Adventureland (Greg Mottola, 2009)
A Look at the Wimpster in Film
After watching Adventureland on my computer (legally, mind you, I have Netflix) I was thinking it was a bit of a college-age Dazed and Confused (1993), but for the 80s. But mostly it appeared to me to be a study in a certain male type in the overwhelmingly popular American indie movies: the wimpster.
The wimpster occupies a very special place in American film. At first he appears to be a challenge to hegemonic masculinity. In stark contrast to the typical male hero the wimpster embodies qualities that are normally not permitted in the wider culture. Male leads are strong, the wimpster is not. Male leads are brave, the wimpster is cowardly. The typical male lead overcomes external challenges to do something remarkable. The wimpster overcomes internal challenges to be less of a geek or a better, more balanced, redeemed geek.
While appearing to represent an alternative or a challenge to prevailing male ideology this blog post will argue that after tallying all considerations, the wimpster not only reinforces hegemonic maleness but also represents an overerall lowering of cultural standards. This is a call to arms to stop supporting wimpster films.
It is unclear when exactly the wimpster came to prominence (mostly because I'm at work and can't Google it at the moment) but I recall first encountering the term in the late 90s in the pages of Bust magazine. It referred to a sensitive but manipulative sort of indie rock male. Cultural reference points might include Elliott Smith, Phil from the Microphones (later Mt. Eerie), and maybe Sufjan Stevens. The promise (the means) represented by the image of the wimpster is always thwarted by its inevitable result (the ends): self-interest, the reintrenchment of male values, and a really lame film.
The wimpster is a mutation of a standard male type that's existed throughout cinematic history, the wimp. The wimp could be traced back to Chaplin but his look (perhaps due to his retro fashion sense) is best typified in 1980s film and TV. Consider the figure portrayed by the nerdy guy in The Breakfast Club (1985) and in like every John Hughes film. He's smart, at least a little devious, skinny, and totally worthless with women. But like the wimpster he is entirely focused on the self. As a wimp he is unable to propel the narrative forward, therefore he must look inward. When the wimp takes on too much agency it turns into comedy as in Weird Science (1985)when the wimp gets drunk and acts "cool" in a disturbingly radicalized way (Note: the racial dimensions of the wimpster phenomenon are beyond the scope of this blog post).
So without agency, confidence, and through permanently stunted social skills, the wimp cannot fall in love. It would upset the social balance. Instead the Brian Krakows of the world from the My So Called Lifes (1994) of the world operate as a confessional for the real, attractive, central characters. Or the act as a simple relater of facts. The wimp is stationary and used as needed.
The wimpster appeared on the fringes of film with the release of High Fidelity (2000). The elements were there but he was atomized into the three main characters who's constituent parts add up to what we know as the wimpster type: shy and weak (bald dude), self obsessed (John Cussack), and an asshole (Jack Black). So High Fidelity does not quite break into wimpster territory since in the end the Cussack character simply has to 'man up' which ultimately sets the masculine social order right again. The world at the time of High Fidelity was not yet ready for the film wimpster for a number of reasons.
Why did the wimpster emerge when it did? Why not earlier/later? The answer is clear: a decrease in the production of new, original ideas at the end of the century combined with a highly sophisticated image marketing mainstream in search of a new new (that just happens to be old).
If the new century wasn't the end of history it was at least the end of new ideas and styles in a popular culture left unable to move forward. The overwhelming sense of everything having been done before combined with the collapse of the recording industry led to a nostalgia campaign aimed at the edgy and underground music of a decade long gone. As the oughts progressed cultural production in the mainstream became far more savvy compared with the time of High Fidelity which now seemed largely misguided (Stiff Little Fingers sound NOTHING like Green Day). Dead recording industry or not, the marketers of cool were now way too cool to miss the good stuff and nothing was left unruined. Sonic Youth on the Gilmour Girls (2000) and in Juno (2007), Elliott Smith on The O.C. (2003), and Nick Drake in Garden State (2004). Nothing was sacred anymore. The records you loved as uniquely yours were now spinning on a repeat cycle in second rate films that came off more like glorified sitcoms complete with buzz words and one-liners. Good music + bad writing = retro cool. It is coolness made palatable through the traditional geek to form the wimpster. Now your grandmother listens to Neutral Milk Hotel.
Adventureland the a picture-perfect example of the wimp rebooted with the retro cool elements to create the wimpster. Now the geek of Sixteen Candles (1984) is listening to Zen Arcade, has a Black Flag poster on his wall, and can tell you all you ever wanted to know about Lou Reed. He's a punkified wimp with a record collection. The geek now has agency.
Now for all intents an purposes a wimp with agency should act as a balm for the misogyny of mainstream maleness. This sadly is not the case. His female counterpart is still an object to be attained. As I said before the typical male hero fights against unbeatable odds to get the girl. Now, in the wimpster age, he fights against his own neuroses. Think of Greenberg (2010) for example in which Ben Stiller's character must literally drop out of life for some navel gazing before being ready to take on the girl, 20 years his junior. While Greenberg presents the perfect model for the wimpsters self obsession it also shows a self-awareness and perhaps the first sign that the culture is catching on to its own strangeness. Looking out at old friends at a kids birthday party his cardigan and plaid clad compatriots lead to the introspective musing: "the adults all dress like children and the children all dress like superheroes." Is this the first echo of the end of the end of history? Children in Spiderman costumes and middle aged men in Daniel Johnston t-shirts: a crisis in masculinity.
