The (Alt)right to rape: violated white masculinities in the Alt-right, and the film Nocturnal Animals

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article begins with the troubling idea that aspects of contemporary mainstream representations might echo or encourage facets of arguments that work to further the Alt-right’s agenda, and it focuses in particular on the critically respected film Nocturnal Animals. The paper argues that contemporary screen representations like Manchester By the Sea and Nocturnal Animals replicate stories about white men supposedly violated by women and minorities. The Alt-right, a global political collective of organizations, has at its heart a shared grievance at the supposed violation and victimization of white heterosexual Christian masculinities, and this article seeks to highlight a disturbing overlap between Alt-right ideas and representations in popular screen representations in the USA. The analysis of Nocturnal Animals takes up the idea of white masculinity in crisis as outlined by Susan Jeffords, Richard Dyer, and Sean Redmond, considering its influence released just before President Donald Trump’s inauguration. The discussion considers the relationship of white masculinity in crisis with sexual violence, whilst exploring how a sense of grievance against women and minorities on the part of white men legitimizes and justifies violent and violating reactions. Nocturnal Animals is found to be a deeply misogynist text, which endorses aggrieved white masculinities.