Questioning Bauer's Masculinity With Dr. Freud

Freud would begin to describe Jack Bauer’s masculinity by looking closely at his perversions and transformations coinciding with puberty. During said time of puberty one undergoes an omnipotence of sexuality that basically alters and then controls one’s needs, desires, and social practices. By taking a look at each of these aspects of Bauer’s life, Freud would be able to determine his masculinity (we’ll overlook the present-day perspective).

Freud explains that many people have phallocentric views, and I would argue the same for Jack Bauer. Even though I have not seen more than two episodes of the show, it seems to me that Bauer is empowered by his sense of masculinity, like most men. And because of this, they are afraid to lose their masculinity to that of another male. This may be apparent in Bauer’s line of work for the US government, where the jobs are often given out in ascending rank format. Any male or female can move up or down in the system, but the higher up an individual is, the more power one receives, and that is seen as phallocentric in itself; Bauer’s masculinity is definitely determined because of his placement in his line of work.

Freud could also say that Bauer’s masculinity is also determined by his relationship with his wife. I don’t really know where they stand with each other, but in the pilot episode it seemed to me that they were very unhappy with the relationship circumstance they found themselves in. Toward the end of the pilot episode, the Bauer’s wife befriends one of her daughter’s friend’s father, and this clues in to something they may or may not be occurring between the two of them. In this way, Bauer’s masculinity could be threatened if the other father somehow seduces his wife. In this way he probably overcompensates for the bad relationship he has with his wife to produce more masculine work, such as killing people and stopping explosions, etc.

As it stands, Bauer’s masculinity is determined by many different variables—all of which seemingly changing in time.