Alone together: Cinematic (re)presentations of masculinity, friendship, and grief

<p>This project examines the links between masculinity, friendship, and grief in a combination of creative work and critical analysis. The creative component consists of a thirteen-minute short dramatic film entitled 'Brothers' (2014). This film explores the different ways in which three young men react to the death of a close male friend. The film contains no dialogue and emphasises the importance of gestures, actions, and other forms of behaviour. The thesis is comprised of three main sections. The first situates masculine experiences of grief and friendship in a critical context by drawing on discourses from sociology and psychology. I argue that the feelings of individual men in relation to traumatic events such as bereavement are often hidden or repressed because of the need to present a stoic exterior, even during grieving rituals such as funerals. This kind of behaviour preserves the invulnerability often associated with dominant or idealised versions of masculinity. However, this tendency arguably inhibits male emotional intimacy and friendship, particularly during times of crisis. The second part of the thesis considers how these interrelated issues are represented cinematically through a close reading of the John Cassavetes film 'Husbands' (1970). 'Husbands' is concerned with the dissolute behaviour of three male friends in the aftermath of the death of a friend. Although the men are garrulous, they struggle to articulate their feelings. I employ research on performance in cinema, as well as criticism of Cassavetes’ work to interpret the slips in their masculine bravado. The final section engages in an exegesis of 'Brothers'. I reflect on the influence of Husbands on my project. I also discuss the ways in which 'Brothers' can be understood in terms of the critical frameworks established in the previous chapters. A Note About 'Brothers': The creative component of this project, the film 'Brothers', is included alongside this thesis on a DVD. The film can also be accessed online at https://vimeo.com/99519967 using the password 'masterscut'. A copy of the final shooting script is also included in the thesis as an appendix.</p>

Alone together: Cinematic (re)presentations of masculinity, friendship, and grief

<p>This project examines the links between masculinity, friendship, and grief in a combination of creative work and critical analysis. The creative component consists of a thirteen-minute short dramatic film entitled 'Brothers' (2014). This film explores the different ways in which three young men react to the death of a close male friend. The film contains no dialogue and emphasises the importance of gestures, actions, and other forms of behaviour. The thesis is comprised of three main sections. The first situates masculine experiences of grief and friendship in a critical context by drawing on discourses from sociology and psychology. I argue that the feelings of individual men in relation to traumatic events such as bereavement are often hidden or repressed because of the need to present a stoic exterior, even during grieving rituals such as funerals. This kind of behaviour preserves the invulnerability often associated with dominant or idealised versions of masculinity. However, this tendency arguably inhibits male emotional intimacy and friendship, particularly during times of crisis. The second part of the thesis considers how these interrelated issues are represented cinematically through a close reading of the John Cassavetes film 'Husbands' (1970). 'Husbands' is concerned with the dissolute behaviour of three male friends in the aftermath of the death of a friend. Although the men are garrulous, they struggle to articulate their feelings. I employ research on performance in cinema, as well as criticism of Cassavetes’ work to interpret the slips in their masculine bravado. The final section engages in an exegesis of 'Brothers'. I reflect on the influence of Husbands on my project. I also discuss the ways in which 'Brothers' can be understood in terms of the critical frameworks established in the previous chapters. A Note About 'Brothers': The creative component of this project, the film 'Brothers', is included alongside this thesis on a DVD. The film can also be accessed online at https://vimeo.com/99519967 using the password 'masterscut'. A copy of the final shooting script is also included in the thesis as an appendix.</p>

Silence after suicide: A phenomenological study of young men's experience of losing a close male friend

<p>Losing a close friend to suicide can significantly increase the risk of dysfunction, depression and suicide in young people. Previous studies of suicide bereavement have focused on parents, parentally-bereaved children, young adolescents’ experiences of peer suicide and female college-students. A paucity of qualitative research exists that examines young men’s experiences of suicide bereavement. This lack of research has meant that their grief may go unnoticed, be minimized, or even misunderstood. The purpose of this research was to explore the experiences of eight young New Zealand men (aged 17-25 years) who lost a close male friend to suicide. Repeated in-depth phenomenological interviews were used to gain new insights into the conceptualisation of this event in the young men’s lives through an exploration of their experiences. Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed for analysis. The inductive, descriptive approach of the phenomenological method was used to explore and describe the essence of their lived experience and led to seven themes: Being gutted, stoicism, grieving in silence, being silenced, breaking the silence, being in silence and analytic silence. The overarching essence of their experience and the phenomenon was silence. The silence the men experienced after suicide was ubiquitous. The findings suggest losing a close male friend to suicide implicates men to suffer, grieve, live through and transform in silence. Participants experienced four types of silence: personal, private, public and analytic silence. The men were gutted and personally unable to talk about their experience. They chose to keep quiet, be stoical, suppress their emotions and keep their grief private. They grieved in silence and were silenced by others. They broke their silence with people they could trust and who provided presence support and care. They sought quiet spaces where they could reconnect, reflect on their experience. Their navigation of silence fostered new values, priorities and identities, acceptance of their loss and helped them move on with their lives. This study has brought new understandings of men’s experiences of suicide bereavement and silence. Their experience suggests that health professionals, families/whānau and friends need to learn to see, listen to and interpret the silence of men in order to better understand their experience and needs for care and support. Recommendations are made for intervention, health care practice and future research.</p>

