Albany Senior High School/

Level 3 speech Exemplar- Excellence
Hello there and welcome to bamboozle the newest and most exciting game of the 21st century I’m your host Gaanesh Seger. To all those of you at home I invite you to join us in this experience today’s topic is “negative representations of masculinity portrayed through characters”. Representations of masculinity are acts that portray the idea of what we expect masculine men to show like violence, anger, etc. Now stay tuned for a couple of short messages from our sponsors.

And were off the air –Jerry

O.k. now look here all of you I get it you want your fifteen minutes of fame and all but this is my show you play by my rules I don’t want to see any of you trying to spin your sob stories cause I swear to god if any of you dare steal my camera time....

3 2 1 and were back- Jerry

Welcome back to those of you who have just joined us I was just explaining the rules to audience basically there are two teams competing for a mystery prize all the teams must do is answer each question correctly. O.K lets play bamboozle! Now our category today is the film American beauty

So let’s start with Team 1 Now here is the back-story to fill you all in. Colonel Frank Fitts is the epitome of masculinity who is regularly seen throughout the movie as using violence as his means to communicate he enforces the rules in his house by physically attacking those around him. The most obvious case is the way he uses violence against his son. He first attacks his son for going into his things beating to the ground. Then he attacks his son because Frank thinks he is gay when in fact he is not, now why does he do this? Why does he do this ? A} cause he is a douche bag B} cause he has nothing to do C} cause he is training for fight club D} Cause he uses it as his means to control his son Correct Now this act of violence is a very negative connotation associated with masculinity since the old ages like in the 1950’s where it was o.k to even beat your wives, violence has been seen as a very masculine act due to its means of obtaining superiority, like the way in which Frank uses it to get his way to show his son he is boss, attacking him for a small thing like going through his stuff shows how he uses violence to communicate. .Frank displays this masculinity very clearly when attacking his son seen in this low angle shot after striking portraying him as powerful and dominant, this is further shown the second time he attacks his son for being gay making audience associate this shot as dominate and relating it to frank. Now I’m sorry ladies but this man is taken hahaha but seriously domestic abuse is a serious problem and anyone in these relationships should call for help from 0800 CALL HELP Oh sorry all thats the wrong number its 0800 HELP Really... But if you do want delicious pizza call this number for pizza hut. Proud sponsors of bamboozle Now on to our second question Team 1 its still on you Frank Fitts life in the army changed and shaped his views on life causing him to use violence as his only means to control his son now this is because violence is in fact a big factor in the army due the toughness and strength regularly associated with it in the media. In our society army men are shown as the masculine heroic characters portraying strength and courage we don't have in movies like, platoon, saving private Ryan, etc. Even in the media with seal team 6 recently killing osama bin laden this act of violence has been celebrated around the world due to the courage, strength assoisated with them. What word do we associate with the army? A)Masculinity B)Weakness C)Stupidity Correct, this is because the army is tough place with many heroic and brave soilders fighting for what they believe in. Where combat and fists are usual used as a form of communication where violence is embraced. This army life changed frank fits as he spent so much time in it, where he rose to the rank of colonel. This changed him so when he left he left with the idea of using violence as his means to communicate as he was thought in the army. This is shown through the way he deals with his son, he uses his violence to communicate instead of telling his son to stay out of his stuff he just attacks him and makes he know he will get this beating everytime he tries to go through his stuff. Now Frank actually turns out to be a closet homosexual  he projects his sense of masculinity as a way to hide his true feelings behind he regularly referrers to gays as “faggots or worse”. This is shown when he is driving his son to school he i quote says “What is this? The fucking Gay Pride parade?” when they run by, or when he thinks of his son as being gay he says “ I will not sit back and watch my only son become a cock-sucker!” showing his irrational hate. Even though to push them and hopefully his feelings as far away as possible. He uses this hate as a type of mask to hide behind. Now why does he do this?

1. Cause he doesn’t want to leave his wife 2. Cause he thinks it goes against the idea of masculinity 3. Cause he watched Brokeback mountain and didn’t like it

This shows the negative way in which masculine men or those who want to be masculine push away those who go against their ideals because they believe gays reject masculinity because they go against accepted ideas of what is normal like the bibles Adam and eve a man and woman or Romeo and Juliet, all these well known stories show that the idea of men and women are accepted as being whats right. This stands especially true for Frank due to his life in the army, a very stereotypically tough place a place where “gays” are in fact refused entry he has been taught to reject them, so he does this openly in order to maintain his tough guy image. This is shown when his neighbours come over and tell him they are partners he refuse to accept the fact that they are together instead assuming their business partners

Now on to team 2 lets try get back in this Frank Fitts is very clearly a masculine character but its not something to be admired the way he projects his masculinity shows the dark side of masculinity now what word would you say relates most with frank?

1. Violent 2. Kind 3. Thoughtful 4. Sympathy

Oh wow that’s very touching I’m sorry to hear that now let’s take a quick commercial. All right kid what I say about sob stories ae I don’t care about your uncle and his no one does Jesus marian joseph. Jimmy go get me some coffee Uhm.. Its John and I’m the director- Rory Well then direct yourself to getting me a cup a coffee before I take my first and shove it... 3.2.1 And were back- Jerry Now society also tends to have this negative view on gays due to them going against traditional standards What would you expect to be the traditional standard for a relationship.?

1. Man and Women 2. Man and horse 3. Man and Man

Due to gays going against said standards they are pushed aside and rejected in society this was well researched in a time magazine article where “Psychiatry: Homosexuals Can Be Cured” Dr. Samuel B. Tries to cure homesxuexuailty by introuducing masucilne men to a group of “gays” but it didn’t work cause the gays could feel the resentment and dropped out. Even to this day many places in America like Texas, florida, etc reject the idea of gay marriages showing society's refusal to accept it. Frank takes up this predudice and uses it to hide his own feelings behind,This shows not only the crushing weight the army put on Frank but society also to make him bend and shape his views. To the negative violent way shown.

Now unfortuanlty we have run out of time meaning the winner is team 1

Cograts you win the mystery prize

Jerry: Its john and this is most obviously an audtion, I mean come on there iis just one video camera here and like 10 people here man this aint a tv show of course there is no prize.

Then wat about this

Jerry: You brought in the slide show! And plus why the hell do you analysis to the end of every question its just a simple q and a game show, and also why did you cut to commercial this is an audition are you completely crazy! Crazy i may be but you know what Masculinity is an idea that will live on as long as mankind exist whether portrayed as a good thing or a bad thing its something we all must realise plays a huge part to men. Frank Fitts showed us the bad side the negative side but he also showed us the pivotal role society played on shaping it so in the end who can you really blame for this take on masculinity. I hope you viewers at home learned something today good night and good bye. Haha so how was that! Jerry: Seriously are you crazy! There are no viewers this is an audtion, you know what just get out!