Where the Men Are: New Single Man and Prolonged Adolescence in Apatow Movies

• In Event: Contemporary U.S. American Film Analysis: 4 Approaches

Abstract

Recently, Hollywood films have been dominated by single male characters who still act and live like kids. This new-man child character is best represented in Judd Apatow’s two movies, The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005) and Knocked Up (2007). Using these two movies as examples, this paper argues how man-child upholds male dominance and is able to strengthen its dominant position when postfeminist arguments that associate women with an established order are used in conjunction.

Author

• Hye-Jin Lee, University of Iowa