The Sopranos and Masculinity - Soprano Theories

when it comes to masculinity it can also be known as manlihood or manliness and it's a set of attributes behaviors and roles that are associated with men at times many view the trait of masculinity to be socially constructed traditional traits of masculinity include strength courage independence and leadership or according to tony soprano being a masculine male is someone who is the strong silent type whatever happened to gary cooper the strong silent type a life in the mafia is a life that is dominated by masculine males often times tony and his crew can be seen focusing on maintaining a conventional masculine image over anything else men like tony soprano embrace the importance of masculinity this could include the way a man talks how he dresses what kind of car he drives and in the life of the mafia being masculine means having a gumar being tough and being able to murder someone for tough guys like tony life is all about maintaining their tough guy image in the sopranos we see how important masculinity toughness and a mafioso's tough guy image and reputation means to a gangster and in this video i will be exploring how masculinity is represented in the sopranos before we get started be sure to click subscribe and click the bell to get notifications on all upcoming sopranos content and yes i have made a patreon if you would like to join be sure to click the link down in the description below there you will receive patreon only pictures videos can provide me with fan requested videos and just be in a great spot to chat about the greatest television show ever made now let's get right into the video the soprano world can be a tough world as we've all come to discover it's a world that's surrounded by death depression toughness murder two-faced people and a world where reputation is everything this is especially true when it comes to men and their masculinity throughout the series we watched several characters focus on their masculine reputation and try to maintain their tough guy image nowhere do we see this more than with tony as he's a brutal murderer but yet at the same time he visits a therapist to control his chronic panic attacks and while in therapy tony struggles with the overall concept of sharing his feelings and discussing about his mental health as this can result in tony weeping and crying for young boys growing up they're often taught masculine traits early on in life they're learned to toughen up not to cry and show any emotions and to proceed to do so on their own to show emotions such as tears in the mafia means to showcase themes of fear and weakness and while in therapy tony displays these symptoms as it's the only safe place for a gangster to do so in a way when we see tony crying and stressing out while in therapy he's showcasing to us his fragile masculinity fragile masculinity is how an individual's status and reputation as a male is thought to be difficult to earn and a reputation that can easily be taken away and in the life of the mafia we see how evident this is with individuals earning ranks like underboss and captain that make them socially higher than their counterparts all due in part to a ranking system and for a boss like tony we see that his reputation makes him the most powerful when it comes to the mafia's masculinist codes sometimes this fragile masculinity haunts tony throughout the show as he can be seen questioning himself and the men that are in society in the sopranos we are treated to just how easily someone's image toughness reputation and masculinity can be called into question whether it was big [ __ ] and christopher declining to take their clothes off when being searched for a wire and of course we all know the situation with veto but one of the most prominent examples is with uncle junior we see junior's masculinity get called into question during season 1 episode 9 boca when tony discovers that his uncle gives out oral sex to his girlfriend bobby it dampers junior's reputation and ego we watch tony humiliate junior by dishing out slang terms for oral sex as a result of junior poking fun at tony's masculinity and athletic ability tony does this because he feels upset over junior questioning his athletic ability and status as a man who visits a therapist not only does junior secret about his oral sex ruin his reputation as a man in the eyes of the mafia it also ruins his reputation as a boss of the soprano crew junior even states his reasonings it's a sign of weakness and possibly a sign that you're a fanuc to salvage his reputation junior eventually dumps his girlfriend only to save his own reputation and tough guy image with junior dumping his girlfriend we see just how far these gangsters will go to save their own skin as junior is worried about being perceived as less powerful or even gay in the eyes of the mafia for performing oral sex with junior accepting that this is a rule in the mafia it signifies that other men must stomach the rules even if they are hypocrites like tony as the irony here is that tony pokes fun at junior for performing these same sexual acts that he too practices the episode of boca examines male bonding as a way of negotiating various structures of masculinity the episode centers around tony silvio artie jr and coach houser and incorporates them with masculinity even with tony watching metal play soccer carmela is baffled at a masculine male like tony would even be at a girls soccer game tony what do you want from me my only son's a couch potato the episode centers so much around male masculinity that while at the bottom tony and silvio offer up coach houser a free dance something that they assume all men would enjoy the bonding between coach hauser and tony's crew illustrates how masculinity becomes defined through relationships with men the sopranos undermines the male character's view that men are men and it asks us to reconsider our own progressive investments and configurations and representations of gender and with tony two he is reconsidering his representations of masculinity as right from the beginning of the series tony expresses feelings of lostness as he tells melfi in the first season i came at the end and the best is over later on in that same first therapy session tony discusses his feelings to masculinity whatever happened to gary cooper the strong silent type tony's first therapy rant reveals to us about his conceptions of masculinity as tony admires the ideal male embodied by gary cooper and when it comes to gary cooper there's this fascination that tony has about the actor as he brings him up constantly throughout the series gary cooper the kind of man i admire is gary cooper the [ __ ] i've been a gary cooper that's what i'd like to know and i always wonder what happened to gary coop with a strong silent type it was gary [ __ ] cooper even though tony praises the work of gary cooper he largely focuses on his work as an actor portraying fictional characters his most famous being will kane from high noon which just so happens to appear in tony's test stream while tony compares himself