By: Cassie Whyte, 2023 Summer Intern
A good way to gain insight into the hilarity of an era is to examine popular archetypes and tropes prevalent in various media of the era. In the late 90s to mid-2000s, prestige television dominated as the most culturally established medium.
And three of the most defining series of this era: The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, and Mad Men, all featured an archetype that is at once ancient and visceral, as well as postmodern and transgressive: The American Male Anti-Hero.
So who is he, in what ways is he a recurring maestro of mytho-masculine philosophy, and in what ways is he diametrically opposed to traditional gender roles? And why are we all so obsessed with Him and sympathizing with his multitude of problems?
Context for Anti-Hero:
Before delving into who the Anti-hero is and why he is so widely worshiped by young men, it is necessary to identify the circumstances under which he rose to socio-cultural prominence and desirability. Since the advent of the sexual revolution and its ideological predecessors, early progressivism and suffragettes, men have felt increasingly dispossessed and frankly, their very personhood, redundant.
Historically speaking, ideals of masculinity have been defined by a paternalistic protection of women, in which men are produced as benevolent patriarchs. While this hierarchical formation placed a certain unshakable value on masculinity—protecting the supposedly vulnerable and sensitive female—it also led to a kind of disposable outlook toward men. And in the over-civilized, sedimentary society of 21st century America, men are largely not needed to physically protect women.
Boys watch movies with superheroes and soldiers and vigilante saviors of damsels in distress to the extent that the vast majority of men admit to daydreaming about themselves in savior fantasies. But life is less violent, which is an undeniably positive change, and we no longer need warriors.
But we need men.
As Fight Club’s prominent Anti-Hero Tyler Durden says:
“We are the middle children of history man, with no purpose or place, we have no Great War, no Great Depression, our great war is a spiritual war and our great depression is our life, we have all been raised by television to believe that one day we’ll all be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars, but we won’t and we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very pissed.”
The book and movie Fight Club is a particularly interesting case study because it bluntly addresses the crisis that men experience and articulates it quite accurately. But ultimately, Tyler Durden’s character is just a manifestation, a fictitious alter-ego of ideal hyper-masculinity that the real protagonist interacts with.
Media critics and fans of the film have pointed out the deliberate discrepancy here. the literal embodiment of perfect masculinity is revealed to be a ghost, something that never materially existed. And while there’s some truth to that, it’s not a particularly original observation and feels like a very black-and-white critique of gender roles and sociology–extremely nuanced topics that require a significant degree of complexity.
Hence the prestige drama of the Anti-Hero.
The Sopranos
Tony Soprano was the first, and arguably the most powerful, believable and strangely likable of them all.
The character is a representation of the old world in the new, and the loss of meaning that comes with this transitory state. King of an Italian mob family in Northern New Jersey, Tony and his family endure a reckoning with existentialism and postmodern tropes of a lack of legitimate authority.
While discussing such matters with his therapist, Tony asks, “Whatever happened to Gary Cooper. You know, the strong, silent guy.” While he mourns the death of the “strong, silent” guy, there’s the perverse irony of doing so in his therapist’s office, an aspect of his life that he still has to hide from his friends and family.
After The Sopranos, the Anti-hero takes the form of the reclusive, intellectual and traumatized Don Draper (Mad Men), as well as the cunning, domineering and self-centered Walter White (Breaking Bad).
Ultimately, I believe that the reason these characters resonate so deeply, in general, but with young men in particular, is because they simultaneously uphold the ideals of masculinity while silently finding them contradictory and absurd.
The Anti-Hero is subversive in the way he adheres to questionable morals, but classic in the way he claims to break the rules to protect and support his family. This kind of morally gray character has always had an allure, but that allure is heightened by a set of socio-cultural dynamics that are predominantly male and suggest questions that these young people will have to answer for themselves.
The tasks listed
Television production by Brad Gray in association with HBO original programming. The Sopranos. [New York, N.Y.] :HBO Home Video, 19992007.
Fincher, D. (1999). Fight club. Twentieth Century Fox.
It cuts both ways: Fight Club, Masculinity and Abject Hegemony.
Street Fingering: Placing the Crisis of Masculinity in David Fincher’s Fight Club.
Ungoverned masculinities: gendered discourses of neoliberalism in The Sopranos and Breaking Bad.
“Are you talking to me?”: De Niro’s erotic fidelity and subversion of masculine norms.
