“You Weakened Him”

Abstract

This article will explore the manner in which the masculinity of Jesus, played by Joaquin Phoenix, is constructed in Mary Magdalene (2018), considering what sort of impression the viewer is left with of Jesus as a man. Framed around the accusation that Peter makes of Mary towards the end of the film when he says to her, ‘You weakened him [Jesus]’, this paper uses theory from Judith Butler and Raewyn Connell to analyse the way in which Jesus’s masculinity is performed. Focusing on the presentation of his body and voice and how these reflect a conflicted sense of identity—particularly with reference to the raising of Lazarus scene—it is argued that Jesus is presented in conventionally ‘unmanly’ ways, but that this contributes to a broadly positive construction of masculinity, as Jesus’s character is performatively aligned with Mary’s.