to the classic embodiment of a model american to gary cooper he ignores the clear distinctions between a man like himself and cooper or his character of kane in high noon kane is a man of the law who is a former police officer who pursues his one last hurrah alone meanwhile tony on the other hand breaks the law and doesn't act alone whether it's reaching out to melfi for help or having a crew of gangsters behind him as being a strong masculine male is all about acting alone and tony admits that cooper's film persona as a strong silent type american makes him question his own identities and the current status of america what they didn't know was once they got gary cooper in touch with his feelings that they wouldn't be able to shut him up and then it's dysfunctionist and dysfunctionality just function my fungal when it comes to tony visiting a therapist it showcases themes of weakness in the eyes of the mafia especially by his own uncle and mother as this is the reasoning why the two wanted him whacked because in junior and livia's day no one went to visit a therapist if you had a problem you dealt with it on your own and that even visiting a therapist is a no-go for someone like tony and yet he still proceeds to do so i understand freud i understand therapy as a concept but in my world it does not go down but nowhere do we see the importance of a gangster's image than with the saga that happened with vito before coming out of the closet vito was viewed as an immense earner for these sopranos much like his mafia colleagues veto 2 was focused on maintaining a masculine image so much so that he began to eat healthy and lost a large amount of weight but when vito came out as being gay we see his reputation status as a male and positioned within his crime family plummet even despite being a cold-blooded gangster like everyone else with veto we see the traits of fragile masculinity as he struggles to live up to the expectations of being the ideal american male the revealing of veto's sexuality presented a crisis for tony's crew as tony feels ashamed for not discovering or noticing vito's secret earlier and all of his crew members feel embarrassed and ashamed to even be associated with a homosexual like vito while we do see an arc and storyline of vito's sexual journey we are mostly treated to how the sopranos and other families like new york showcase their homophobia and even the women of the mafia tend to poke fun at vito's closeted sexuality even paulie quickly declines the entire thought of vito being gay strictly due to the fact that he has a wife and children and has a girlfriend on the side he's a married man oh you think this is funny huh there's a man's reputation at stake here a married man with kids as veto's journey progresses it becomes clear that if members of the soprano crew show support for vito's decision that they too might wind up dead ultimately vito was murdered by his cousin-in-law phil leotardo and when it comes to vito opening up about his sexuality phil displays the most hatred and disgust out of all the gangsters phil's anxiety for veto sexuality is not a process of phil debating vito's sexual orientation but rather it's filled thinking how other mafiosos will lose respect for him and his authority as being related to veto with veto coming out we see a side of these gangsters that we've never seen throughout the show we see clear traits of fear as they are intimidated by vito's sexuality and how they reacted to it was with slurs only to reinforce and reassure their masculine dominance veto coming out affected all of tony's crew it dampered their masculine image and reputation as tony was forced to put a hit out on veto in order to maintain his masculine figure that carries such high authority but phil beat him to it throughout the show we watched tony struggle with his identity and masculinity as tony is a brutal murderer but yet at the same time we see tony become frequently emotional throughout the show tony embodies the aspect of masculinity from gary cooper something that made tony so upset to begin with in the series his first episode and sticks with tony throughout the show we constantly watch him overreact as a way that undermines his masculine identity and the gary cooper mentality he so dearly adores and wants to pursue there are other examples of characters who struggle with their masculinity throughout the show with tony discovering ralph's bizarre sexual desires and fantasies and how he doesn't or can't have sex with valentina or janus in a normal way this makes ralph less of a man an authority figure in the mafia the same can be said for christopher when adriana speaks up about his drug problem not only does his drug problem make him viewed as a weak individual when adriana says that christopher can no longer function as a man in the bedroom it seems to anger him and make him less of a man than he already was or eugene committing suicide perceives him to be less tough than his mafia counterparts despite participating in violent murders like everyone else for tony and his crew the male body comes to represent power and power itself is masculinized as a physical strength force speed control toughness and domination going to therapy and struggling with mental health is a sign of weakness even thought so by tony's high school coach well i'm a therapy now that's a damn shame we watch tony struggle with his masculinity especially when it comes to the ongoing varsity athlete remark that gets brought up throughout the show he visibly gets upset when people think of him as a kid even though he's clearly not throughout the show tony is constantly trying to prove to everyone around him just how tough he can be whether it's using violence or aggression including his mafia friends and therapists we see this with tony stating how he used to bench 300 pounds and choosing to beat up perry and unziada a move that was done by tony to reinforce his dominance and display that he's not a weak boss despite being slow and weary and recovering from a coma his decisions for taking out numerous individuals along his journey are a result of tony restoring his dominant authority figure as a boss that holds so much power but yet on the inside tony is a weak male who struggles with his mental health thank you all so much for watching if i missed any other examples be sure to let me know down in the comment section below for more sopranos theme videos keep it locked here right here on this channel

Channel: Soprano Theories

Views: 214,168

Keywords: The Sopranos, Sopranos, Pure Kino, Sopranos Pure Kino, Sopranos and Masculinity, Tony Soprano, Tony Soprano Therapy, Tony and Dr Melfi, Sopranos Therapy, Gary Cooper The Sopranos, Masculinity Sopranos, Soprano Theories, Sopranos Theory, Sopranos Ending, Gloria Trillo, David Scatino, Silvio Dante Sopranos, The Many Saints Of Newark, Paulie Gaultieri, Paulie Sopranos, Sopranos Clips, Sopranos Borko, Vito Sopranos, Vito Death Sopranos, Sopranos Vito, Johnny Cakes Sopranos

Id: QBXeMUR35MY

Length: 13min 13sec (793 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 17 2021