The Great American Masculinity Crisis

Introducing a competing form of masculinity through Buzz being a muscleman and representative of traditional gender norms, Toy Story explores and reflects the “social atmosphere of the mid-1990s,” (Meinel, 2016) where popular media would often juggle between sensitive and tough males. 


But this negotiation of masculinity in the United States spans beyond the 1990s, Kimmel (2006) argues the need for men to mirror the successful outcomes of women’s movements and move past stagnant cultural definitions of what it means to be a man in modern society. His work on masculinity in twentieth-century America explores how cultural expectations of men shifted throughout significant historic moments such as the Great Depression. 


The American political climate in the late 1900s was largely dominated by the media image and public perception of key government figures. In the 1990s, new leadership brought a shift from conventional masculinity to something more sensitive. Malin (2005) describes this as a “crisis of masculinity”, where tension rose between conventional ideas of American males and new identities. Meinel (2016, p. 48) makes comparisons between the form of masculinity that Clinton embodied and Woody represents. The growth of digital techniques across various industries catalyzed networked communication across the globe

These challenges to American ideals of masculinity were not limited to popular media but also academic sources. In his book, Malin (2005) discusses this crisis through a cultural lens and observes the popular media at the time. He describes Clinton as a “nontraditional male hero” that stood apart from previous presidents. This reflects Woody’s role in Toy Story, in terms of physique and personality. Tall and lanky with an offbeat quirky sense of humor. Yet, Woody is hypersexualised in Toy Story to “stave off fears of homosexuality,” (Malin, 2005) and traces of femininity.

 

Image Credits: 

1. Alyssa Schulman Illustration