The construction of masculinity is interesting to me and it really could have been explored. However, instead of spending more time with people like Michael Kimmel (professor) who study gender, they seemed to feel they should spend more time showing random quotes from B or C list celebrities whose opinions I don't care about.
The fact that some irritatingly chauvinist guy from "the man show" thinks women are emasculating men - or the lead singer of Antthrax thinking that waxing is 'gay'... fine, that's their personal viewpoint, which they have every right to (much as I may disagree). What saddened me was they each got got as much airtime as the expert in gender roles.
The saving grace of this film was the time spent with some of the subjects. They were interesting, but also quite sad.
Jack Passion, the beard guy, was an interesting person - but he seemed to have nothing in his life except his beard competitions.
Shawn, who plays an "evil Arab" wrestling character demonizing his culture - has to shave his entire body and sculpt his body to achieve an unrealistic standard.
Ricky, the attractive Indian guy who was ashamed to be Sikh and has internalized the same kind of body hatred that many women have. He is a beautiful man with wonderful family and a strong tradition that he has felt he had to "overcome" and admits to never being satisfied.
I wish they had cut the celebrity clips and really dived more into this subject. The ever changing standards of masculinity, the ever increasing focus on men's bodies and the growing insecurities that parallel women's beauty standards is a fascinating topic.
I hope someone else takes up this idea again because it deserves to be done well.
