Broculture and The Hangover
Abstract
The concept of broculture and bromance in the movie, The Hangover provides a new understanding into the changing conception of masculinity in the modern man as depicted in popular culture. It is both a celebration of uber-masculinity and the liberation of the individual, in particular, the male from traditional conventions through the experimentation with drugs and alcohol.This paper seeks to examine the treatment of broculture in by Phillips in The Hangover. The first part provides a short synopsis of the movie and explores the choice and treatment of the setting of Las Vegas. The second part looks at how characters negotiate their sexuality and masculinity through the excess of drugs and alcohol. It further explores the potential for emotional intelligence in the four friends. The last part of the paper looks at the marginalization of the female characters in the movie.
Historically, the term “bro” referred shorthand to brother or friend. Moving into the 21st century, the term has taken a new identity and new meaning. A Bro is now defined “as a specific kind of fratty masculinity” (Demby n. p.). This conception of bro associates the term with fratty white guys. This however is a limited understanding of the term since it now applies to people of color and middle aged men. Barney Stinson argues that “a bro is a person who would give you the shirt off his back when he doesn't want to wear it anymore. A Bro is a lifelong companion you can trust will always be there for you, unless he’s got something else going on” (1). Stinson definition of bro is laced with humor and based on a fictional TV character but it mirrors what a Bro really is - a companion.
Despite its ubiquity in popular culture, the term “bro” has received little scholarly attention. It is usually explored under the umbrella term of bromance. Even with the limited attention from scholars, aspects of being a bro and bro culture can be easily deduced. A survey by the National Public Radio (NPR) showed that there are four elements that makes one a bro. These are, “jockishness” which is the evidence of physical prowess or having the build for sports. The second element is dudeliness. “Dudeliness” denotes one’s ability and preparation to always conduct their business with bros and confide in them. The third element is “preppiness” which refers to the ability to dress in a certain way. Demby notes that “a bro’s sartorial inclinations are conservatively casual” meaning that bros prefer casual ways of dressing. The fourth and final element is “stoner-ishness”. (Demby n. p.). This is the ability to have a cool and happy free vibe. All these elements put together show that bros are defined not exactly by color but demeanor. They also make up the broculture.
The Hangover is an example of broculture at work. It is a story about four individuals who embark on an adventure that is spurred by the excuse of having a bachelor’s party. To make the oddity of this near slapstick comedy more funny and accommodative to all types of viewers, the writers concentrate not on the actual bachelor’s party but the aftermath (Wyatt 19). The four friends go to Vegas with the idea of having fun but their experience of the real Vegas is limited to the time they got to the rooftop after their arrival to the hilarious attempts at a recollection of the previous day’s events. Through flashbacks, the viewer is taken into the broculture of partying. Through the partying one is able to explore issues of gender and motivations for the emergence or creation of brocultures. It is the delineation of gender differences aspect of the culture that is critical to this analysis.
A common feature of American culture is the conscious and unconscious dictation of acceptable gender behavior. Even though the understanding of gender roles have changed, some aspects of traditional cultures still exist today. Society still expects women to behave in particular way. They should be compassionate, motherly, caring and homely while masculinity is defined by toughness and the ability to act like a potential provider. The slow acceptance of the stay at home dad and boys doing what traditionally was said to be what only girls could do has let a vacuum in terms of understanding gender roles. Coupled with the acceptance of different forms of sexuality, those who adhere to a more traditional understanding of gender are often confronted with changes they cannot understand or define. This struggle to redefine gender leaves most individuals, in particular, middle class white males with an identity crisis (Hatfield 527). As a group that has been dominant in all cultural and societal activities, the inability to dictate how society functions brings with it a challenge that finds an outlet in subcultures.
The Hangover is a quest and yearning for male indulgence rather than symbolic of mainstream culture. The trip back home and the struggle to make it home in time for the wedding, shows that broculture has its limitations. It is an escape avenue than a solid ingrained culture. The broculture provides an outlet for reacting against society’s demands from equality, especially gender equality. With changing notions and understanding of manhood, individuals find create new social circles that give them a new identity. This is not an identity that comes from family relations but from wanting to come up with spaces for male bonding. It is a movement to pre-modern times where men used to go hunting and bond around a fire.
