Complicit masculinity and the serialization of violence: notes from Australian cinema. Issue 1 (2nd January 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Laurie, Timothy
• Is Part Of: Continuum. Volume 36:Issue 1(2022)
• Page Start: 64
• Page End: 83
• Publication Date: 2022-01-02
• Subjects: Masculinity -- violence -- film studies -- Australian cinema -- feminist philosophy; Motion pictures -- Australia -- Periodicals; Broadcasting -- Australia -- Periodicals; Mass media -- Periodicals; 306.05
• DOI: 10.1080/10304312.2021.2008318
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1030-4312

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article argues for a revised understanding of 'complicity' as a undertheorised position and relationship within the social organisation of gender. The concept of 'hegemonic masculinity', developed by R.W. Connell and others, has been influential for understanding masculinities as shared ideals embedded within gender power relations, but scholars have paid less attention to Connell's attendant concept of 'complicity', which does not require a shared ideal to be honoured or emulated. To develop a critical account of complicity, this article draws on Iris Marion Young's distinction between series and groups and considers ways that persons with diverse relationships to masculinities may nevertheless contribute to collective forms of domination. Young's approach is placed in dialogue with studies of mateship and violence in contemporary Australian cinema, noting the ways that complicity and coercion can be masked through the language of mateship. As key examples, the article considers two Australian true crime films that explore the complicity of adolescent boys with the collective violences of men: David Michôd's Animal Kingdom (2010) and Justin Kurzel's Snowtown (2011).