For months, my social media feed has been infected with these words: “There is an idea of a Patrick Bateman. Some kind of abstraction. But there is no real me…And though I can hide my cold gaze, and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours…I am simply not there.” They weren’t unfamiliar to me, being a massive horror fan and an even bigger “American Psycho” fan.
I’ve seen the movie a dozen times, I’ve read the book thrice and I’ve dressed up as Patrick Bateman for Halloween two years in a row; if anyone could be considered an expert on the subject, I think I’d have a good chance at the title. That’s why it especially confused me when I realized how the words were being used.
Across social media, and especially in traditionally masculine spaces, “American Psycho” and the character of Patrick Bateman has been hailed as a symbol of perfect masculinity that young men should strive to achieve. Bateman’s monologues are dubbed over “motivational” gym content and scenes of him accompanied by attractive women in his lavish apartment (moments before he kills them) are advertised as the ‘ideal lifestyle.’
If this isn’t disturbing to you, then you obviously have no idea what “American Psycho” is about.
Written by Bret Easton Ellis and published in 1991, the novel “American Psycho” follows Patrick Bateman, a wealthy, young investment banker working on Wall Street who kills, tortures and eats people in his free time. Ellis wrote it as a commentary and satirization of the superficiality and rampant consumerism in capitalist societies, specifically the culture of 1980s Wall Street.
When it was adapted into film and directed by Mary Harron in 2000, she added upon these themes with her own satirization of the toxic masculinity that prevailed in these spaces.
It doesn’t take a genius to see why no one, especially young men, should be looking for a role model in Patrick Bateman. Additionally, I started to notice that Patrick Bateman wasn’t being advertised as a role model just anywhere, but specifically online spaces that were big proponents of the “male loneliness epidemic.”
Officially, the “male loneliness epidemic” is a phrase which indicates that men experience a unique type of loneliness based on the pressures society puts on them. In actuality, this phrase is most often used when referring to the relationship between men and women, or the lack thereof; it’s basically synonymous with the idea that girls don’t like good guys anymore.
Along with the fact that studies show the existence of a “male loneliness epidemic” isn’t necessarily true, I think the use of Patrick Bateman as the movement’s role model is the most damning evidence that the ‘male loneliness epidemic’ is partly, if not wholly, self-inflicted.
By prioritizing and looking up to a character such as Patrick Bateman, men are pushed further into isolation by other men, trapping them in a patriarchal cycle of false beliefs.
For example, despite it being basically impossible to generalize what someone finds physically attractive, the idea that women only like guys who have muscles is advertised as the truth. If you were to go outside, you’d see that that’s blatantly false; men of all body types and sizes have girlfriends.
Yet, this idea is still being widely advertised to young men. Men perpetuate the same cycle as Patrick Bateman, following an obsessive workout routine to achieve a harmful version of perfection.
Often, men who subscribe to this harmful version of perfection push it onto others, specifically women, saying that women who don’t look like this impossible standard are ugly and unworthy of attention. They begin to value women solely on appearances, following in the belief of Patrick Bateman that “everything is a commodity, including people.” Women aren’t seen as people, but bodies.
If you were to ask me how to put an end to this “male loneliness epidemic,” I’d tell you one thing: go outside. The “male loneliness epidemic” is a phrase created and perpetuated by social media and content creators who prey on the poor mental state of isolated young men. By falsely guaranteeing them a community that understands their struggles, young men are roped into a larger patriarchal scheme that often results in blatant misogyny and deeper isolation from the real world.
The most important step for breaking free from this “male loneliness epidemic?” Stop looking to Patrick Bateman for lifestyle inspiration.