Gender differences in using humor to respond to sexist jokes

We examine the degree to which women and men use humor to confront sexist jokes. We also test the social benefits and perceived effectiveness of confronting with humor. One-hundred-sixty-four (46% female) participants read about a male coworker who made a sexist joke and reported how they would respond in an open-ended format. Women were more likely than men to say they would respond with humor. Specifically, 16% of women, compared to 4.5% of men, spontaneously provided a humorous confrontation. Participants then read a second scenario that asked them to imagine a male friend making a sexist joke. We manipulated the confronter’s gender and the type of confrontation (humorous versus serious) in the scenario. Confronters who used a humorous (versus serious) response were rated as more likeable but less effective. People often hesitate to confront sexism for fear of social repercussions. Given that humorous confrontation reduces social backlash, it might be worth slightly lower perceived effectiveness to increase overall rates of confronting sexism.

History of the words starina and starik as terms of friendship in Russian

This article explores when and under what circumstances the words starik and starina emerged as terms of friendship in standard Russian language. These terms were often used by male characters in the prose of the Khrushchev Thaw — students, scientists, and engineers. It was initially assumed that these words had become forms of address at that time. Analysis of data from the Russian National Corpus shows that these terms of friendship date back earlier than that. Starik was used to address a male friend in the 19th century and starina in the 1920s—30s. Decades apart, the two words started to function as terms of friendship in a very similar way. Both were used at first to address an elderly stranger. At some point, they turned into means of language play and speech stylisation to finally lose their connection to folk speech and the semantics of age. The first one to complete the transformation was the word starina. As to starik, it apparently began to be used as a term of friendship in lan­guages of groups.

Sissy Boy

In Sissy Boy, an excerpt from Toni Newman's memoir I Rise: The Transformation of Toni Newman, recounts her journey from her hometown of Jacksonville, North Carolina, where from an early age she knew she was "a different bird born in the wrong body." The excerpt follows her through childhood as a "sissy boy," her identification with female students in school, travails in high school and college, her first time loving a man, her decision to study sociology instead of medicine, her entry into the world of drag clubs, her secret relationship with a male friend of her football-player roommate, to finally her interactions with the transsexual streetwalkers that ultimately inspired her own transformation.

“Don’t Drink Too Much!” Reactance Among Young Men Following Health-Related Social Control

This study investigated conditions under which young men responded with reactance to the suggestion to reduce their alcohol consumption. In an experimental study, 84 young men (university students, mean age: 24 years) listened to a recorded telephone call and were asked to imagine that they themselves were the recipients of this call. In this call, either a girlfriend or a male friend suggested that the recipient of the call should reduce his alcohol intake that evening. In one condition, the suggestion was highly restrictive; in the other condition, the suggestion was framed in a nonrestrictive way. Perceived threat, negative thoughts, and feelings of anger after listening to the call were assessed. Further outcome variables were intention and perceived probability of complying with the suggestion. Participants felt more anger after hearing the highly restrictive suggestion and more threatened by the suggestion made by the girlfriend. Interaction effects emerged. Participants reported more negative thoughts and lower intention and perceived probability to comply when a highly restrictive suggestion was made by the girlfriend. The male friend’s highly restrictive suggestion resulted in a perceived probability of complying (54%) that was similar to the probability of the girlfriend’s nonrestrictive suggestion (55%). Women’s efforts to reduce their male partners’ alcohol consumption can result in boomerang effects. Male peers might be more effective in motivating other men to behave in a healthier way. These results support recent findings with regard to the potential of peer positive social control.

Jealous females? Female competition and reproductive suppression in a wild promiscuous primate

Female–female competition over paternal care has rarely been investigated in promiscuous mammals, where discreet forms of male care have recently been reported despite low paternity certainty. We investigated female competition over paternal care in a wild promiscuous primate, the chacma baboon ( Papio ursinus ), where pregnant and lactating females establish strong social bonds (friendships) with males that provide care to their offspring. We tested whether pregnant and lactating females interfere with the sexual activity of their male friend to prevent new conceptions that might lead to the subsequent dilution of his paternal care. We found that pregnant and lactating females were more aggressive towards oestrous females when they had recently conceived themselves, and when the oestrous female was mate-guarded by, and showed greater sexual activity with, their male friend. This aggression also reduced the likelihood of conception of the targeted female. These findings indicate that females can aggressively prevent further conceptions with their offspring's carer through reproductive suppression. Competition over access to paternal care may play an important and underestimated role in shaping female social relationships and reproductive strategies in promiscuous mammalian societies.

Bystander Intervention to Abusive Behavior on Social Networking Websites

The current study assessed which bystander intervention behaviors individuals reported they would engage in when exposed to abuse in their online network and the correlates of these behaviors. Data were drawn from college students’ responses ( N = 600) to three vignettes, ranging in severity, where the respondent’s male friend commented about his ex-girlfriend on a social network. Although it was hypothesized respondents would intervene on the website when exposed to abuse, results suggested this was not the case. Respondents were more likely to offer support to the victim, report the behavior, and recommend programming for the most severe scenario. Implications are discussed.