“Men behaving badly”? Representations of masculinity in post-global financial crisis cinema

Abstract

ABSTRACT Films about finance often deploy masculinity as a key locus of critique, most recently in post-global financial crisis (GFC) cinema. While feminist international political economy (IPE) can direct attention to certain heteronormative limitations in the gendered critique of finance – in other words, it can portray stereotypes of “reckless” risky men who need to be reined in by “responsible,” “prudent” women – this article discerns important nuances in the representation of masculinity in post-GFC cinema. Beyond moralizing binaries of stable, responsible husbands versus greedy, predatory bankers, we argue that post-GFC cinema has expanded the gendered critique of crisis by focusing on “multiple masculinities,” the “outsiders” and the “weirdos,” as well as the working-class “gangs” of finance in films like Inside Job, Margin Call, The Wolf of Wall Street, and The Big Short. Instead of turning to women as the naturalized redeemers of “testosterone capitalism,” these films use humor and irony to create a reflexive distance, while celebrating the potential of emotional and geeky masculinities. Gone is the “redemptive woman” of embedded liberal finance, to reveal a vision of adaptable financial man that both naturalizes complexity and constricts the scope of financial critique to a moral valorization of resilience.