In brocultures, individuals are looking for a way to redefine their sense self. The performance of gender through broculture shows the individual’s struggle with their sense of self (Matthew 38). Bros often find themselves watching movies like The Hangover and Fight Club. From these movies, they get the extra element of masculinity they do not find in real life. It is a way of solidarity of refusing to admit that they are “a generation of men raised by women” and that is not bad at all (Fincher n.p.). Not all bros are the same but some are ridden with guilt and shame when they assail in activities that one would think they were traditionally made for women.
The emergence of broculture is in essence a failed attempt at the revival of old gender relations and traditions. The goal is to explore whether the broculture in movies like The Hangover emerges out of the need for a community or the desire for man to retain their privileged positions in society. It can be a yearning for the past that comes with the realization that the past is long gone, hence the need to create a new culture that advances new ways of thinking masculinity. When looked it as a complex phenomenon, male bonding becomes significant in understanding modern cultures. In The Hangover, male bonding takes precedence over everything else.
The opening scene of The Hangover is a testament to its approach to the theme of male bonding. It features Doug, the groom to be and his future brother-in-law, Alan, trying tuxedos on for the wedding. It is evident from the first scene that Doug is portrayed as a mature adult compared to Alan. The broculture becomes evident when Doug’s future father-in-law walks in. He teases his son, Alan, and tells him he has his mother’s legs. This is a reflection of a critical part of broculture which is the idea that Bros cannot be like girls. Even though the remakes are made for jokes and enhance the comedic aspect of the move, they do have a basis in how society things a real man should look and act like. There is a certain unconscious standard that is set and no man is expected to break it. Men are not allowed to share sentimentalities and they should have everything figured out. It is evident that Alan does not have everything figured out (Doug 23). This however does not mean that he is not an intelligent man. He might be the most intelligent man in the group, much more intelligent than the dentist, Stu. Harbidge notes that “The Hangover is marked by both a fascination with and repulsion towards the male form that symptomatic of such anxiety” (Harbidge 7). This fascination is complicated by the fact that the least alpha-male and least attractive member of the group,
Alan seems to be the one who is most comfortable with his male body form. The taunting from his father and friends seems to do little in ruffling him. Alan is an interesting member of the group, an outlier bro. He is short, chubby, his beard is unkempt and walks around with a purse. He is a contrast to Phil, played by Bradley Cooper. Phil shows the concern for the presence of the Alpha dog in bro culture. In Phil and Alan, the viewer sees to disparate beings with different worldviews but belong to the same broculture. This means that there is no typical bro even though society generally believes the typical bro is the alpha dog.
Phil is a typical bro, lacking a sense of humor and being particular is his own warped self-sense of worth. There are few moments where Phil is portrayed in a more heartfelt way. His career choice of being a teacher is not that of a typical bro. Teaching is associated with sensitivity and compassion, as an alpha dog, it is not expected of Phil to be compassionate. An alpha dog would care little about the affairs of the future generation. This has to do with the fratty behavior that is often associated with with being a bro and the leader of the wolfpack. Phil promises to help one of his students with the money to go to camp. This promise is however questionable since he starts collecting camp money before going on his Vegas Trip. It is never clear whether he gambled the students’ trip money away. It is apparent that Phil is supposed to be a complex character but he is underdeveloped. He comes of as a man with great affection for his wife and son. The show of compassion makes the audience wonder whether he uses his tough bro language as a way to escape the grind of family life or that is just how he is (Shaw and Watson 6). The mix of toughness and compassion deals a blow to the suggestion that bros are a monolith. In The Hangover, they come off as complex beings with disparate origins and goals. Phil is in control of all the group’s activities because he is the alpha-male but he still has a softer side to his character.
The constant bickering between Phil and Allan, and, Phil and Allan shows that bros are always competing with each other on all facets of life. This an integral part of the picture, the ability to compete. It is done in the name of the team and not for outright rivalry. There is no sport competition in The Hangover but there is constant fighting for whose decisions matter. Alan is well aware that people might not take his suggestions so he resorts to cunning ways like drugging his friends. There is an acceptance of the fallout from the drugging. This is part of the broculture. When the man discovered that they messed up and drugs were at the center of it, they did not divulge that information to the women back home. As bros, they stuck by the old adage that “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”.
