DexterVillain, hero or simply a man? The perpetuation of traditional masculinity in Dexter
- 1 Universitat de Lleida, España
ISSN: 0210-6124
Year of publication: 2010
Volume: 32
Issue: 2
Pages: 57-71
Type: Article
More publications in: Atlantis: Revista de la Asociación Española de Estudios Anglo-Norteamericanos
Abstract
The paper analyses how television series Dexter generates complicity with its serial killer protagonist, Dexter Morgan, not only by giving him a heroic edge that overrides the monstrosity of his crimes, but also by focusing on his attempts to blend in and pass undetected by posing as a caring partner, father and co-worker. Dexter’s efforts to curve his inborn violence into submission and to appear as the New Man envisioned in our supposedly post-feminist state of affairs, however, do not prosper and the series ends up promoting an image of men as inherently aggressive, individualist and selfish. Dexter, I argue, does not manage to countermand a construction of masculinity based on violence and endorses a patriarchal ethos actively and stubbornly engaged in its self-preservation.
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