Punch-Drunk Love exposes the complexity and kitsch superficialities of masculine gender constructions. Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, this film deconstructs masculine gender performance without pretending to offer overly simplistic alternatives. The following is an exploratory essay that asks what kind of masculinity Punch-Drunk Love represents. If it is true that men no longer hold the patriarchal sway on a domestic level, then how is masculine gender constructed? In order to elucidate the relationship between the film and postpatriarchal masculinity, we will need to explicate an approach to gender and masculinity in general. Having explored postpatriarchy, we can then begin to address what this contemporary film tells us about the possibility of a punch-drunk masculinity.

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