Backlash Patriarch or New Man? The Role of the Father

Abstract

Susan Faludi has rigorously documented the backlash against feminism which dominated the eighties and was symptomatised by the parade of the ‘new man’, a figure who both reacted against, and occupied, traditional female spaces. The most obvious of these spaces was the domestic scene. The final chapter of Elizabeth Traube’s book on eighties Hollywood film, asks, ‘Who will do the caring?’ and this was certainly the most pertinent question in examining masculine representations. The ‘new man’ gained his credentials by adopting ‘feminine’, nurturing, affective qualities and the terrain in which he staked them was the domestic scene traditionally associated with the mother. Yet had the patriarch really converted into the new man? How were these oppositions represented in Hollywood cinema within the family circle?