‘A gay man’s satire on masculinity’: Mary Harron hits the nail on the head with Wall Street bros’ idolization of Patrick Bateman
Men love to misunderstand Patrick Bateman. It’s happened since the book, American Psycho, was released in 1991. The film 10 years later made it worse and the cycle continues. Now, director Mary Harron is weighing in.
American Psycho brings us into the Wall Street world of Patrick Bateman, a 27 year-old man obsessed with his looks, clothing, status, and even his business cards. Oh and he maybe is a serial killer. It was director Bret Easton Ellis’ manifestation of his hatred of New York City and the elite attitude of the Wall Street bros, as they are un-affectionately known as. One of our great satires, the book spawned into a widely loved film by Harron, who co-wrote it with Guinevere Turner.
It is, in a lot of ways, a perfect piece of media. As someone who finds great joy in interacting with it as a piece, I always find a new layer to unpack. But one thing has been clear from the very beginning: Patrick Bateman is no hero or “icon.” He’s the embodiment of toxic masculinity and the dangers it poses.
Which is why it is baffling that there are men in this world that think Patrick Bateman is a character they can idolize and try to emulate. If you think I am being dramatic, I saw American Psycho the musical and a man was dressed up like Bateman and when I asked him about it, he said that he really loved what he stood for. That is horrendous and terrifying and I haven’t stopped thinking about that man. And Wall Street guys love to misunderstand this piece of media.
Even Mary Harron doesn’t understand these guys
Harron was speaking with Letterboxd Journal about the weird obsession men have with Patrick Bateman. As I am on to say, if a man says American Psycho is their favorite movie, I have a million follow-up questions. I quite frankly do not think a man can just say they love it without telling me he understands the themes present in Ellis’ work and Harron’s film.
Not to make this a gendered thing but women do tend to understand and engage with American Psycho in a more nuanced way because we are often the target of toxic masculinity. Which is why it is so baffling that SO many men, particularly those who work in Wall Street, see Bateman as someone to look up to. Harron said she was “mystified by it.”
She went on to share that the love these men have was never part of their goal. “I don’t think that [co-writer Guinevere Turner] and I ever expected it to be embraced by Wall Street bros, at all. That was not our intention. So, did we fail? I’m not sure why [it happened], because Christian Bale’s very clearly making fun of them… But, people read the Bible and decide that they should go and kill a lot of people. People read The Catcher in the Rye and decide to shoot the president… there’s [Patrick] being handsome and wearing good suits and having money and power,” Harron said. “But at the same time, he’s played as somebody dorky and ridiculous. When he’s in a nightclub and he’s trying to speak to somebody about hip hop—it’s so embarrassing when he’s trying to be cool.”
Taking it back to the source
I have my own issues with Bret Easton Ellis, as many do. But it is undeniable that I am drawn to his novels. Less Than Zero and American Psycho are two pieces of media that mean a great deal to me and I think part of my draw to them is that Ellis often puts his frustration with things into his work and then doesn’t realize the brilliance he’s created. That’s certainly the case (in my opinion) with American Psycho and Harron really gets why the novel works.
She told the publication that she viewed the novel as “a gay man’s satire on masculinity.” And it is true and you can see that in her adaptation of it as well. “[Ellis] being gay allowed him to see the homoerotic rituals among these alpha males, which is also true in sports, and it’s true in Wall Street, and all these things where men are prizing their extreme competition and their ‘elevating their prowess’ kind of thing,” she said. “There’s something very, very gay about the way they’re fetishizing looks and the gym.”
Harron then said that American Psycho is “about a predatory society,” and to make matters even more dire, she pointed out something that I have been saying: Unfortunately Patrick Bateman’s story is timelier than ever in today’s society. “The rich are much richer, the poor are poorer. I would never have imagined that there would be a celebration of racism and white supremacy, which is basically what we have in the White House. I would never have imagined that we would live through that.”
American Psycho continues to fascinate me, I just wish that these men would realize that when we call out the toxic men of the world and they idolize Bateman? We’re talking about them.
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