After watching Adventureland on my computer (legally, mind you, I have Netflix) I was thinking it was a bit of a college-age Dazed and Confused (1993), but for the 80s. But mostly it appeared to me to be a study in a certain male type in the overwhelmingly popular American indie movies: the wimpster.
The wimpster occupies a very special place in American film. At first he appears to be a challenge to hegemonic masculinity. In stark contrast to the typical male hero the wimpster embodies qualities that are normally not permitted in the wider culture. Male leads are strong, the wimpster is not. Male leads are brave, the wimpster is cowardly. The typical male lead overcomes external challenges to do something remarkable. The wimpster overcomes internal challenges to be less of a geek or a better, more balanced, redeemed geek.
While appearing to represent an alternative or a challenge to prevailing male ideology this blog post will argue that after tallying all considerations, the wimpster not only reinforces hegemonic maleness but also represents an overerall lowering of cultural standards. This is a call to arms to stop supporting wimpster films.
It is unclear when exactly the wimpster came to prominence (mostly because I'm at work and can't Google it at the moment) but I recall first encountering the term in the late 90s in the pages of Bust magazine. It referred to a sensitive but manipulative sort of indie rock male. Cultural reference points might include Elliott Smith, Phil from the Microphones (later Mt. Eerie), and maybe Sufjan Stevens. The promise (the means) represented by the image of the wimpster is always thwarted by its inevitable result (the ends): self-interest, the reintrenchment of male values, and a really lame film.
The wimpster is a mutation of a standard male type that's existed throughout cinematic history, the wimp. The wimp could be traced back to Chaplin but his look (perhaps due to his retro fashion sense) is best typified in 1980s film and TV. Consider the figure portrayed by the nerdy guy in The Breakfast Club (1985) and in like every John Hughes film. He's smart, at least a little devious, skinny, and totally worthless with women. But like the wimpster he is entirely focused on the self. As a wimp he is unable to propel the narrative forward, therefore he must look inward. When the wimp takes on too much agency it turns into comedy as in Weird Science (1985)when the wimp gets drunk and acts "cool" in a disturbingly radicalized way (Note: the racial dimensions of the wimpster phenomenon are beyond the scope of this blog post).
So without agency, confidence, and through permanently stunted social skills, the wimp cannot fall in love. It would upset the social balance. Instead the Brian Krakows of the world from the My So Called Lifes (1994) of the world operate as a confessional for the real, attractive, central characters. Or the act as a simple relater of facts. The wimp is stationary and used as needed.
The wimpster appeared on the fringes of film with the release of High Fidelity (2000). The elements were there but he was atomized into the three main characters who's constituent parts add up to what we know as the wimpster type: shy and weak (bald dude), self obsessed (John Cussack), and an asshole (Jack Black). So High Fidelity does not quite break into wimpster territory since in the end the Cussack character simply has to 'man up' which ultimately sets the masculine social order right again. The world at the time of High Fidelity was not yet ready for the film wimpster for a number of reasons.
Why did the wimpster emerge when it did? Why not earlier/later? The answer is clear: a decrease in the production of new, original ideas at the end of the century combined with a highly sophisticated image marketing mainstream in search of a new new (that just happens to be old).
If the new century wasn't the end of history it was at least the end of new ideas and styles in a popular culture left unable to move forward. The overwhelming sense of everything having been done before combined with the collapse of the recording industry led to a nostalgia campaign aimed at the edgy and underground music of a decade long gone. As the oughts progressed cultural production in the mainstream became far more savvy compared with the time of High Fidelity which now seemed largely misguided (Stiff Little Fingers sound NOTHING like Green Day). Dead recording industry or not, the marketers of cool were now way too cool to miss the good stuff and nothing was left unruined. Sonic Youth on the Gilmour Girls (2000) and in Juno (2007), Elliott Smith on The O.C. (2003), and Nick Drake in Garden State (2004). Nothing was sacred anymore. The records you loved as uniquely yours were now spinning on a repeat cycle in second rate films that came off more like glorified sitcoms complete with buzz words and one-liners. Good music + bad writing = retro cool. It is coolness made palatable through the traditional geek to form the wimpster. Now your grandmother listens to Neutral Milk Hotel.
Adventureland the a picture-perfect example of the wimp rebooted with the retro cool elements to create the wimpster. Now the geek of Sixteen Candles (1984) is listening to Zen Arcade, has a Black Flag poster on his wall, and can tell you all you ever wanted to know about Lou Reed. He's a punkified wimp with a record collection. The geek now has agency.
Now for all intents an purposes a wimp with agency should act as a balm for the misogyny of mainstream maleness. This sadly is not the case. His female counterpart is still an object to be attained. As I said before the typical male hero fights against unbeatable odds to get the girl. Now, in the wimpster age, he fights against his own neuroses. Think of Greenberg (2010) for example in which Ben Stiller's character must literally drop out of life for some navel gazing before being ready to take on the girl, 20 years his junior. While Greenberg presents the perfect model for the wimpsters self obsession it also shows a self-awareness and perhaps the first sign that the culture is catching on to its own strangeness. Looking out at old friends at a kids birthday party his cardigan and plaid clad compatriots lead to the introspective musing: "the adults all dress like children and the children all dress like superheroes." Is this the first echo of the end of the end of history? Children in Spiderman costumes and middle aged men in Daniel Johnston t-shirts: a crisis in masculinity.