Re-negotiating Concepts of Masculinity in Contemporary British Film

Abstract

Brassed Off (1996), The Full Monty (1997) and Billy Elliot (2000) reflect and problematise the consequences of economic change and political misfortune in post-industrial Britain. Moreover, they critically, albeit entertainingly comment on the changing social structures and the changing gender relations that were brought about by this economic decline. All three films problematise this loss of traditional masculinity but, at the same time, they also suggest potential solutions. Despite the fact that all three films make only tentative steps towards re- evaluating "stereotypical" concepts of masculinity, 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."