Entourage, winner of the 2006 Best International Television Series, is an American comedy-drama television series that follows the story of up-and-coming movie star Vincent chase and his childhood friends supporting him along his way to making it big. Vince’s “entourage” of friends includes his manager and best friend, Eric “E” Murphy; Ari Gold, Vince’s loud, arrogant but hilarious agent; Johnny “Drama” Chase, Vince’s older half-brother and former actor himself; and Salvatore “Turtle” Assante, Vince’s driver and childhood friend.
Entourage is an excellent example of media that displays differing levels of hierarchal masculinities. Characters depict hegemonic, subordinate, complicit, and marginalized masculinities along with female characters exhibiting emphasized femininity and the patriarchal bargain. This review will focus on defining the different terms along with examples of the those terms seen in characters in Entourage.
TERMS:
Hegemonic Masculinity: “describes males who support the hegemonic masculine ideal, who pursue a sense of hegemonic masculinity, and generally have access to most or many masculine characteristics.” In Entourage, Ari Gold is probably the most recognizable character exhibiting this form of masculinity. In Season 5, Episode 3 titled “The All Out Fall Out,” Ari’s wife surprises him with a brand new red Ferrari as an anniversary gift. Ari later gets into a feud with archrival Adam Davies after he loses to Davies in an illegal street race. Ari and Davies feud continue throughout the episode as they constantly try to “one-up” each other. Ari sends Davies a bag of human feces and Davies responds by torturing Ari with male strippers. Eventually Davies insults Ari’s wife and Ari becomes so infuriated that he forces his way into Davies’ office and slaps Davies in the face in front of the entire office. “A bitch slap for a bitch,” Ari shouts as he offer Davies an ultimatum, “now you apologize for what you did or I will knock you the **** out!” Davies apologies and a superior Ari walks out happy and satisfied. Ari is an excellent example of hegemonic masculinity and what lengths males will go to fight and prove their superiority.
Marginal masculinity: “describes males who support the hegemonic masculine ideal, who pursue a sense of hegemonic masculinity, but may be minorities in another form (e.g., poor, men of color).” Johnny “Drama” Chase appears to fit this role perfectly. Although a reasonable successful television actor himself, Drama always seems to be in Vince’s shadow. Drama tries to portray the hegemonic male image but is usually just made fun of by the other guys who constantly joke about Drama’s inability to get a date. In Season 5, Episode titled “Fire Sale,” Drama, trying to get over his breakup depression, focuses on looking his best for his guest appearance on “The View” with Whoopi Goldberg. Drama tries to appear “tough” and unfazed by his breakup, but he is set up by his “Five Towns” co-stars, who have given the show photos of Drama’s former girlfriend and then tell him to reach out to her through national television. Drama apologizes for being overprotective, starts crying, embarrasses himself, and pretty much shatters all his attempts of portraying a hegemonic masculine image. Poor Drama will he ever achieve his goal?
Complicit masculinity: “describes males who do not support the hegemonic masculine ideal but benefit from it, and do little to challenge hegemonic masculinity.” While I can’t think of any one specific episode, the best character example of complicit masculinity in the episodes I’ve watched has to be Eric “E” Murphy. Although Vince also seems to depict this type of masculinity most of the time, Vince’s ability to pick up almost any woman he wants seems to lean him more towards a hegemonic masculine character. However, E’s personality and characteristics seems to perfectly fit complicit masculinity. E is somewhat different from the most of the guys in Entourage, since he appears to be fairly comfortable with his masculinity and it seems he rarely feels the need to enforce his masculinity over others.
Subordinate masculinity: “describes males who are heavily excluded from masculine privilege (e.g., gay men).” Ari Gold’s bubbly assistant, Lloyd, is clear example of subordinated masculinity. Lloyd seems comfortable with his homosexuality and the constant homophobic remarks from his boss Ari Gold. In the same episode where Ari is feuding with Adam Davies, Ari is about to reveal to Lloyd his secret weapon against rival Adam Davies. "I know you don't know the man code," Ari remarks to Lloyd, so Ari instead makes Lloyd promise on Tom’s (Lloyd’s homosexual partner) p***s. While content with his subordinated masculinity at first...Lloyd eventually grows tired of being mistreated by Ari and seeks employment elsewhere.
While Entourage primarily focuses on differing levels of male masculinity there are, however, two concepts exhibited by women in Entourage: emphasized femininity and the patriarchal bargain.
Emphasized Femininity: “describe when women fulfill the cultural characteristics deemed feminine that support hegemonic masculinity (male privilege).” I don’t have much to say on this topic except the fact that most of the women in Entourage, from the guys’ current girlfriends to the random girls the guys meet, the majority of women in this show exhibits at least some degree of emphasized femininity.
Patriarchal Bargain: “when women make individual decisions weighing the pros and cons of a situation to emphasize their femininity because it gives them power in a hegemonically masculine society. The gender order does not change; it is reinforced.” A good example of a female exhibiting the patriarchal bargain is seen in Season 5, Episode 10 titled "Seth Green Day," Ari wants to hire his old colleague, Andrew Klein but, according to his contract, needs to get approval from his business partner, Barbara Miller. Barbara refuses to allow Ari to hire Andrew. Ari irritated by Barbara’s discussion and power over him in this issue complains to his daughter. “My problem is that I can't run my business the way I want to, not with that woman as my partner. Your mother controls me at home; she [Barbara] controls me at work. Where can a man be a man?"
In conclusion, Entourage is an entertaining series to watch, but after learning and studying the hegemonic concepts hidden behind the episode’s plot it makes watching the series and this type of media in general a lot more thought-provoking.
