Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010) is rich in its examination of masculinity, which seamlessly explains Judith Butler’s theories on gender performativity using its protagonist, Greg Heffley, as its instrument.
The choice to start the story when Greg begins middle school is a conscious one, as it marks a time when he is socially expected to shrug off some of the characteristics of childhood and begin his transition to adulthood. However, to Greg’s horror, several of his peers have hit puberty over the summer, and he finds himself dwarfed and comparatively hairless. Throughout the film, we see this angst at his perceived physiological inferiority remedied by a meticulous adherence to social rules, which he believes will guide him to social esteem.
Greg’s best friend Rowley is his clearest foil due to his own lack of social inhibitions, which prompts Greg to label him as “not middle school-ready.” In Rowley’s case, this missing reticence allows him to demonstrate qualities traditionally viewed as feminine; this includes his affection for his mother, the nurturing attention he pays to the kindergarteners he walks home, and his love of European pop stars. He is also in no hurry to grow up, unwittingly embarrassing Greg by asking him to “play” with him. Greg, in contrast, finds it impossible to derive joy from the mundanity of middle school life. He is constantly looking towards a future where he is rich, successful, and admired, and he views social capital as a means to attaining this dream. He measures this social capital by ranking himself and others on an imaginary social scale (with the liberated Rowley leagues lower than him, of course).
While he is a socially obsessed narcissist, Greg has not constructed this system which he so forcefully adheres to on his own—even adults rank the children thus. In a particularly revealing phys-ed scene, Greg’s teacher divides the class into the “weak” and the “strong” (re: pubescent), sadistically forcing Greg’s ragtag crew of socially impotent beta males to play shirtless in a game called “Gladiator,” where the weaker boys are forced to run from the larger kids, or else be ruthlessly tackled by them.
Greg cannot metamorphosize into a 6’5” hairy megalith to avoid his social categorization, yet he can transcend it much in the way Rowley has. His devotion to a masculine ideal, however, prevents him from doing this throughout the rising action of the film. Instead, Greg spends much of the film striving towards the unattainable. He joins wrestling, but is put in a weight category known as the “chihuahuas”—yet another blow to his masculine ego. To make matters worse, a girl also bests him in wrestling, further emasculating him. It is only at the end of the film that Greg shrugs off these masculine expectations in favour of his own happiness. At the movie’s climax, a jeering crowd urges Greg and Rowley to fight each other, representing the toxic masculinity that Greg was attempting to emulate. Both he and Rowley are reluctant to throw punches, and are mercifully interrupted before doling out too much damage. After this scene, Greg chooses social death over losing his friendship with Rowley. After an exhausting year of social schemes to prove himself to his peers, Greg ends his quest. Rather than framing Greg as a defeat, Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010) finally gives viewers a Greg Heffley that reigns victorious over the oppressive binary of gender that looms over us all.
