Exploring Manhood and Masculinity in Iranian Cinema

Much of the scholarship on Iranian cinema has focused on representations of women with references to the other gender limited to broader discussions on patriarchy and patriarchal culture in Iran. It is, however, not just women whose bodies become the site for the interplay of ideological enforcements and cultural critique. Indeed, masculinity, as a social and cultural construction is idealized, displayed, defined and challenged variously in different contexts. The study of masculinity, however, has received far less attention generally and within the Iranian context in particular. Films are in fact valuable sites through which some of these constructions can be studied. My research, therefore, aims to turn the object of investigation to the representation of men in Iranian cinema. In this paper, I explore masculinity through the depictions of the hero and villain in Iranian cinema. In doing so, I aim to look at the presentation of the male body, ‘manhood’ and the competing discourses on masculinity.