I dissect shirtless men. Not literally.
Let’s talk about shirtless men. I know, it’s only our second post together, and maybe you’re not ready for this kind of deep journalism. It’s okay, I’ll walk you through it. There was a moment, probably when I was watching Teen Wolf, that I had a realization. The male eye candy, in all his shirtless glory, had developed feelings. Not apparent feelings, not the gushing, oh-my-god-I-love-you kind, but they were there, written in the expression on his handsome face. And I sat there, watching as Derek Hale was electrocuted, and wondered in that moment why I couldn’t see even more of his internal process. I thought, perhaps, that there was a thought process behind those beautiful eyes, a real heart beating under his well oiled chest.
There's emotion in here somewhere and I'm going to keep staring until I find it
Eye candy with feelings. Who would’ve thought?
It’s become more apparent to me, in shows like Orphan Black and Agents of SHIELD, that eye candy is becoming more than just their manly archetype. These doll men, with their sharp jaws and muscular bodies, are not simply placed in to be handsome. Well, they are, but there’s more to it than that. They’re placed in very purposefully on the outside of the protagonist’s inner circle, in their own little castle of non emotion. They are to be looked at, but not touched-until someone breaches their walls. Then, the fun begins. I’m very rarely interested in characters that can be described by fans as “flat” or “boring,” yet with my Ken Dolls, as I call them, I feel the need to dig deeper. To defend. There’s more to them than meets the eye, I yell online to no one in particular. Not that what meets the eye is unpleasing. It is. Oh, it is.
What was I talking about, again?
So let’s look at my favorite boys. Grant Ward, Paul Dierden, and Derek Hale. These are hyper masculine characters in a world that is pointedly not suited to their interests; FitzSimmons are quick to jump on Grant Ward as soon as he enters their bubble, and Skye makes a show of brazenly defying his formidable authority. In Teen Wolf, Derek Hale is surrounded by teenagers who find him creepy at best and murderous at worst, despite many fan arguments that underneath it all he “just wants to be loved.” Even that statement picks away at the masculine ego; it turns a lack of emotion into a wall, and that wall is then turned into something funny. Oh, look at him, he can’t feel love. That’s so cute! It’s a punchline to a joke.
"Help me, I'm feeling!" -The Grinch, and also Grant Ward
By making jokes at the expense of these characters, we are doing two things. One, we are breaking down the idea of the “tough guy,” into something much easier to swallow. In that same breath, though, we are excusing some of their more standoffish behavior in lieu of it being comical. I’m not saying that every character has to be warm and fuzzy; that would be unrealistic and kind of weird, to be honest. So let’s dissect these manly-men ken dolls. Let’s cut them open and look at their doll parts. I think this metaphor is getting away from me, here, so I’m just gonna jump in.
Everyone loves a tragic backstory. I mean, I’m pretty sure everyone does, because if you give me a minute I can probably list a few dozen characters, each with their own soul-crushing brand of backstory. I actually picked Derek, Grant, and Paul due to their separate-but-similar stormy pasts, and their capabilities to look good naked. But that’s for later in the article. Focus, here. We’re looking at backstory. Grant had an abusive older brother. Paul got involved in some heavy handed tragedy in Afghanistan. Derek’s entire family died in a fire. Most of them did, at least. The ones he liked did, I’m assuming, since all he’s got left is his jerk of an uncle and his two off screen sisters, one of which is now, you guessed it, dead.
Here’s the thing about tragic backstory: it is used a crutch for characterization entirely too often. We, as the viewers, are expected to excuse stiff or wooden behavior as a side effect of past pains. We learn that growing past tragedy into an impossible goal, and don’t expect any kind of growth or positive change from a character with a tragic backstory. Out of my three favorite Ken Dolls, only Grant Ward has managed to open up about his past while simultaneously showing the cathartic powers of expressing yourself to his teammates. A character who originally started off as a GI Joe is growing more human with each episode, turning from a fearsome super spy to an older brother figure. Paul, who has had a great deal less screen time, is slowly turning from a tin man with ulterior motives to someone actually capable of love. Derek, it would seem, is having the most trouble advancing as a character, although he’s had three seasons to do so. So what gives, Derek Hale?
The face of a man who doesn't understand anything, ever
I’m just going to remind you, dear reader, that I do love me some Derek Hale. Tyler Hochelin completely nails the wounded puppy look. But in a show with three seasons and a huge fan base, don’t we deserve a little more than the same old kicking-Derek-when-he’s-down schtick? Doesn’t Derek himself deserve a little bit of growth? This is why, when I watch a show like Agents of SHIELD or Orphan Black, I don’t actually expect the attractive male characters to go anywhere, depth wise; because I’ve been shown time and time again that it’s all too easy to keep them somewhere between “barely opening up to love” and “refusing to feel anything ever,” and to keep said character in that exact place for multiple seasons.
You know, I once took a creative writing summer course. Please, hold your applause. Do you know what my teacher used to say, over and over? No, not “Rachel, stop drawing naked women in your notebook.” She would say the same Kurt Vonnegut quote: “A character should want something, even if it’s just a glass of water.” And that’s my issue, really; that while I like these characters, I can’t really determine what they want, past the basest sense of the word. I know they’re handsome, and they’re likable, and they take their clothes off. I know that they have manpain up to their ears. But I don’t, for the life of me, know what they want out of life, out of other characters, or out of themselves.
What does Ward want in this scene? A shirt? A glass of water? For someone to love him for who he is on the inside?
I can’t help that think that maybe my love for these characters is made up entirely of my own projections. I’m bringing my dolls to life, and I’m making them fall in love. Or maybe there’s something about a wall of insensitivity that makes me want to look for cracks. While I might not know what my Ken Dolls want, I still find myself drawn to them, perhaps in the hopes that this week will be the week that they say “I love you.” Because while it’s taking a while for the ice to thaw, I can see clearly that it is-and I wonder if I’m the only one. Loving these characters doesn’t mean that I am unaware of their flaws, of their strange behaviors and their unforgivable actions. I wonder, if I was to come across a Ken Doll in real life, if I’d put up with this sort of attitude. I think, ultimately, it depends on the doll.
Derek Hale I’d probably stay away from, because his girlfriends have this habit of dying on him. Not my style.
Paul Dierden? Maybe. He’s blond, and I like that in a man.
Grant Ward? It depends. He’s banging Melinda May, and I sure as hell can’t compete with that. I mean, come on.
Sexual speculation aside, I’ve found that my love for these characters comes from their potential for growth. While it’s frustrating that there is often so little of it, when it happens it’s something to praise. When we laud these characters, when we recognize them breaking out of the shell of traditional and constraining masculinity, we are celebrating that we want masculinity to bend.
I would also like to see Paul bend (over), for science or something
We want to look at their shirtless torsos, sure, but we also want to see the man behind them; imperfect, feeling, perhaps even - feminine. Just because a man is handsome and half-naked should not equate him with dullness, though it seems like the writers of several shows have not yet realized this. I think we’re getting there, though. And until then, at least we have plenty to look at.
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