Ideas Of Gender And Marxism In The Big Lebowski
The Coen Brothers present their ideas of gender and Marxism through themes and characterisation in their comedic film The Big Lebowski. Jeff 'The Dude' Lebowski is a “loser” from Los Angeles who gets caught up in a conflict with a millionaire of the same name. He gets lots of unhelpful assistance from his friend Walter Sobchak, an ex Vietnam veteran. The Brothers explore the theme of society and class to portray their ideas of Marxism, the conflicts in the film are between the wealthy and the poor. From a gender perspective, the traditional ideologies of masculinity and femininity are explored through their characterisation. The film reflects the Coen Brother’s progressive values of third-wave feminism during its uprising in the 1990s.
In The Big Lebowski, the Coen Brothers use characterisation to explore the perspective of gender. There are two very different types of men and women portrayed in the film, representing traditional and nontraditional gender roles. The Dude is laid-back, unemployed, and lacks typical male ambition, he only needs to provide for himself so he survives off the bare minimum. He also has strong feminist views about the sexualisation and objectification of women. In contrast, some other male characters are a representation of toxic masculinity who do treat women as objects. Big Lebowski is the face of his family’s charity while his daughter Maude and her mother do all of the work; this illustrates the patriarchal society of their time. His “trophy wife,” Bunny, referred to as a “slut,” works in the adult film industry with the pornographer Jackie Treehorn, who is another example of a virile male. Bunny, along with other unnamed female characters are sexualised and some women are occasionally seen topless to demonstrate the objectification of women for the sole purpose of entertaining men. Oppositely, Maude is a feminist painter, who rejects the traditional binaries towards women. Her “strongly vaginal” art alludes to popular feminist notions of women's empowerment, and when The Dude dreams about her, she appears dressed as a Viking; a strong and dominant woman. The film questions what it means to be a man to which Big Lebowski subverts from the gender binary, and states that “strong men also cry,” breaking down the culture which states that men should not cry. In The Big Lebowski, the Coen Brothers criticize both men and women for their negative cultures, as well as illustrates the positive act of subverting from gender binaries.
The perspective of Marxism is explored through the representation of society and class in The Big Lebowski. The film is set in a classist society where whoever is the wealthiest and has the most commodities is the most powerful. In the film, The Dude and his friends are the proletariats who are treated condescendingly by the bourgeoisie Big Lebowski in this context because “he has the wealth … and the resources.” He uses The Dude as a pawn because he is “a loser, a deadbeat, and somebody the community won't give a shit about.” Additionally, The Dude refuses to fit into the role of the worker, choosing to be unemployed. By rejecting the demands of the capitalist system, he emerges at the end of the movie unscathed by the conflict that has left everyone else dead, injured or otherwise scarred.
The Coen Brothers have explored the perspectives of gender and Marxism in their film The Big Lebowski. They explore the theme of society and class to critique how power is derived from wealth in modern classism. Both traditional and subverted binaries of masculinity and femininity are explored by the Brothers, as illustrated through their characterisation. The Big Lebowski is an accurate depiction of a modern capitalistic society and its representations of men and women.
