A Masculine Hairdresser (Reading Post #3)

In Shampoo Warren Beatty contradicts the stereotypical hairdresser as he embodies the playboy image. This type of masculinity that he portrays in this film is not a typical way to make the male figure look powerful and superior to women. George seems to play the role that woman usually have in films, while the women in the film play the role of men. George also plays the role of the one “to be looked at” (Laura Mulvey) by using his body as an object to gaze at. The camera never rests on the image of the women in the film they are seen as the subjects as George is constantly “put on display” (Lucia Bozzola) throughout the film. The camera repeatedly lingers on his body when he wears his tight jeans and tank tops that show off his muscle and masculine body. “George is presented to be looked at expressly as a desirable figure, but has to maintain an idea of manhood” (Lucia Bozzola). A scene that stood out to me as a force to show his masculinity was when he was going to Jackie’s house to do her hair before the Nixon event that night, he put his blow dryer in his jeans as John Wayne would put his gun in his gun holster. John Wayne represented the epitome of masculinity and the film’s reference to John Wayne helps to connect masculinity to George’s image. It’s ironic that Beatty would be playing the role of a hairdresser because of the sexuality he projects on and off screen, he defiantly reverses the role to not allow any kind of hesitation of whether or not he may be gay. Jackie knows that he is does not fully embody the stereotypical masculinity when she mentions to Jill that she did not feel secure with him and did not feel that she could rely on him for support.

Today the tendency towards personification may have increased to combine naturalism with personal charm helps the success of the sales pitch for the movie (Barry King 179), and by using Beatty’s real-life sex symbol image allowed for him to be type-casted for this role. Even though he said that he would not talk about his personal life it was obvious that he lived the life of a little playboy, this “results with the lines between character and persona to be blurred” (King 179). It became difficult to distinguish whether or not Beatty was reflecting his sex symbol from his personal life in his roles or if the sex symbol he portrayed in his films was carrying over into his real life. I was talking to a friend a while ago about acting and how it is so easy for actors and actresses to become lost within themselves as they constantly are changing who they are on screen. With this constant change the life and personality they once had can disappear to as they take on the traits of their onscreen characters.

1. Is the image of masculinity still changing today?
2. What is a controversial role that has been used in today’s films that demonstrates masculinity?
3. Did Warren Beatty have the same effect as John Wayne in the sense of masculinity?