This guest post by Cameron Airen appears as part of our theme week on Masculinity.
Our dominant culture tends to subscribe to the notion that “masculinity” belongs to males and that “femininity” belongs to females. This makes it hard to recognize masculinity in females, thus a lot of female masculinity in film and TV goes unrecognized. The show Dexter challenges gender norms and stereotypes.
Its most masculine character is Dexter’s sister, Deborah Morgan. Deb is a carnivorous, straight, tough girl who catches “bad guys” for a living. She wears masculine clothing, is demanding, takes control and is the “hottest potty mouth in the South,” as her co-worker Masuka puts it. All of these traits could be considered stereotypically masculine.
Dexter Morgan, on the other hand, is not a character that I would describe as either masculine or feminine. Though he presents as male, he’s more gender neutral. His true identity is one of a serial killer, and most serial killers are male; however, Dexter doesn’t seem to have any kind of gender identity or is attached to one in any way. He is completely clueless to gender social norms and wears a mask, one of the “nice guy.”
However, it’s not a complete mask since Dexter is “nice” deep down. Dexter is affected by those who kill and harm others, and cares about those closest to him. His father, Harry, taught him to channel his darkness into something better, giving killers what he thinks they deserve: death. But, Dexter has no intention of harming those he sees as good, people who don’t kill, with a few exceptions that show how complex binary ideas of good/bad are. In order to hide this darkness, Dexter needs to try to fit in and present as more “normal,” strong advice that Harry gave him.
Part of Dexter’s gender-neutrality is that he’s far from macho; he is a lab geek after all. But he’s not exactly a hearts and flowers kind of person either. This gives him an interesting balance of masculine and feminine traits. And his naiveté prevents him giving into any sexist thoughts or beliefs, which is refreshing for a male character.
Dexter doesn’t seem to prize masculinity over femininity or maleness over femaleness in any way. Deb’s an insightful detective who earns success and honor as she moves up in leadership positions as the show progresses. She’s given the same opportunities and respect as her male counterparts, even more since she attains more power and prestige. Dexter becomes more in touch with his “human” side including his feelings that balance out the monster within him. I would argue that Dexter has been human all along and just lacked awareness of his feelings of love and compassion toward others. In any case, Dexter becoming more in touch with his feelings could be seen as becoming more in touch with his femininity, which is why his character is a balance of masculine and feminine.
There is a lot of pressure for women to marry and have children and it can show up onscreen as well, but not in Dexter. While Deb dates a variety of men, she doesn’t marry any of them. Although she comes close, there is no pressure for her to “settle down.” All of the men she dates seem to accept Deb for who she is, not trying to change her or wanting her to be more feminine than she is. Deb has a strong sexuality and casual sex is a normal part of life to her. In most of her sex scenes, she is the one literally on top, which we don’t often see with women onscreen when they’re having sex with men. In addition, Deb doesn’t have children, nor does she seem to want any. Whether Deb wants or doesn’t want children was never a topic for discussion.
Men don’t have as much pressure placed upon them to marry and have children. However, this was a big part of Dexter’s journey. Dexter’s “nice guy” is successful with women. He ends up marrying and having a child with Rita. Dexter even began dating Rita when she already had two children of her own. This didn’t bother Dexter one bit; he likes children and is good with them. When Dexter’s biological son came along, it was important to him to be a good father and that became a focus of his character. After season 4, Dexter becomes a single parent, and embraces the responsibility (as much as he can as a blood analyst and killer).
Dexter also challenges violence as an inherently male trait, questioning this kind of “masculinity.” Dexter’s violence is shaped by the man who killed his mother, which he witnessed when he was 3 years old. Knowing that his son had and would continue to kill, Harry taught him to follow a strict code that only allowed Dexter to kill “bad” people. Instead of being chaotic, spontaneous, and killing out of pure rage, Dexter developed a more methodical approach. He is a neat monster who creates a pristine kill room with everything clean, tidy and in its place. All of this could be seen as a more feminine kind of control. Though Dexter has created a structure to help keep his killing habits a secret, he is not always able to maintain control.
Another role in society that men are expected to play is one of protector. Men’s role to protect their families and loved ones puts a lot of unrealistic pressure on them. Dexter feels an enormous pull to protect those he loves but ultimately fails in huge ways. In this way, the show doesn’t give us the impossible superhero character that men are supposed to be. Instead, it reveals to us how men are human just like women–how Dexter is human just like anyone else and cannot always be expected to play superman.
But men aren’t the only protectors and heroes as Dexter clearly shows. While Dexter may be killing off “bad” guys, Deb saves the day too. In season 6, episode 2, Deb’s asshole male boss, Deputy Chief Matthews, calls her a “hero” for stopping a random shooting in a restaurant. As a result, she was promoted to lieutenant.
Throughout much of the series, Deb thinks Dexter is the “strong one” who has always been there for her. It’s not until Season 5, episode 1 when her story starts to turn upside down. When Deb finally lets her bottled up tears fall, her partner Detective Quinn tells her that he sees her as the “strong one,” not Dexter. This moment confirmed the rock that Deb has always been, even though she saw Dexter as her rock. This becomes even more apparent in season 7, when Deb finds out that her brother is a serial killer. Deb then becomes the “protector,” as conflicted as she is about it, and tries to protect anyone from finding out about Dexter’s darkness. And she succeeds. While Dexter couldn’t ultimately protect most of his loved ones, Deb did ultimately protect the person she loved most.
It’s important to recognize female masculinity onscreen because it’s often ignored, yet there’s plenty of it. It’s equally important to recognize male characters who have a balance of masculinity and femininity but that isn’t explicitly defined as such. Dexter comes off as more gender neutral because Dexter portrays the gender balance of masculine and feminine as human, as getting more in touch with one’s humanness and individual self. The terms “masculinity” and “femininity” aren’t easily defined and Dexter shows just how complex they are. In fact, the terms are difficult to use in relation to Dexter because of how much the show challenges gender norms and constructs. At the very least, Dexter is a great example of redefining these terms, but is perhaps more of an example of how it might not be necessary to use them at all.
Cameron Airen is a queer feminist with an M.A. in Anthropology and Social Change who is passionate about women and gender in film/TV. When she’s not binge watching, Cameron is experimenting in her kitchen with (mostly) vegan food in Berkeley, Calif. You can follow her on Twitter @cameronairen.