Problematical Gender Identity in Romper Stomper Essay

Problematical Gender Identity in Romper Stomper - Essay Example It seems that the main character of the movie, Hando, has absorbed all the exaggerated negative characteristics of manhood at once. Hando attracts most attention with the help of â€Å"mixture of menace and animal magnetism† (Holden, 1993). His masculinity is overwhelming, charismatic, and absolutely distorted. Moreover, all the characters of â€Å"Romper Stomper† look like saturated versions of themselves: emotionally unstable girl with serious mental disorders, her perverted father living in luxury, obedient skinhead that stays with his grandmother when he decides to quit his criminal life. This combination of exaggerated negative masculine and feminine traits creates certain dissonance of perception: characters are portrayed as either men or women while their general human qualities are neglected. Thus, the problematic gender identity of the characters prevents them from being humans as it imposes too many obligations and requirements. It is impossible to deny that images created by media texts have a serious impact on society. Whether watching TV, looking through magazines or not people still shape their understanding of how a real man or a real woman should look like from media. In this regard, the image of masculinity and femininity can also be attributed to media construction (Gautlett, 2008). Moreover, according to the queer theory formulated by Foucault in the 1990s sex and gender are rather socially constructed than inherited or predetermined biologically (Queer Theory, 2010). That is why the creation of masculine or feminine identity is determined by a number of factors such as social pressures, traditions, conforming, linguistic and symbolic codes and so on.