@article{Scoma_2022, title={It’s All About the Punch(line): The Crossing of Masculinity’s Border as Portrayed in Todd Phillips’ Joker}, volume={9}, url={https://openjournals.bsu.edu/dlr/article/view/3864}, DOI={10.33043/DLR.9.1.113-127}, abstractNote={<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Catcalls, rapists, dick jokes, and risky business are only a handful of symptoms of the current worldwide viral epidemic dubbed “toxic masculinity.” Focusing on toxic masculinity in Todd </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Phillips’s</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> film, </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Joker</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, this essay recounts the toxic behaviors associated with </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">America’s</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> hegemonic masculine system and addresses how party clown and failed comic </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Arthur Fleck’s</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> journey across </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">masculinity’s border</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">—and transformation into the famous villain, Joker— glorifies the adoption of these toxic traits. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Phillips’s</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> film is an unhealthy influence on young, nontraditionally masculine males. Fleck’s character arc teaches them that using violence, sexually asserting oneself, and withholding emotions all come with serious social benefits and lack any consequences. Phillips claims through </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Joker</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> that the oppressed unmasculine man can overcome his social hardships by simply replacing his weak, effeminate personality traits (such as crying openly, solving conflicts without physicality, and sexual passivity) with mainstream toxic behaviors. This personality change is necessary to cross the border into mainstream masculinity and elevated social states, according to </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Phillips’s</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> character study. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Phillips’s</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> catch-all solution is a claim I contradict with evidence of the failing health of young men in real-world America, concluding with a plea for the creation of safe spaces for healthy male identity exploration.</span></p>}, number={1}, journal={Digital Literature Review}, author={Scoma, Sam}, year={2022}, month={Apr.}, pages={113–127} }