“not conducive for sobriety”: Sex Addiction and Neoliberal Masculinity in Don Jon and Thanks for Sharing

Authors

  • Joel Gwynne

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2021.320

Keywords:

sexuality, masculinity, pornography, addiction, neoliberalism

Abstract

Thanks for Sharing (2012) and Don Jon (2013), share similarities in their representation of the lives of unmarried men who are all approaching midlife, and who are all struggling to build meaningful, monogamous, long term attachments with women. In Thanks for Sharing, Adam (Mark Ruffalo) is addicted to brief encounters with numerous partners in contexts devoid of emotional intimacy, while a fellow member of his sex addicts support group, Neil (Josh Gad), struggles with a compulsion to touching strangers in public locations. In counterpoint, Don Jon charts the protagonist’s insatiable consumption of online pornography, since Jon believes that the virtual domain provides a far superior sexual experience than anything, he could find in real life encounters with women. This article is concerned with the relationship between sex addiction and masculinity, and how neoliberalism is imbued in the characters’ embodiment of masculinity regardless of their divergent social backgrounds.

References

Apostolidis, P. and J.A. Williams. (2017). ‘Sex Scandals, Reputational Management and Masculinity under Neoliberal Conditions’. Sexualities 20(7): 793-814.

Armengol, J. M. (2013). Embodying Masculinities: Towards a History of the Male Body in U.S. Culture and Literature. New York: Peter Lang.

Bainbridge, C., & Yates, C. (2005). Cinematic symptoms of masculinity in transition: Memory, history and mythology in contemporary film. Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society, 10(3), 299-318.

Bordo, S. (1993). Unbearable weight: Feminism, Western Culture and the Body. University of California Press.

Breward, C. (2001). ‘Manliness, Modernity and the Shaping of Male Clothing’. Body Dressing. Edited by J. Entwistle and E. Wilson. Oxford: Berg, 165-181.

Burchell, G., C. Gordon and P. Miller (1991). The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality. University of Chicago Press.

Butler, J. (2006). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Routledge.

Cheng, C. (1999). Marginalized masculinities and hegemonic masculinity: An introduction. The Journal of men’s studies, 7(3), 295-315.

Collier, M. (1998). Masculinities, Crime and Criminology: Men, Heterosexuality and the Criminal(ised) Other. London: Sage Publications.

Connell, R, and J. W. Messerschmidt. (2005) ‘Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept’. Gender and Society 19:6, 829-859.

Cornwall, A. (2016). ‘Introduction: masculinities under neoliberalism’. Masculinities under Neoliberalism. Edited by A. Cornwall. London: Zed Books, 1-28.

Davis, K. (2002) ‘Dubious Equalities and Embodied Difference: Men, Women, and Cosmetic Surgery.’ Body & Society 8:1, 49–65.

de Beauvoir, S. (1975). The Second Sex. Knopf.

Dean, M. (2010). Governmentality: Power and Rule in Modern Society. London: Sage Publications.

Demetriou, D. Z. (2001). Connell's concept of hegemonic masculinity: A critique. Theory and Society, 30(3), 337-361.

Donaldson, M. (1993). What is hegemonic masculinity?. Theory and Society, 22(5), 643-657.

Feasey, R. (2008). Masculinity and Popular Television. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Fox, A. (2016) ‘The New Anglo-American Cinema of Sexual Addiction’. Transgression in Anglo- American Cinema: Gender, Sex and the Deviant Body. Edited by J. Gwynne. New York: Columbia University Press, 9-23.

Genz, S. and B. A. Brabon. (2009). Postfeminism. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Gill, S. (2008) Power and Resistance in the New World Order. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Harvey, D. (2005). A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

McDowell, L. (1991). Life Without Father and Ford: The New Gender Order of Post-Fordism. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 16:4), 400–419.

Neale, S. (1983). Masculinity as Spectacle: Reflections on Men and Mainstream Cinema. Screen, 24(6), 2-17.

Orbach, S. (2009). Bodies. London: Profile Books.

Reeser, T.W. (2011) Masculinities in Theory: An Introduction. London: Wiley-Blackwell.

Reilly, A. and S. Cosbey, (2008). ‘The Fashion of the Man’s Suit’. Men’s Fashion Reader. London: Fairchild Books, 495-497.

Ringrose, J. (2013). Postfeminist Education? Girls and the sexual politics of schooling. Abingdon: Routledge.

Rose, N. (1992). Governing the Soul: The Shaping of the Private Self. London: Routledge.

Shone, T. (2014). ‘Nymphomaniac, The Wolf of Wall Street and Cinema's Bad Sex Renaissance’, The Guardian, 19 March 2014. http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/mar/19/nymphomaniacwolf-

wall-street-cinemas-bad-sex-renaissance?CMP=fb_us.

Skeggs, B. (2004). Class, Self, and Culture. London: Routledge.

Smart, C. (1989). Feminism and the Power of Law. London: Routledge.

Stahl, G., J. D. Nelson and D. O. Wallace. (2017). Masculinity and Aspiration in an Era of Neoliberal Education: International Perspectives. London: Routledge.

Tanner, C. (2013). ‘Fitness, ‘Wellbeing’ and the Beauty-Health Nexus.’ Vanity: 21st Century Selves. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 60-87.

Tauss, A. (2012). ‘Contextualizing the Current Crisis: Post-fordism, Neoliberal Restructuring, and Financialization.’ Colombia Internacional 76, 51-79.

Tse lon, E. (2001). ‘From Fashion to Masquerade: Towards an Ungendered Paradigm.’ Body Dressing. Edited by J. Entwistle and E. Wilson. Oxford: Berg, 103-120.

Tudor, D. (2011). ‘Twenty first Century Neoliberal Man.’ Neoliberalism and Global Cinema: Capital, Culture, and Marxist Critique. Edited by J. Kapur and K. B. Wagner, London and New York: Routledge, 57-68.

Turner, B. (2008). The Body & Society: Explorations in Social Theory. London: Sage Publications.

Weeks, K. (2011). The Problem with Work: Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics, and Postwork Imaginaries. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Whelehan, I. (2000). Overloaded: Popular Culture and the Future of Feminism. London: Women’s Press.

Whitehead, S. M. and F. Barrett. (2001). The Masculinities Reader. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Willett, Rebekah. (2008). ‘Consumer Citizens Online: Structure, agency and gender in online participation’. Youth, Identity and Digital Media. Edited by D. Buckingham. MIT Press, pp. 49-70.

Downloads

Published

2021-07-14

How to Cite

Gwynne, J. (2021). “not conducive for sobriety”: Sex Addiction and Neoliberal Masculinity in Don Jon and Thanks for Sharing. CINEJ Cinema Journal, 9(1), 181–199. https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2021.320

Issue

Section

Articles