Stereotypes Of Masculinity In The Hangover

The Masculine Man is not Asian

Mainstream media constantly through television and films reinforce ideas about what it means to be a masculine man in society. In film masculine men are depicted as aggressive, strong, physically desirable and white, deviation from these norms classifies men as not masculine (Garst & Bodenhausen 1997). Asian men are generally depicted in media as shy, nerdy, feminine, evil and angry or money hungry (Han et al., 2014). According to Victoria Do (2006), since the early 20th century Asian American men have been stereotyped as asexual and effeminate. These are both counterparts to masculinity where asexuality is where an individual does not have sexual feelings and being effeminate is where a man has or show characteristics

The movie is centered around the friends going through numerous situations to find their friend Doug and get him to his wedding on time. They encounter an Asian man that seems to have kidnapped their best friend and must do whatever he asks of them. My argument is that Asian men are feminized in The Hangover through the way they are portrayed. Particularly, I will be focusing on a main antagonist Mr. Chow. I chose this film because the comedic Mr. Chow represents historical stereotypes of Asian men in American media, and is portrayed as effeminate and evil

Chow’s genitals they covered up by pubic hair and it appears that he has only a small penis. The scene symbolizes a lack of masculinity, similar to castration a medieval punishment, where testicles are removed and the man is left only with his penis and is not able to reproduce often increasing estrogen a female hormone in men’s bodies (Sperling, 2007). This increase in estrogen causes their voices to be high pitched and usually squeaky (Sperling, 2007). Mr. Chow also has a very high and feminine voice when he jumps out of the car and onto Phil. A norm in society of men according to Weber (2006), is that they should have deep low voices not squeaky and high which is a gender norm that Mr. Chow goes against feminizing him. Historically Eunuch’s were men castrated and were normally servants, during the Ming Dynasty in China’s forbidden city the only men that were allowed to be in the Emperor’s private inner court, they were not considered a threat to the emperor because they were incapable of reproducing (Sperling, 2007). Through mimicking the attributes of a eunuch, Mr. Chow represents Asian men as physically inferior and feminine compared to the three white males in the scene by making his genitals almost none