Between the first presidential campaign of Donald Trump and the arrival of the #MeToo movement in 2017, progressive activists and social critics increasingly warned us about something called toxic masculinity. The term, vaguely academic in nature, referred to traditional norms of manliness (emotional stoicism, physical aggressiveness) and their potentially dangerous consequences. There were certainly many examples of appalling male behavior, and these were taken as expressions of a deeper problem.
But even as the condemnation of toxic masculinity commanded public assent, there were signs of uncertainty. This was understandable, given that toxic masculinity seemed to encompass a wide range of offenses, from sexual violence to disrespectful manners to mere competitiveness. In the years since, the confusion has only intensified. If the second election of Mr. Trump and the rehabilitation of various “canceled” male figures are any indication, lots of people harbored doubts about whether ostensibly toxic men could, or should, be banished from society.
Among the signs of this ambivalence is a recent spate of erotic thriller movies in which controlling, ambitious, libidinous men appear as objects of sexual fascination. These films — including “Babygirl” (2024), “Fair Play” (2023), “Cat Person” (2023), “Deep Water” (2022), “The Voyeurs” (2021) and “Instinct” (2019) — suggest that today’s sexual politics are trending away from progressive pieties. While the official disapproval of the toxic male persists in these movies,fef777 it coexists with an unacknowledged and often perverse attraction to him. All of which speaks, however uncomfortably, to the continuing appeal of toxic masculinity — or perhaps of masculinity as such.
81betWe have seen this before in film, albeit with the gender roles reversed. When noir emerged as a genre in the 1940s, it was centered on the dangerous appeal of the femme fatale, a figure at once alluring and threatening, impossible to ignore yet deadly to embrace.
The appearance of the femme fatale was a reflection of momentous changes in American society. During World War II, women entered the work force in large numbers, taking jobs that were traditionally done by men and performing them competently. They also found a new sexual liberty. From 1940 to 1945, the rate of single motherhood increased by 44 percent, a reflection of changed mores and the relationship-altering consequences of war. Since the days of Cleopatra, the figure of the ambitious, sexually independent woman had represented a threat to traditional social norms. Suddenly this threat seemed to be everywhere.
Americans who had conflicted feelings about this new type of woman saw their ambivalence expressed in noir. Charismatic actresses such as Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Bennett and Jane Greer played characters who were sexually bold and economically avid. They took men and money that didn’t belong to them. But their transgressiveness only increased their mystique for the noir hero, who found the femme fatale more interesting than the good girls in his life. Social convention and the Motion Picture Production Code (which sought to promote moral content) ensured that these women were punished, but their appeal was undeniable.
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Although the dose was 40 milligrams, she often forgot when she had last taken a pill. So she took one whenever she remembered — and may have ended up taking more than her prescribed daily dose.
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