At the intersection of socio-cultural assimilation and economic-political dominance, three prototypes highlighting core features of a fresh paradigm of masculinity emerge. I label them the “Luke Skywalker”, “Harry Potter” and “Himura Kenshin” prototypes, based on the main male characters of three globally popular franchises, which prevailed during the past four decades: Star Wars, Harry Potter and Rurouni Kenshin. They display several common traits, completed by powerful differences; altogether, they offer alternatives to envisioning masculinity and masculine role-models. Unlike classic masculinity (“toxic masculinity”), late-modern masculinity seems to become increasingly patterned upon these three prototypes, both flexible in their cross-mediality and dynamic in their cross-national implementation.
This categorization has resulted from numerous discussions with male grown-ups and adolescents, as I gradually came to regard Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter and Himura Kenshin as symbols of a fresh, “enlightened” masculinity, challenging old patterns of relating between men and the world around them. In spite of belonging to very different plot backgrounds stretching diverse universes (Star Wars is a science-fiction oeuvre, Harry Potter takes place in present-day Great Britain, Rurouni Kenshin is temporally located in 1878, at the dawn of Japan’s modernization), they share ten major characteristics, derived from the nine “masks” of classic masculinity detailed in a different post. They develop these features in the course of their life-stories, while building their own identities as men.
The well-known background of the three characters can be summed-up as it follows:
1. Luke Skywalker is a young farmer who has been living on a small planet with two suns, in a “galaxy far, far away”, in a distant time. One day, he buys two stolen droids, of which one carries a message from a princess in distress on a shipwrecking spaceship addressed to Obi-Wan Kenobi; as a consequence of contacting Master Kenobi, Luke’s destiny sets in motion. He learns the art – and technique – of fighting with light-sabers, and goes on fulfilling his mission to defeat Darth Vader: the big dark almighty general who wants to take over the rule over the entire galaxy. In the process of his training, Luke has to face both his positive qualities – such as courage and decisiveness – and his negative ones – such as emotionality, impulsiveness, recklessness, impatience, disobedience. Ever since he finds out that Darth Vader is his biological father and a renegade Jedi knight himself, he never gives up hoping there is still light and good inside of him, and works relentlessly towards uncovering that part. As shown in the last cinema release of the third trilogy, after falling prey to the same mistake as his teacher Obi-Wan Kenobi in his youth, Luke trains – and thus, releases – the next big evil in the galaxy: Ben Solo, the son of Leia Organa (his twin-sister) and Han Solo. Disappointed and broken internally, Luke isolates himself on an island on a remote planet, but intervenes at the right moment when the newly formed Resistance is about to be crushed permanently and – symbolically – sacrifices himself for its victory.
2. Harry Potter is a 11-years old orphaned boy who suddenly learns that he is the famous son of two parents who were killed in the decisive battle against an evil dark magician. He had been raised by his aunt (his mother’s younger sister) and his uncle, as part of a protection program installed by Albus Dumbledore, the director of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which reverberates with his mother’s love who sacrificed herself so that he can live. In the parallel world of wizards in present-day Great Britain, Harry gradually discovers his prodigally magic talents, and grows up in the company of good friends – while finding out how to cope with less amicable persons and with straight-out hostile individuals. There is a deep sense of trust and warmth in his friendship with Ron and Hermione: in their support and loyalty, Harry gets slowly accustomed with the implacable responsibility which comes from sincere attachment, and he also understands that fear, uncertainty, confusion are indissoluble parts of the growing-up process. His increasingly dangerous encounters with Voldemort point out important stages in his coming-of-age performance: more than being a confrontation between equals with conflicting ideals, Harry’s development in relation to his arch-enemy is a story of loss and faith, where he keeps on moving forward in spite of the brutal realities he has to face, profoundly aware of the vital importance of his task.
3. Himura Kenshin (also known as Hitokiri Battosai, Himura “the Manslayer”) is a former kill-for-hire assassin with incredible fighting skills who had helped the establishing of the Meiji Restoration in Japan (1868) on the background of the historical turmoil of the bakumatsu.[1] Back then, he had sided with the pro-imperialist ishin-shishi (nationalist patriots) against the shogunate’s forces, including the elite shinsengumi (newly selected corps) swordsmen. Eleven years after the Meiji Restoration of 1868, he has become a wandering samurai who protects the people of Japan with a vow to never kill again in order to repent for his previous murders. Often, Kenshin is confronted with the corruption of the new economic-political elite and the poverty and confusion of ordinary citizens. Seeing the ongoing oppression, he realizes, with sadness and pragmatism, that the new historical order does not bring much change for those it was supposed to help the most: regular people, with their quotidian joys and worries, with their smiles and their sorrows. Instead of turning angry and revengeful, Kenshin chooses to contribute in his own way to that “small happiness” he encounters everyday, by protecting the weak and providing humble gestures of kindness. In the end, Kenshin is haunted by the memories of those he had killed and gradually loses contact with his current life, especially his wife (Kamiya Kaoru, the female main character of the franchise) and their son, Kenji: the late Kenshin appears as a fallible individual, broken by remorses and nightmares, unable to tackle his responsibilities as citizen, husband and father.
As to detailed in a further post, Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter and HImura Kenshin share ten major characteristics displayed by the “enlightened masculinity” in its rudimentary appearance, which are indeed derived from the nine “masks” of classic masculinity and transcend them within difficult processes shaping their identities as men and human beings
[1] Bakumatsu (literally, “the end of the curtain”) refers to the end of the Tokugawa shogunate by mid-19th century, following the decision to end the politics of the sakoku, or of seclusion, which had been installed in 1603 and had closed-off Japan from the outside world, apart from a small Chinese and Dutch commercial island, Dejima, in Nagasaki.
