The movie Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) features one of the most challenging and subversive representations of masculinity through a character named Waymond Wang. Usually, when we think of the perfect man, we think of someone who’s tall, muscular, stoic, assertive, and powerful. Waymond is almost the complete opposite of this. He’s short, not particularly muscular, vulnerable, meek, lenient, and timid. His wife Evelyn, the main character, is aware of this and resents him for it for almost the entirety of the film. She at first, as many of us did during our first watch, saw him as weak and useless because the movie has her say things like “Sometimes I wonder how he would have survived without me” and “My silly husband, probably making things worse.” Evelyn downplays every decision and action he makes and since the movie is set in her perspective, we see and understand the same thing she seemingly does: that Waymond Wang is a weak naive softie.
However, towards the end of the movie, there is a complete shift in perspective. As Evelyn experiences multiple universes at the same time, Waymond from another universe reveals why he is the way he is. In one of the most beautiful and impactful scenes in cinema, he lets her know that he is aware of how people view him, reminding her that her father once said that he was “too sweet for his own good,” and then explains to her that when he chooses to see the good side of things, he’s not being naive, but that what he does is strategic and necessary. It’s how he’s learned to survive through everything. He tells her that in the cruel world that we live in, he fights by choosing to be kind. And so, in the middle of a multiversal fight and after getting stabbed in the stomach by his own wife, he still fights to protect her: he faces the people who are trying to kill Evelyn and begs everyone to be kind.
Though Waymond isn’t your typical male protagonist and exhibits more feminine traits, we come to comprehend that there is so much power in his way of thinking because it’s through this kinder and empathetic approach to problems that Evelyn is able to save herself from spiralling into madness, as well as save the villain instead of defeating them.
I think that Waymond’s representation of masculinity was such an important one because throughout history, men have often been made fun of and ridiculed when they deviate from the ideal traditional man. Through his character, people are able to see that men can be so much more as well as simply just different and still be valuable or important. Films that include and promote male characters like Waymond gives the exposure needed for us to broaden our collective definition of masculinity and make men who don’t necessarily adhere to the current one feel more accepted and seen.
Fight Clubs/Night Clubs 