In the chapter that we have read of her book Female Masculinity, Judith Halberstam makes the following statement regarding the role of female masculinities: “[F]emale masculinities are framed as the rejected scraps of dominant masculinity in order that male masculinity by the real thing” (935). So, there is a relation of dependency: dominant masculinity needs these female masculinities in order to exist, it is, to set themselves as real and the only real. To gives us an example of female masculinity, she quotes the movie Goldeneye (1995), where the Ian Fleming’s character, James Bond, is the main personage. In this film, the character that symbolizes the female masculinity is M, the chief of the Secret Service [I remember here another Bond movie, The Spy who loved me (1977), where the Russian spy could also be seen somehow as a female who has or uses masculinity. I have to confess that I only like the old James Bond movies, the ones with Sean Connery and Roger Moore). But, there is a mention of other character: Agent Q. This gay masculinity, says Halberstam, also helps to demonstrate the dependence of dominant masculinities on minority masculinities.
But, I think that besides female masculinities and gay masculinities, we could also find another “category” or “type” (I don’t like to use this kind of words, but I don’t find others for the moment) that also demonstrate the dependence of dominant masculinities on minority masculinities. This group represents what I call “masculinity femininity”. It could be circumscribed in the sphere of the biological male sex, but in terms of gender they do not represent declared gay masculinities. This kind of men are those who, for instance, have an heterosexual life, are recognize in the social hegemony and also could be part of the so called “patriarchy”. Nevertheless, in some moment of their lives they have a desire that the social hegemony would consider feminine. This kind of “masculinity femininity” is most of the time surreptitious, but, as feminine masculinity, it also could be used to construct dominant masculinities. Nevertheless, it also could disrupt the dominant masculinities.
I want to make clear my point with an example. There is British-Canadian movie called Love and Death on Long Island (1997). It is the adaptation of the book of the same name by the British author Gilbert Adair. Both, the book and the movie, have a clearly inter-textual relation with the novel Death in Venice (1912), by Thomas Mann and the movie of the same name directed by Luchino Visconti in 1971. The plot of Love and Death on Long Island could be synthesize as follows: a British widower writer (Giles De’Ath), who is a serious man (a classic representation of a mature heterosexual man) and lives a lives “out of the world”, centered in his work. One day, product of a “chance” he goes to the cinema and by mistake enters to see an American movie called Hot Pants College II. When he discovers the mistake, stands up, but suddenly saw the image of a young man (Ronnie Bostock) who astonished him immediately. After this “encounter”, he got obsessed with this actor, investigates about him and discovers that he lives in Long Island. So, he decided to go there. Once there, after series of events, finally meets Ronnie, who is married and represents the dominant masculinity (is young masculine idol for teenage girls, for instance). At the beginning, their relationship is friendship (of course, Giles wants more than friendship), but after another series of events, Giles confesses Ronnie that he is in love with him. The last one was shocked, despises the writer, but his dominant masculinity suffers a shake.
With this example I only want to say that there could be other kind of marginalized masculinities that, on the one hand, make possible the dominant masculinity but, on the other, also destabilize it. Giles helped to build Ronnie's masculinity, but also has an impact on it.
[Note: the actors of the movie are John Hurt (Giles De’Ath) and Jason Priestley (Ronnie Bostock)].
Here is the scene when the actor Ronnie astonish Giles:
Here is the trailer (unfortunately it is in German, the only version available on Youtube, but the plot of the movie could be understood):