There has been a reoccurring theme of brotherly romance in Hollywood over the past few years. The causal high five, chest bump, backend tap, and sometimes even holding hands. What makes men able to interact so closely with other men and still retain their masculine status? Society has defined a man as being a conservative or even insensitive. But there seems to be a shift in what is deemed acceptable for what men can get away with that strays away from the cultural norms. It has been evident in real life and in Hollywood that men are more comfortable in having their sexuality questioned. In the 2009 film I Love You Man actors Paul Rudd and Jason Segel develop a friendship that goes deeper then Sunday hangouts watching football at the bar. They reveal a new face to heterosexuality through a comedic rendition of two guys who become so involved with each other that their friendship becomes a romance.
Masculinity is a cultural product that has been under close examination of the mass global population of recent time. In order to see why men act the way they do we must pay attention to the details of what is portrayed in our media. In the past, films, television, magazines, books, etc have shaped a specific mold of how men should behave. Common themes of masculinity have classified a man as being impervious, rugged, and insensitive. But in new and upcoming films there has been an evident shift in characteristics of heterosexual men. In the film I Love You Man the main character Peter Klavin (Paul Rudd) is stuck in a predicament of not having a best friend that can act as his best man in his upcoming marriage. In the movie the relationship between Peter and his fiancée Zooey Rice (Rashida Jones) is stable and Peter seems to be a very committed partner. But his commitment grows to be more of a nuisance because of his lack of social life with people other than his wife and family.
In Antony Easthope’s book What a Man’s Gotta Do he explains the idea of defining masculinity. He introduces the idea that people are greatly influenced by the media, and they will knowingly and unknowingly reflect the ideologies and behaviors that a text reveals about people of specific characteristics. But in order to properly define a person of their gender there needs to be a deeper analytical point of view. Easthope states “ Gender can be defined in three ways: as our body; as our social roles of a male or female; as the way we internalize and live out these roles. To define masculinity in terms of physical apparatus, male genitals, doesn’t get you very far” (Easthope, 1990). He reiterates that with masculinity comes a myth that has become a norm in our culture. The myth involves the population of men as a whole acting in the same way. The idea of men being controlling, tough, and superior is a common misconception that forces anyone outside the realm to be made into a counterculture minority. Masculinity has created a strong foundation that has been faced with a lot of opposition in recent years.
Throughout the movie Peter constantly behaves in a way that would make the audience question his sexuality. There are common stereotypes of gays that create the feminism in Peter including his love for the films Chocolat and The Devil Wears Prada. In our culture it is seen as very feminine for a man to openly enjoy movies under the genre of romance. Chocolat is a story about a romance between two rebellious young adults in France. Later in the movie when Peter’s love for this movie is brought up, his femininity is reinforced. His friend Sydney criticizes him, another gay man shares the same interest, and his father and gay brother both do not actually know what it is. Peter’s confession to his brother of his love for the movie The Devil Wears Prada is another example of his queer characteristics. This movie is about the fashion industry and the relationship of two women business associates. The usual extreme American sentiment is that men who are very fashionable are gay. When Peter tells his brother of his interest his body language and lack of response obviously point out that he thinks Peter has very gay qualities. Peter later realizes that his queer like behavior is the probable cause for his lack of heterosexual friends.
The behavior of Peter that leans towards the idea of him being gay falls under a category that is separate from his gender categorization. During the film there are frequent examples of him crossing over from typical heterosexual and homosexual stereotypical behaviors. In his dialogue, expressions, and interests he relays to the audience how feminine he really is. Theorist Alexander Doty explains this as the relationship between a heterosexual male and queer space. Peter’s reception to things under queer categorization in movies, songs, books, clothes, are all examples of him living in a separate margin outside of his own gender classification. During an interview with the Artisan News Service Andy Samberg (Robby Clavin) is quoted stating: “My character is super gay, but in a lot of ways is straighter than his brother” ( ANS, 2009).