Sticking together in the broculture means that nobody talks about the other’s transgressions to outsiders. Talking about transgressions and broculture brings the conversation to Stu. Stu provides a complicated case of being a bro. He is unlike Alan but he is also close to Alan on the spectrum of softer masculinity than he is to Doug and Phil. Stu is tormented at home by a controlling girlfriend whose manipulation of him is too outrageous to be believable. The fact that he continues to live with her even after she admitted to cheating is baffling but that is why the trip to Vegas is significant. It is a way for Stu to confront his demons and realize that his continued relationship is against the bro code. His relationship also reflects on what is acceptable to the broculture. It is apparent from the case of Stu that being dominated by a woman is acceptable. It is gullibility that Stu’s friends rile against. Stu lives a miserable life under the dominance of his girlfriend and that is not right in the eyes of his friends. He has to resort to white lies to make free time.
An integral part of the broculture is the bro code. The bro code is the specific language bros use to communicate with each other. It is also the code of conduct. It consists of expectations and language. The broculture uses the bro code for its existence. The bro code are the rules that males are supposed to follow (Kuhn 2). These are unwritten rules. They are necessarily a way of maintaining some level of mystery to the group and a sign of closeness. Stu breaks most of those rules, together with Alan and his purse. Phil’s role is to see to it that the sacred bro code is not violated thus his language is laden with derogatory remarks and jokes that cuts across gender and sexuality (Kuhn 4). He uses words like “faggot” and “retard”. He calls Stu “Dr. Faggot” because Stu couldn't be man enough to tell his girlfriend that he was going to Vegas instead, he told her he was going to wine country.
Because of the bro code, most of the individuals in The Hangover are allowed to get away with sexist remarks as well of lying. Stu is behind a lot of lies especially when it came to his girlfriend. His lies took many forms involving denial once they figured out that he had gone on a drug induced marriage. It took Las Vegas for Stu to realize that he was not happy with his life. This brings us to the significance of Las Vegas as a place that is frequented by bros.
Las Vegas is a perfect setting for broculture and the exploration of the evolution of masculinity in the United States. It is a place that has a serious gambling culture as well as a non-stop party life. It is significant in that it is associated with people finding their true self or enjoying excesses of freedom. Harbidge in an analysis of The Hangover as a Bakhtinian bromance observed that with “Vegas, it goes without saying is the most suitable backdrop for the men’s misdemeanors; from gambling and booze, to sex, strippers and more, it caters for every vice” (Harbidge 6). In the movie, Las Vegas lives up to the old cliche of it being a place of hedonists. Stu gets married to a stripper at a chapel that is run by an Eastern European man with a perchance towards vulgarity. The drugs and the hangovers are everywhere. In a broculture, all these elements that are undesirable to the large parts of the populace are viewed as heavenly sent by bros (Hollow 37).
Las Vegas allows for moral decadence but it also allows for individuals to find themselves. It is a place where people go to redefine themselves. All the drug fuelled parties of the four friends helped them realize a couple of things about themselves. The fortuitous meeting with a stripper helped Stu realize that he was unhappy with his life and needed a change. Alan became an integral part of the group something he had wished for for some time. The world of Las Vegas that is portrayed in The Hangover is a world of debauchery but there is another side to it. Las Vegas is therapeutic for some individuals. For the four bros, Las Vegas provides an opportunity to forget about their daily existence for a while and concentrate on themselves. In the end, Las Vegas acts as a place of realization rather than drug fueled debauchery. All the gambling and marriages and encounters with the police and gangs is overshadowed by the realization that the life that the four friends had at home was precious and they had to protect it. Stu does dismantle his life but he had his moral justifications for doing it. Las Vegas becomes a place were bros even though in a group can individually reflect on their lives. The bros in The Hangover are not frat guys who live together, they live in different places and have different expectations about life.
An analysis of Broculture in The Hangover is not complete without a reflection on the role played by the female characters in the movie. Doug’s mother-in-law rarely talks, his future wife is only featured on the screen when she is talking to Phil about Doug’s whereabouts. The two female characters with a more developed personality are Stu’s girlfriend and his stripper wife. His stripper wife is a filler for the plot. She is the stereotyped woman of Vegas, a stripper with a baby. The limiting of the time of women on the screen is deliberating but more interaction would have helped in providing a better understanding of the relationship between the bros and the women in their lives.
In conclusion, The Hangover is one of the few popular culture explorations of the broculture and how men in modern day America negotiate their gender. From the experiences of Alan, Phil, Stu and Doug, it is apparent that men face an identity crisis that leads to a pretentious hypermasculinity. The window of exercising the traditional forms of maleness has shrinked leading to the emergence of brocultures, In these cultures, men seeking attachment get to work hard in shedding off their sexuality and emotional intelligence.
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