preview

Masculinity In Pixar's Boy Stories

Better Essays

Kai Ting (Phoebe) Yun
Shannon R. Wooden and Ken Gillam, Pixar’s Boy Stories, Masculinity in a Postmodern Age Book Outline

Rhetorical Outline of the Book

Proposition: Critics, feminists, and parents need to view Pixar’s films and its representation of masculinity with more scrutiny because boys are experiencing a hardship identifying with their gender and shaping their identity given the epidemic outdated notion of masculinity while the postfeminist landscape of masculinity is changing.

Goal: To raise the awareness of the need to reform the notion of masculinity. To hope for a more equal attention and examination from scholars, parents, media, and critics toward boy culture besides girl culture. To interrogate the representations of boyhood …show more content…

The authors value the many positive messages Pixar’s films hope to convey but call for a more critical view from parents in hopes of them and their sons understanding what visual and cultural messages they are actually receiving. The authors also assume that the audience is fond of Pixar films; the audience therefore should be familiar with male and female characters and general plots of Pixar films in order to engage in the book’s discussion. Believing the media’s enormous power in shaping how the public perceives the culture it is inhabiting, the authors make references to the media, including Pixar, noting what the content media deliver to the public can affect human’s behavior for generations. Feminists are both praised for their work done for women and criticized for their sometimes illogical responses toward scholars’ attempt to engender productive discourse of masculinity. The authors also include Pixar fans, including me, as their intended audience and hope to generate more thoughtful consideration regarding the films from them before they blinding accept all the information Pixar …show more content…

In Chapter One, the authors begin by considering Toy Story against the backdrop of midcentury American masculinity, fatherhood, and celebrity. The proposition made is that Pixar’s encouragement of a homesteader male model is restrictive rather than empowering. Chapter One provides a premise and the first reason to justify the authors’ proposition. Chapter Two, however, reveals a paradox: The traditional alpha masculine body type may be simultaneously held up as the unassailable standard of manly virtue and success in Pixar’s movies. Chapter Two provides the second reason to justify the author’s proposition. Chapter Three continues to support the point the authors make in Chapter Two. The authors argue that the films reiterate the glorification and value of athleticism whereby violence becomes a harsh treatment to those that seem “naturally” inferior. Chapter Three provides evidence to support the authors’ point in the previous chapter. In Chapter Four, the authors contend that Pixar’s films not only inform its nostalgia for “real-man” brawn but also a clear condemnation of the ostensibly fraudulent masculinity performed by the engineer, technophile, or intellectual. Chapter Four provides the third reason to justify the authors’ proposition. In Chapter Five, the authors suggest that although Pixar superficially encourages its characters to embrace an authentic, home-centered life,

Get Access