References:
Mayeda, David T., et al. Celluloid Dreams: How Film Shapes America. Kendall Hunt Publishing Company, 2010. Print.
Ellin, Doug., et al. Entourage. HBO, 2004. Video.
TERMS:
Hegemonic Masculinity: “describes males who support the hegemonic masculine ideal, who pursue a sense of hegemonic masculinity, and generally have access to most or many masculine characteristics.” In Entourage, Ari Gold is probably the most recognizable character exhibiting this form of masculinity. In Season 5, Episode 3 titled “The All Out Fall Out,” Ari’s wife surprises him with a brand new red Ferrari as an anniversary gift. Ari later gets into a feud with archrival Adam Davies after he loses to Davies in an illegal street race. Ari and Davies feud continue throughout the episode as they constantly try to “one-up” each other. Ari sends Davies a bag of human feces and Davies responds by torturing Ari with male strippers. Eventually Davies insults Ari’s wife and Ari becomes so infuriated that he forces his way into Davies’ office and slaps Davies in the face in front of the entire office. “A bitch slap for a bitch,” Ari shouts as he offer Davies an ultimatum, “now you apologize for what you did or I will knock you the **** out!” Davies apologies and a superior Ari walks out happy and satisfied. Ari is an excellent example of hegemonic masculinity and what lengths males will go to fight and prove their superiority.
Marginal masculinity: “describes males who support the hegemonic masculine ideal, who pursue a sense of hegemonic masculinity, but may be minorities in another form (e.g., poor, men of color).” Johnny “Drama” Chase appears to fit this role perfectly. Although a reasonable successful television actor himself, Drama always seems to be in Vince’s shadow. Drama tries to portray the hegemonic male image but is usually just made fun of by the other guys who constantly joke about Drama’s inability to get a date. In Season 5, Episode titled “Fire Sale,” Drama, trying to get over his breakup depression, focuses on looking his best for his guest appearance on “The View” with Whoopi Goldberg. Drama tries to appear “tough” and unfazed by his breakup, but he is set up by his “Five Towns” co-stars, who have given the show photos of Drama’s former girlfriend and then tell him to reach out to her through national television. Drama apologizes for being overprotective, starts crying, embarrasses himself, and pretty much shatters all his attempts of portraying a hegemonic masculine image. Poor Drama will he ever achieve his goal?
Complicit masculinity: “describes males who do not support the hegemonic masculine ideal but benefit from it, and do little to challenge hegemonic masculinity.” While I can’t think of any one specific episode, the best character example of complicit masculinity in the episodes I’ve watched has to be Eric “E” Murphy. Although Vince also seems to depict this type of masculinity most of the time, Vince’s ability to pick up almost any woman he wants seems to lean him more towards a hegemonic masculine character. However, E’s personality and characteristics seems to perfectly fit complicit masculinity. E is somewhat different from the most of the guys in Entourage, since he appears to be fairly comfortable with his masculinity and it seems he rarely feels the need to enforce his masculinity over others.
Subordinate masculinity: “describes males who are heavily excluded from masculine privilege (e.g., gay men).” Ari Gold’s bubbly assistant, Lloyd, is clear example of subordinated masculinity. Lloyd seems comfortable with his homosexuality and the constant homophobic remarks from his boss Ari Gold. In the same episode where Ari is feuding with Adam Davies, Ari is about to reveal to Lloyd his secret weapon against rival Adam Davies. "I know you don't know the man code," Ari remarks to Lloyd, so Ari instead makes Lloyd promise on Tom’s (Lloyd’s homosexual partner) p***s. While content with his subordinated masculinity at first...Lloyd eventually grows tired of being mistreated by Ari and seeks employment elsewhere.
While Entourage primarily focuses on differing levels of male masculinity there are, however, two concepts exhibited by women in Entourage: emphasized femininity and the patriarchal bargain.
Emphasized Femininity: “describe when women fulfill the cultural characteristics deemed feminine that support hegemonic masculinity (male privilege).” I don’t have much to say on this topic except the fact that most of the women in Entourage, from the guys’ current girlfriends to the random girls the guys meet, the majority of women in this show exhibits at least some degree of emphasized femininity.
Patriarchal Bargain: “when women make individual decisions weighing the pros and cons of a situation to emphasize their femininity because it gives them power in a hegemonically masculine society. The gender order does not change; it is reinforced.” A good example of a female exhibiting the patriarchal bargain is seen in Season 5, Episode 10 titled "Seth Green Day," Ari wants to hire his old colleague, Andrew Klein but, according to his contract, needs to get approval from his business partner, Barbara Miller. Barbara refuses to allow Ari to hire Andrew. Ari irritated by Barbara’s discussion and power over him in this issue complains to his daughter. “My problem is that I can't run my business the way I want to, not with that woman as my partner. Your mother controls me at home; she [Barbara] controls me at work. Where can a man be a man?"
In conclusion, Entourage is an entertaining series to watch, but after learning and studying the hegemonic concepts hidden behind the episode’s plot it makes watching the series and this type of media in general a lot more thought-provoking.
References:
Mayeda, David T., et al. Celluloid Dreams: How Film Shapes America. Kendall Hunt Publishing Company, 2010. Print.
Ellin, Doug., et al. Entourage. HBO, 2004. Video.
Websites of interest:
Which 'Entourage' Character Are You?'
http://www.tvsquad.com/2009/07/10/entourage-characters-quiz/
I scored:
Which 'Entourage' Character Are You?'
http://www.tvsquad.com/2009/07/10/entourage-characters-quiz/
I scored:
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