Hypermasculinity Represented within The Breakfast Club’s Character Andrew Clark

Brooke Coupal

Professor Zimdars

Advance Mass Communication

April 11, 2016

Hypermasculinity Represented within The Breakfast Club’s Character Andrew Clark

            People are constantly surrounded by hypermasculinity, “adoption of extreme machismo in males” (Craig, 2009).  Often times men strive to be strong, aggressive, and often violent in order to be seen as a true man.  The media has repeatedly pushed this ideology to the public by showcasing hypermasculinity in films, advertisements, television shows, and many other outlets.  One popular film where this is done is The Breakfast Club (1985).  The character Andrew Clarke relates heavily to the idea of hypermasculinity and the pressure that men are faced with to conform to this idea.  In comparing Andrew Clark’s character to the documentary Tough Guise 2: Violence, Manhood, and American Culture by Jackson Katz (2013), one can see how the idea of hypermasculinity can be detrimental to society and to men as individuals.

             In the 1985 film The Breakfast Club, Andrew Clark is seen as one of the more hypermasculine men as he is portrayed as the athletic jock with not much more to him.  He puts on this persona of what it is like to be a hypermasculine man in the fact that he is athletic, popular, and seen as tough.  During the scene below, Andrew opens up about why he is in detention with the other students.  He shares his story of two violent acts that he had recently committed and explains why he had committed them.

**The scene below showcases the part where Andrew Clark reveals why he is in detention, along with the ideals that he tries to uphold of manhood:**

In the beginning of the movie, it is not obvious that Andrew’s persona is just an act to impress his father as he says in the scene above.  Instead, you are led to believe that he is just your stereotypical jock and there is not more to him.  In the beginning of the movie, he asks “princess” Claire Standish if she plans on going to a party that is happening later on, which adds to him being seen as the “cool” jock.  Some of the others also mention his athletic ability, and how that is the only thing to him throughout the movie.  Due to these constant reminders and the actions that Andrew takes, it is not clear that this persona is just an act.  This is not realized until he opens up to the other students in detention about what he did to belong in there. 

In the above scene, Andrew Clark begins by explaining to the students how he got there in the first place.  He describes how he taped the buttock of a more vulnerable student together.  This student was known as “hairy” due to the excess hair on his body, so when the tape got removed, a lot of the student’s hair and skin went along with it.  Andrew states that he committed this act for his father; that his father had done all these crazy things when he was older, and he felt that his father was “disappointed that he never cut loose on anyone” (Hughes, 1985).   

With the above pivotal clip in mind, Tough Guise 2: Violence, Manhood, and American Culture (2013) explains why a man, such as Andrew’s character, would resort to violence in order to be perceived as a man.  As said in the section of the documentary entitled “A Taught Behavior,” violence is not a learned behavior as so many people say it is, but instead it is something that is taught.  Andrew doing this violent act towards the student speaks volumes to this.  He was doing this due to the fact that his father committed violent acts when he was younger, and in return has taught his son that he should do the same.  He clearly has told his son stories of this, resulting in Andrew feeling that his father will be disappointed if he does not continue on with these acts (Katz, 2013).

His father is then seen as a “dictator” of the tough guise that men must put up, as Jackson Katz stated in the film.  The tough guise is the front that men put up in order not be put down or criticized and to prove their manhood.  If they step outside what they are told to be like in order to be a man, then there are people around them, such as peers, fathers, coaches, that will dictate to them to make sure they follow the actions needed to be “manly.”  The father clearly does this to his son Andrew, or else Andrew would not feel the need to be violent.  Violence is a way for a man to be seen as a man, and the father would push this ideal onto his son making his son feel like he had to be violent in order to live up to manhood (Katz, 2013). 

Andrew Clark also told the students that were with him in detention about another time where he beat someone up in the locker room.  He said this student looked weak, and remembered that his dad has an attitude towards being weak.  This was in the back of his head when he decided to go forward with the physical encounter.  He stated his peers cheered him on, which is another form of being a dictator as Katz stated (2013).  Andrew then went on to say how this student’s father must be so disappointed and humiliation that he had gotten beaten up.  This shows that Andrew believes fathers have a huge vision of how their sons should be, and their sons should live up to that vision in order to be seen as a man.

Andrew goes on to say how he hates his father and how he is a mindless machine. His father represents the tough guise attitude in which men must act in a certain way, such as violent, in order to be truly considered a man. Through this comment alone, Andrew is showing that the persona that he portrays is not who he authentically is.  He wants to impress his father and act like how a man should according to society and his dad, so in return her puts on this tough guise.  He is not able to show his authentic self, and therefore struggles internally with trying to be a “man” and dealing with his everyday emotions.

According to Katz (2013), violence is often used in order for men to try to prove their manhood, just as Andrew Clark’s character did in The Breakfast Club (1985).  Katz explains how men are told not to show emotion and to not be sensitive.  By doing this, they are not seen as the manly men that they should be portraying according to society.  Therefore violence is often the go to in order to prove one’s manhood.  This is also described as putting up the “tough guise” in order to not show vulnerability.  The violent idea of manhood is pushed by dictators such as fathers, peers, and coaches, and is then reinforced through our cultural norms that we often learn through outlets like the media.  Violence takes an emotional toll on the individuals who put on that act as well as the ones who receive.  These men are then not to show their emotions towards this as this makes them seem feminine.  Violent acts can range from assault within a school like Andrew Clark’s character committed, to mass shootings that affect a large group of people.  According to Jackson Katz (2013), these violent acts could decrease if society changes the ideals of what is means to be a man; to get rid of the cultural norm of violence in order to show your masculinity.  But this is something that is not going to happen overnight.

As media and the everyday culture of society showcases the norms of what it takes to be a man, men are going to act in violent ways in order to put up this tough guise persona.  These violent ways to can be detrimental to an individual or to a whole society.  Just as shown by Andrew Clark’s character in The Breakfast Club (1985), men are often pressured to keep up with a tough guise, but by taking steps to change this ideal just as Katz suggests, we can let men know that violence is not a way to prove your manhood.  Through this acts of violence can be cut down, allowing men to show their emotions in more positive lights.

References

Craig, R. O. (2009). Hypermasculinity. SAGE Reference: Encyclopedia of Race and Crime. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412971928.n148

Earp, J., Katz, J., Young, J. T., Jhally, S., Rabinovitz, D., & Media Education Foundation. (2013). Tough Guise 2: Violence, Manhood & American Culture.

Tanen, N. & Hughes, J. [Producers]. & Hughes, J. [Director]. (1985). The breakfast club [Motion Picture]. United States: Universal Pictures.

NãoPareAgora! 2012, September 6. The Breakfast Club (1985) - Andrew Clark about his father [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-ZyYtoKuUs