From Rhett Butler to Peter Florrick: How the Screen Manipulates Gender, and Where Has the Real Man Gone?
From Rhett Butler to Peter Florrick: How the Screen Manipulates Gender, and Where Has the Real Man Gone?
Today, I come to you with an unconventional double release. Running parallel to this piece on the blog, you can read the defence of Rhett Butler, delivered through a ruthless, clear female gaze.
Should the question arise as to why we must dissect a character from a nearly century-old story right now, the answer lies on today’s screens, within the offerings of streaming providers, and in the alarming transformation of our society. The hard-hitting explanation for what I assert in my Rhett critique is provided by this very post.
For two worlds are colliding before our very eyes: the raw reality of classic literature and the manipulative, illusion-filled world of modern television series, which imperceptibly reprograms today’s boys and girls, men and women.
The Truth of Literature: The Unshakable Strength
To my mind, Rhett Butler of Gone with the Wind is one of literature’s most outstanding, truest male figures. Beneath his surface corruption lay a straightforward, charming spine. It was he who offered protection to Scarlett amidst the fiercest of flames, whilst the woman chased her own petulant, immature illusions, utterly incapable of seeing the true haven within the man. Classic literature still dared to portray primal strength and steadfast stance, yet simultaneously held up a distorted mirror to female blindness.
But what happens today?
We have stepped from the pages of books to the front of screens. And here, where characters are breathed into life by flesh-and-blood actors, a systematic degradation of the male image is taking place.
The Anatomy of Degradation Through One Face: From Mr. Big to Peter Florrick
With a novel, we are left to our imagination. In a series, however, the message is encoded into the face and micro-expressions of the actor, and if the actor’s credibility is lost due to another role, it drags the entire archetype down with it. Take the perfect example: the case of Chris Noth.
For a long time, I would have been willing to stand by Mr. Big from Sex and the City. Big was, in truth, a decisive, grown man who knew what he wanted, and simply refused to play along with Carrie Bradshaw’s perpetual theatrics and emotional games. Modern media immediately branded him as ‘toxic’, whilst the real problem was female hysterics and unrealistic expectations. Big still possessed a certain peculiar, modern charm and the ability to draw boundaries.
Then came The Good Wife and the character of Peter Florrick. Here, all respect collapsed. With this role, the screen perfectly showcased what the modern ‘alpha male’ has devolved into. Peter Florrick is the absolute inverse of Rhett Butler. Whilst Rhett protected the woman from the world, Peter Florrick humiliates his own wife, then cowardly, unmanfully hides behind her skirt and the image of the ‘good wife’ to salvage his own filthy political career. The straightforwardness has vanished. The spine is gone. Nothing remains but deceitful manipulation and a power-hungry cowardice that leeches off women.
The Great Manipulation: What Are They Teaching Us?
This is the point where the messages of my two pieces converge. Today’s series brutally manipulate the genders.
Women and girls are taught to be either perpetually dramatic, never-satisfied Carries, who must be compensated by men for every grievance, or martyred Alicias, who quietly endure the betrayal of a spineless man instead of putting their foot down.
Men and boys, meanwhile, are conditioned to believe that honest, raw masculine strength (Rhett) is something obsolete and unacceptable, whilst the true key to success is a slick, backstabbing, morally bankrupt careerism (Peter Florrick).
We must see this process. The world is heading in the wrong direction because we allow the screen to overwrite our biological and spiritual foundations. We women allow the Rhett Butlers to vanish from our sides because we fall for the illusions.
It is time we woke up from this modern-day blindness. Let us demand back the charm with a backbone, the real men, and most importantly: let us finally lay down the weapons of our own illusions, to give them a chance to return.
