ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how the hit comedies I Love You, Man and Get Hard reinforce dominant masculine ideals of aggression, sexual conquest, and avoiding emotion and other qualities often considered feminine. It demonstrates how Hollywood’s representation of masculinity in several popular bromances offers a clear way to be a man. The chapter examines how the films present an acceptable, dominant masculinity, or hegemonic masculinity. The films follow the same trajectory: laughing at the unacceptable perceived feminine traits, recognizing and then learning to overcome the traits, and finally embracing hegemonic masculinity. The concept of hegemonic masculinity was first used to examine the patriarchal system of gender relations. The bromance traces its roots to the buddy films of the 1970s—a set of films that adamantly perpetuated hegemonic masculinity. The male friendships at the center of the films occur for vastly different reasons, but each provides the catalyst for moving the protagonist from a fragile masculinity to a hegemonic masculinity.
