{"id":14614,"date":"2022-08-31T08:52:18","date_gmt":"2022-08-31T12:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.talkdeath.com\/?p=14614"},"modified":"2022-08-31T08:58:41","modified_gmt":"2022-08-31T12:58:41","slug":"talk-to-me-goose-top-gun-grief-and-toxic-masculinity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/talkdeath.com\/talk-to-me-goose-top-gun-grief-and-toxic-masculinity\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cTalk to Me, Goose\u201d: Top Gun, Grief, and Toxic Masculinity"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the recent success of Top Gun: <\/i>Maverick (2022), I finally decided to watch the original and see what all the fuss was about. Ostensibly, Top Gun <\/i>(1986) is a movie about Pete \u201cMaverick\u201d Mitchell, a hotshot pilot in the US Navy\u2019s elite fighter weapons school, and the lessons he learns as he competes to get the girl and<\/i> the prestigious TOPGUN Trophy.<\/p>\n

But really, Top Gun<\/i> is a movie about grief.<\/p>\n

\u201cTalk to Me, Goose\u201d: Top Gun<\/i>, Grief, and Toxic Masculinity<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Through the eyes of Tom Cruise\u2019s Maverick, we are introduced to the world of the United States Navy Fighter Weapons program \u2013 aka \u201cTOPGUN<\/a>.\u201d The fictional version of this elite fighter weapons school sets up a testosterone-fueled competition to prove one\u2019s aeronautical and sexual prowess that serves as a hotbed of toxic masculinity; a \u201ccultural concept of manliness that glorifies stoicism, strength, virility, and dominance, and that is socially maladaptive or harmful to mental health.\u201d1<\/sup> Throughout the film, we are treated to scenes of locker room posturing, sweaty and hyper-aggressive volleyball games, reckless stunt flying \u2013 like buzzing the control tower \u2013 womanizing, and Maverick\u2019s blatant harassment of female contractor, Charlie Blackwood.<\/p>\n

 Maverick seems constantly to be fighting against the trajectory of his grief, with devastating consequences. <\/span><\/div><\/div><\/strong><\/p>\n

From the start, it\u2019s made apparent that there is already a great deal of grief in Maverick\u2019s life, and that he struggles to grapple with it. Maverick lives under the shadow of his father \u2013 Duke Mitchell \u2013 whose circumspect death has left him without closure. Fellow pilots and TOPGUN instructors alike note that the ambiguous circumstances \u2013 and the clear implication that his father may have been culpable in his own demise \u2013 have a significant impact on Maverick\u2019s actions in the cockpit. \u201cIt\u2019s like you\u2019re flying against a ghost,\u201d his RIO and best friend, Goose, notes at one point. \u201cIt makes me nervous.\u201d2<\/sup><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Grief is a psychospiritual trauma. Just like any physical trauma, it must be tended to and allowed to heal through mourning \u2013 the outward expression of our grief. Instead, Maverick seems constantly to be fighting against<\/i> the trajectory of his grief, with devastating consequences. Trying to out-fly his father\u2019s reputation and loss, Maverick makes an impetuous flight through his wingman\u2019s jet wash during training, throwing their F-14 into a death spiral over the ocean and ultimately resulting in Goose\u2019s death during the subsequent bailout.<\/p>\n

 Not only is Maverick forced to contend with new grief atop the old, but his grief experience is also disenfranchised by his superiors. <\/span><\/div><\/div><\/strong><\/p>\n

While we often associate trauma with sudden and unexpected deaths, all<\/i> deaths have the capacity to traumatize survivors.3<\/sup> And there is no doubt that Goose\u2019s death is traumatic for Maverick \u2013 a new wound atop the old, unhealed ones his parents\u2019 deaths left behind. There are three key factors which play a significant role in the grief experience \u2013 timeliness, preventability, and culpability.4<\/sup> Maverick\u2019s father died young, leaving behind a wife and small child, in what he is led to believe was likely a preventable accident, in which his father was rumored to be at fault. Goose dies young, also leaving behind a wife and small child, in a preventable accident, for which Maverick \u2013 though he is cleared of any wrongdoing \u2013 feels responsible. It is a recipe for traumatic and, potentially, complicated grief.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Not only is Maverick forced to contend with new grief atop the old, but his grief experience is also disenfranchised by his superiors. Disenfranchisement occurs when a loss is not considered to be significant, when the relationship between the bereaved and the deceased is not sanctioned or socially acknowledged, or when grief is otherwise invalidated on the basis of identity.5<\/sup> It denies the bereaved their ability to mourn publicly and receive social support. In the hyper-masculine environment of TOPGUN, the emotional release of open mourning is \u2018unmanly\u2019 and is, therefore, quashed. The most acknowledgement Maverick\u2019s profound loss receives is the brief \u201cI\u2019m sorry about Goose, everybody liked him\u201d that Val Kilmer\u2019s Iceman delivers like he is dragging the words out of himself.<\/p>\n

