“Why Should The Boys Have All The Fun?”: Hegemonic Masculinity and the Representation of Women in Peaky Blinders (2013-2022)

Abstract

[eng] Masculinity has become an extensively discussed topic since Raewyn Connell’s publication of Masculinities in 1993. This paper will draw on the concept of hegemonic masculinity, first discussed by Connell, to analyze the representation of the protagonists in Peaky Blinders (2013-2022), a British crime drama television series set in Birmingham in aftermath of the First World War. The paper will focus on the subplot that narrates the socio-political struggles of women. For that reason, an indepth analysis of Polly Shelby, the matriarch of the family, will be carried out. Her role as a competing force to the protagonist will be explored to eventually evidence the progress of women’s liberation that took place at the turn of the century. This paper argues that she successfully mimics some of the traits associated with hegemonic masculinity and adopts them to gain agency and public space.