Frank-n-Furter, Michel Dorsey/Dorothy Michels, and Dil: alternative mas

Frank-n-Furter, Michel Dorsey/Dorothy Michels, and Dil substitute masculinities in film from the 70s to the 90sThe Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Tootsie (1982), and The Crying play (1993) are united by their overt concern with sexuality and sexuality particularly non-dominant gender and sexual identities. Dr. Frank-N-Furter, of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Michel Dorsey, of Tootsie, and Dil, of The Crying Game, argufy conventional masculinity, and, the latter two especially, expose gender roles as nonhing more than performances or social constructs. In so doing, these protagonists propose selection masculinities and priapic gender roles. The nature and the presentation of these alternative phallics has evolved from being alien, as in the early Rocky Horror Picture Show, to being an improvement on the manlike norm, as in Tootsie, to being a completely new form of masculinity within confederation, as in the recent Crying Game. This evolution demonstrates societys gradua l acceptance of the existence of alternative masculinities, from the seventies to the nineties.The Rocky Horror Picture Show is considered by many film scholars to be the grandfather (Saunders 91) of cult films. As most cult movies appeal to our subversive instincts, our desire to see conventional morality trashed (Giannetti, Leach 252), the film provides an interesting point of conflict for a study of the subversion of masculine norms. Throughout this film, Frank-n-Furter mercilessly assaults the straight world and its values, especially conventional masculinity, as represented by fasten, and finally seduces Brad into adopting his alternative masculinity. The opening scene foreshadows the fact that Brads conventional masculinity will be challenged late... ... The Crying Game, all challenge conventional male gender roles, and propose alternative ones. The latter two characters also expose gender as a social construct, and, in so doing, illustrate that gender roles are malleable, and not predetermined and fixed. While The Rocky Horror Picture Show presents an alternative form of masculinity in an alien being, and Tootsies alternative male turns out to be a reworking of the conventional male, in The Crying Game, the alternative male is just that, a real alternative to normative masculinity. Dil is not an alien, or a heterosexual actor, but is an actual transvestite, living among more or less conventional masculine types. This evolution in the presentation of alternative masculinities in film, from the seventies to the nineties, demonstrates societys gradual acceptance of the existence of alternative forms of masculinity.