Paternalism, performative masculinity and the post-9/11 cowboy in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy

Abstract

The superhero as a masculine ideal has been extensively scrutinized; he is perceived as a man of physical strength, selflessness and conformity but also one capable of aggression, toxic violence, vigilantism and emotional detachment. Nolan’s superhero, Batman, is situated within this discourse of contradictory masculinity. Recent scholarly discussion has considered how superheroes, including Batman, portray a masculinity designed to fulfil the desires of a post-9/11 audience. This article will extend this examination of contradictory masculinity to consider the father figures who teach Batman to be a superhero and what their instruction identifies as desirable heroic traits in the decade following the 9/11 tragedy. This form of heroic masculinity is not new and exhibits an uncanny resemblance to the cowboy who, like the superhero, is a stylized, uniquely American character. This article will argue that this is a masculinity that is learned and then performed: it reveals the imitative nature of gender, such that Nolan’s trilogy acts as a series of lessons in the problematic, fictive and performative expressions of masculinity in a post-9/11 world.