My Masculine Jacket: Blockbusters and the Modern Man

Clothes make the man. Look good, feel good. Dress for success. What we wear is a physical representation of our inner lives, how we feel--or how we want to feel--can be demonstrated by what we put on our bodies. That's why costume design is such an important part of filmmaking. You can't just put your characters in anything What they wear has to be a conscious choice to signify their place in the story and their emotional arc. Two of the years best blockbusters Mad Max: Fury Road and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, feature key scenes where men exchange jackets. And both of these exchanges highlight differing views on manhood, as seen in the blockbuster era.

"That's my jacket." 
In Mad Max: Fury Road, Max (Tom Hardy) gets captured. A malnourished, anemic War Boy named Nux uses him as a "blood bag," rigging him up in a bizarre blood giving contraption and fixing MAx up to the hood of his car. Max is being violated and abused, seen as property rather than an actual human being. This is paralleled with the Wives of dictator Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne). These women are refereed to as "breeders," raped in order to bring healthy boys to Joe's army. Nux takes Max's jacket, as a trophy. The jacket is the property of his property, a symbol of his presumption of ownership over Max.

This is the beginning of Nux's story. He is brainwashed into a lifestyle that glorifies selfishness and violence. Nux represents the harmful effects of toxic masculinity on men. He wants to recapture the Wives, under the false promise of Valhalla and rebirth. As his story begins, Nux has no empathy. He can only see his gains.

When Max wakes up, crashed near the rig where Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) is taking a breather with the Wives. He tries to get out the chains set by Nux. He and Furiosa are antagonistic to each other--she doesn't trust anyone, let alone men. Why should she? He doesn't trust anyone, period. He's a loner who doesn't want to get mixed up in trouble. Nux wakes up to see Furiosa and MAx struggling, and immediately sides with Max, his former prisoner. It's a bizarre version of "bros before hos." But Max wants no one on his side and grumbles to Nux, "That's my jacket." Max takes the jacket from him, establishing his own ownership of it and as the dominant male. Nux can only think of the bigger reward he'll get in Valhalla.

This sequence is key because it depicts Nux as both victim and perpetrator of toxic masculinity. It's in his nature to align with a dominant male, much like he does with Immortan Joe. But his own lack of agency and indpendent thought stifles his development, as manifested by his unhealthy body. Furiosa and the women see him as perpetrator, except for Capable (Riley Keough). She takes the time to listen and talk to him, and realizes that he's just as victimized as she is. As Nux starts to see how he's been harmed, he works together with Max, Furiosa, and the women to fight back against the patriarchal order of Immortan Joe.

"Keep it. It suits you." 
In Star Wars: The Force Awakens, ace pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) gets captured by the First Order while on a mission for General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher). He gets rescued by a stormtrooper (John Boyega), who's questioning his loyalty. Poe and the stormtrooper, dubbed Finn after his stormtrooper number, escape together to Jakku to find Poe's droid BB-8. There's a crash and Poe is presumed dead. Finn takes Poe's jacket in his honor and wears it through the film. When Poe and Finn are reunited, they erupt in an embrace. When Poe sees that Finn's wearing his jacket, he tells Finn to keep it.

The jacket represents the instant bond these two men share. They work together as equals, and there's no competition or domination between them. Finn doesn't take the jacket out of greed, but in the memory of his supposed dead friend. The jacket is a constant reminder of the quick but long-lasting bond. In this Star Wars universe, the horror of the First Order unites people against a common enemy. Friendship, honor, and integrity can exist without selfishness or oppression. Poe and Finn can freely express their masculine bond, because inherently they don't fall into dominant and subordinate. Finn was under the oppression of the First Order, but doesn't play the role of subordinate to Poe or try to dominate him,

You might think the friendship between Poe and Finn is too immediate, or not believable. But we're living in a post-Magic Mike world, where men can be affectionate without feeling embarrassed or being ironic. There's no "haha, no homo" vibe between Finn and Poe; it's a genuine feeling of community and friendship born out of a shared death-defying escape. Why can't they be BFF? Male friendships used to be depicted as constant teasing, denial of affection, and competition. That's how men interact with each other on older media, but Star Wars: The Force Awakens changes that.

A lot of people, myself included, think that Finn and Poe could make for a fun romantic pairing. For Star Wars to feature an interracial romance between two men of color would be game-changing. Part of that comes from their affectionate friendship. But also, the film doesn't explicitly show that Poe is straight. He barely interacts with Rey (Daisy Ridley) or any woman at all except Leia. Poe might be queer, because he's not shown as anything else. It's refreshing to see two men become friends without competing for a girl. Maybe Finn likes Rey, maybe he likes Poe, maybe both. Poe's romantic preferences don't have to be heterosexual. That shouldn't be the default. In Star Wars: The Force Awakens, masculinity is redefined to be more open and less rigid.

Both Mad Max: Fury Road and Star Wars: The Force Awakens look at masculinity in different ways. Mad Max takes on toxic masculinity, and Star Wars shows how men can evolve beyond those stereotypes. As our culture changes, the way men are shown on screen should change. And that change--it's a jacket.

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