Constructing Hegemonic Masculinity as Racialized Paternal Authority: Black Fatherhood in King Richard (2021)

This study examines the representation of hegemonic masculinity in King Richard (2021) through the character of Richard Williams as a Black father. It aims to identify the forms of hegemonic masculinity represented in the film and analyze how they are constructed through Richard’s paternal position. This study employs a descriptive qualitative design and theory-driven thematic analysis based on R. W. Connell’s theory of hegemonic masculinity. The data consist of selected scenes, dialogue, actions, decisions, and character interactions involving Richard Williams. Five representative scenes are presented to demonstrate the principal analytical categories, while the construction of Richard’s masculinity as a Black father is examined through an interpretive synthesis of these findings. The analysis identifies five interconnected forms of hegemonic masculinity: leadership, discipline and control, responsibility and protection, institutional negotiation, and racialized paternal authority. Richard’s masculinity is constructed primarily through planning, rule-making, protection, decision-making, and negotiation rather than physical aggression. Racialized paternal authority emerges as the dominant finding because it connects Richard’s power within his family with his racial visibility, working-class position, and marginalization within professional tennis. The study concludes that the film both challenges and legitimizes Richard’s dominance by representing his hegemonic masculinity as a negotiated form of paternal authority that is simultaneously controlling and protective, dominant and marginalized, contested and socially legitimized.