But Maverick\u2019s grief for his RIO is not only disenfranchised \u2013 it is suffocated<\/i>. Coined by Dr. Tashele Bordere, suffocated grief is not just unacknowledged, but actively punished.6<\/sup> In the aftermath of Goose\u2019s death \u2013 seemingly not even 24 hours later \u2013 Maverick is confronted by his commanding officer, Viper. \u201cYou fly jets long enough, something like this happens,\u201d he\u2019s told. \u201cIn my squadron in Vietnam, we lost 8 of 18 aircraft \u2013 10 men. First one dies, you die too. But there will be others, you can count on it\u2026 You\u2019ve got to let him go.\u201d7<\/sup><\/p>\n

 …the environment of toxic masculinity cultivated in the TOPGUN program disenfranchises and suffocates Maverick\u2019s grief. <\/span><\/div><\/div><\/strong><\/p>\n

Instead of granting Maverick the space and time to grieve, his commanders immediately push for his return to the cockpit and, in the guise of advice, give him an ultimatum \u2013 \u201cshow up tomorrow and graduate with your TOPGUN class, or you can quit.\u201d8<\/sup> And in a community so saturated with competition and machismo<\/i>, is there really any choice at all?<\/p>\n

Not only does the environment of toxic masculinity cultivated in the TOPGUN program disenfranchise and suffocate Maverick\u2019s grief, it creates a mechanism by which the veteran servicemen pass their traumatic grief on to the next generation. At the time Top Gun<\/i> was filmed, actor Tom Skerrit would have been 53; assuming his character \u2013 Viper \u2013 is of a similar age, Maverick\u2019s commanding officer is a man who has grown up in the shadow of three different wars \u2013 World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War where he saw combat. He is not unsympathetic to the effect of Goose\u2019s death, but his answer to the loss is essentially a callous \u201cyou\u2019ll get used to it.\u201d It is a picture of intergenerational trauma, passed from the Boomer generation of servicemen to the new generation of Gen X recruits in a vicious cycle of disenfranchisement, repression, and suffocation of grief in ways that prevent community healing through trauma- and grief-work.9<\/sup><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Even when Maverick is provided with the long-sought truth of his father\u2019s death, the motivation behind this revelation is not to foster healing or provide him with closure. Instead, it is used as a tool with which to motivate a man grappling with the festering, old wounds of unhealed loss on top of the fresh trauma of losing his best friend in an environment where emotional insight and expressiveness is ground out in favor of stoicism and aggressive action. Essentially, Maverick is goaded into \u201csoldiering on\u201d without the opportunity, ability, or appropriate outlets through which he might manage his grief.<\/p>\n

Top Gun<\/i> is, ultimately, a story of grief deferred.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/span>Footnotes:<\/div>
\n

1-\u201cToxic Masculinity\u201d https:\/\/www.dictionary.com\/browse\/toxic-masculinity<\/a><\/p>\n

2-Top Gun (1986)<\/p>\n

3-\u201cGrief After Traumatic Loss\u201d https:\/\/whatsyourgrief.com\/traumatic-loss\/<\/a><\/p>\n

4-\u201cSudden Loss Grief: The Shock, The Trauma, The Ways to Cope with an Unexpected Death\u201d https:\/\/eterneva.com\/blog\/sudden-loss<\/a>\/<\/p>\n

5-Doka, K. \u201cDisenfranchised Grief: New Directions, Challenges, and Strategies for Practice\u201d<\/p>\n

6-https:\/\/play.acast.com\/s\/deardougypodcastconversationsaboutgriefandloss\/d6ceec93-8550-49b4-97a9-ba16f6ea156d<\/a><\/p>\n

7-Top Gun (1986)<\/p>\n

8-Top Gun (1986)<\/p>\n

9-\u201cIntergenerational Trauma – Legacies of Loss\u201d https:\/\/www.socialworktoday.com\/archive\/051214p18.shtml<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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