One of the main themes of I Love You Man is the relationship with Peter and Zooey and their eventual marriage in the end. By this it is obvious that no matter what Peter says and does he is still a heterosexual male. And through the conflicting characteristics of Peter throughout the film it remains evident that heterosexuals behave in ways that cannot be defined through our cultural mold. Doty states “…queer reading is not confined to gays and lesbians, heterosexual, straight-identifying people can experience queer moments”( Storey,2009). The two main themes of romance of man and woman, and man and man are precisely interlaced throughout the movie to reinforce heterosexuality in queer space. The conflict in the beginning is that in order for Peter and Zooey’s relationship to get healthier he needs to develop a social life with someone other than her. During the middle of the movie Peter and Sydney become so obsessed with each other that his relationship with his wife turns sour. In the end Peter and Zooey rekindle their engagement and Sydney is pushed aside for a while until they eventually reunite during the marriage ceremony. If Zooey was not present during the movie then the audience would most likely assume Sydney and Peter are gay. The queer space is touched upon heavily during the movie but we always have the reminder of his straight relationship with Zooey. One of most intimate scenes in the movie comes at the end during the marriage ceremony when Sydney arrives late and becomes locked into a trance with Peter. During this interaction they repeatedly say they love each other with phrases such as “I love you bro Montana,” “I love you homes,” and “I love you Tycho Brohe.” This scene ties in the two relationships by showing the public affection of these two men during a wedding ceremony of a man and woman. And the queer space of these two men is dismissed as a performance rather than a sexual preference.
The identity of Peter and Sydney is judged a lot through their actions. The actions that are made prevalent in the movie are examples of gender performance. Judith Butler explains the idea of gender performance by stating “ Femininity and masculinity are not expressions of ‘nature’, they are ‘cultural performances in which their ‘naturalness’ [is] constituted through discursively constrained performative acts…that create the effect of the natural, the original, and the inevitable” (Storey, 2009). Peter and Sydney spend a lot of time together and provide us with examples of things that could be constituted as queer. For instance they ride on the same mo-ped, give each other hugs in public, and sit on each other’s shoulders at Rush concerts. But just because they were “Licking each other basses” at the concert does not mean they can be considered queer, they are just comfortable with it. Butler’s theory is that people create their own comfort in queer feelings and cannot be considered straight or gay. There are many examples in the film that would give the audience the idea that Peter and Sydney are gay but they need to be dismissed for us to determine their sexuality. Their preference is determined from the fact that Peter has a fiancée that he is committed to, and Sydney frequently talks about his sex life with women. Butler states “ The performance of gender creates the illusion of a prior substantiality- a core gendered self- and construes the effect of the performative ritual of gender as necessary emanations or casual consequences of that prior substance”(Storey, 2009). Her theory introduces the fact that people are always trying to be shaped by our cultural media. The way we are shaped is reflected through our developed performances, but it cannot always be seen as something genuine. What the movies aims to do is create characters who share an identity that is honest to them. Peter and Sydney have developed such a strong bond that they need to show affection whether it is by a handshake, hug, or bass licking. Some men are afraid to open up and give another man a hug because they have a strong masculine personality formed by their lifelong experiences in being pressured by society. The pressure is from what their gender features should be and not features that they are comfortable with. There needs to be a clear separation of gender identity and performance so people can have a freedom of expression without feeling the criticism from the majority.
This movie was released and 2009 and became a very popular film of recent years. A review of I Love You Man from Peter Travers of Rollingstone Magazine gave it 3 out of 4. And Roger Epert gave it a 3.5 out of 4. Their reviews included compliments of how humorous it is and how the actor relationships did a really good job at keeping the movie afloat. Besides the fact that this movie did what it was supposed to do in making people laugh, it also touched on a very sensitive subject of gender roles. The movie orchestrated examples of straight men doing queer things and not thinking twice about it. This movie may be funny to some people because it is odd to them that a heterosexual is acting in a queer manner. But in a deeper context this movie reveals a new definition of sexuality that more and more people are at ease with. The movie is successfully funny because the director assigns stereotypical homosexual personality traits to a heterosexual man. Hamburg plays on the idea of gender performance and identity by constantly juxtaposing Peter’s engagement with Zooey and friendship with Sydney. In order to keep the story interesting, conflicts arise in Peter’s balancing of relationships. He is pitted against a wall when he has to lose Sydney as a friend in order to maintain his engagement. This conflict reinforces his gender role because he reverts back to his wife. And when Sydney comes back into his life he once again provides the audience with an identity based on performance that he is comfortable with.
References
Easthope, A. (1990). What a Man's Gotta Do. New York: Unwin Hyman. Hamburg, J. (Director). (2009). I love You Man [Motion picture]. United States: Dreamworks. Pomerantz, D. (n.d.). Hollywood's Hottest Bromances . Retrieved from Forbes website: http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/16/hollywood-hottest-bromance-media-hollywood-bromance.html Samberg, A. (Producer). (2009, March 19). ANDY SAMBERG PLAYS HOMOSEXUAL MAN MODEL TO PAUL RUDD [Television broadcast]. Artisan News Service. Storey, J. (2009). Cultural Theory and Popular Culture (Fifth ed.). Harlow, England: Pearson Longman.
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