Mancaves and Cushions: Marking Masculine and Feminine Domestic Space in Postfeminist Romantic Comedy

Abstract

‘I buy these nice towels, and he whacks off into them!’ complains Debbie (Leslie Mann), of her husband Pete (Paul Rudd) in Judd Apatow’s romantic comedy Knocked Up (2007). The statement illustrates a common trend in postfeminist media representations of domestic space, which sees men and masculinity as disruptive and dirty presences in feminine or familial domestic spaces. In this chapter, I use as a case study the genre of the romantic sex comedy as a platform from which to explore some of the common themes, motifs, strategies and aesthetics for representing the relationship between men, women and home within postfeminist culture. Despite observable patterns and motifs in the way in which men and domestic spaces are related within contemporary Hollywood cinema, the question of media representations of male domestic life still remains largely untheorized outside of studies such as those surrounding the figure of the male celebrity chef or the (camp) interior design tastemaker.¹ I would also contend here that the exclusion of men from theorizations of contemporary domestic life reflects wider trends within writing on postfeminist culture, in which the complex and changing position of men within this paradigm of gender is persistently overlooked. In what is obviously a highly gender-conscious discourse, there is a tendency to marginalize discussion of men and masculinity, or to treat their representation as more simplistic or less serious.