, “Billy Elliot appears to assert that masculine
identity can only be enriched by embracing a much broader set of values in a
rapidly changing world”(Blandford, 2007, 29) which can aptly be applied to TIE as well. Both Shaun and Billy are at
a point in their life where they are finding their own voice and creating their
own identity, the filmmakers highlighting this through exploring the limited
options young men in 80’s England had. Shaun’s inclusion into the skinhead
group and Billy’s discovery of ballet are vehicles for the boys to find their
voice and to figure out their identity. The resistance Billy faces only makes
him work harder in order to prove his choice of masculinity can still be taken
as seriously as the men he grew up around. Shaun craves the inclusion of a
crew, suffering from the grief of his father’s death, and experiences this
twice, once with Woody and once with Combo. The last scene of the film shows
Shaun throwing a St Georges flag into the ocean, a metaphor for him throwing
away the ideas others have forced upon him. When he looks up and makes
eye-contact with the camera, we are encouraged to believe he has come to his
own decision about his identity and what it is to be a man. Schrieber writes of
British Contemporary Cinema “I would like to read them as examples of a
successful deconstruction of gender stereotypes and as triggers for a cultural
healing process of the trauma of social and cultural destabilisation caused by
economic decline and a gradual realisation of what one might call
“post-industrial masculinity””(Schreiber, 2007, p.1).
Bibliography
1.
Blandford, Steve. 2007. Film, Drama and the Break-up of Britain. Bristol: Intellect Books.
2.
Hill, John. 2004. A working class hero is
something to be: Changing representations of class and masculinity in British
Cinema. In: P.Powrie, A. Davies and B. Babington, ed. 2004. The Trouble with Men: Masculinities in
European and Hollywood Cinema. London: Wallflower.
3.
Lay, Samantha. 2002. British Social Realism. London: Wallflower Press.
4.
Leggot, James. 2004. Like Father? Failing
parents and angelic children in Contemporary British Social Realist Cinema. In:
.Powrie, A. Davies and B. Babington, ed. 2004. The Trouble with Men: Masculinities in European and Hollywood Cinema. London:
Wallflower.
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Leggot, James. 2008. Contemporary British Cinema. London: Wallflower Press
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Mayer, Geoff. 2003. Guide to Cinema. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group Inc.
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Monk, Claire. 2000. Men in the 90’s. In: Robert
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Schreiber, Mark, 2007. Re-negotiating Concepts
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[Accessed 28 April 2014]
