Introduction to your Critical Investigation essay Q: To what extent, does 'Moonlight' subvert hyper-masculine representation of Black men in film?
There have been numerous amounts of studies addressing the issues on the representation of women in media, leading to findings of countless evidence of stereotypical and narrow roles which play on effect the audiences perception of gender. However, the issues concerning representations of men in the media and research for it is limited and hasn't gained analysis to raise a generalised conclusion. This study will explore how different masculinity are presented, in award-winning movie 'Moonlight' dir. by Barry Kenkins, and measure the extent of "hypermasculinity-exaggerated and marginalised masculine qualities". Lughey states that ‘‘Ethnic minorities are continually misrepresented by racial (and racist) stereotypes.” which 'Moonlight' tries to do by subverting mages typically seen in film about Black men and the communities, but, Jenkins also reinforces these stereotypical scenes as stereotypes which can be "true and positive" (Perkins) are able to picture a realistic representation of people. This essay will go onto to explore the portrayal of the no-typical homosexual Black men seen in the movie referencing the hyper masculine images formed of Black males in Blaxloitation films and how such traits have been used for to create generic Black male roles and such movies focusing on the coming of age of a gay Black man are dissimilar in the face of a mainstream white Hollywood film. This study will also look at 'Queer Theory' and how this can be applied to 'Moonlight' as the theory would state how "representations of sexuality in mainstream pop culture continues to rampantly homosexual" which can be applied to the movie but does having a gay man directing change this view and depictions of a Gay Black man. Thus, this essay will outline complexities of the Black male image in film and using 'queer theory' to show the extent of subversion of hyper masculinity in 'Moonlight'.
QUESTION: To what extent, does 'Moonlight' subvert hyper-masculine representation of Black men in film?
Introduction:
Brief discussion of hyper masculinity and 'Moonlight', leading into first section.
Quotations:
"In the dark Black boys shine blue" -Barry Jenkins 'Moonlight'
"Despite some important advances in gay and lesbian visibility in media culture in recent years, representations of sexuality in mainstream pop culture continueto be, for the most part, rampantly heterosexual." - Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Critical Reader By Gail Dines, Jean McMahon Humez
"Butler argues that gender is performative.She says that no identity exists behind the acts or performance that express gender, and these acts constitute the illusion of the stable gender identity".
·‘‘Ethnic minorities are continually misrepresented by racial (and racist) stereotypes.”-Laughey, D. (2009). p. 78.
Section 1: Hyper-masculinity and the connection to 'Moonlight' (300)
What is hyper masculinity
Connections of Hyper masculinity to men and it's representations
Interpretations of -in media
Section 2: Textual analysis
Summary of 'Moonlight'
Separate paragraph on textual analysis
Representations of Black men
Quotations:
“My argument is that black film makers nessicarily have to deal with two moments in American film history, the period of Birt Of A Nation and the period of Blaxploitation films. These films offer a corrective re-coding of representations in Black films”-Boys, Boyz, Bois: An Ethics of Black Masculinity in Film and Popular Media
Stereotypes have a complex relationship to ‘reality’. While stereotypes may be partial, they are not necessarily false: they generally control a grain of the truth- Calvert, B. Casey, B. Casey, N. French, L. Lewis, J. (2002). p. 168.
“Stereotypes are thus neither neutral nor fair, preventing the examination of differences within groups”-Williams, K. (2003). p. 130
"Men of color held in esteem by the media, while entirely worthy of praise, too often personify a circumscribed spectrum of human qualities. Prowess in sports, physical achievement in general and musicality are emphasized inordinately. Common role models depicted by the media such as rap or hip-hop stars and basketball players imply limited life choices. When is the last time you have seen a black college professor, doctor, lawyer or scientist selling a product?”
Theories/ Key Words.
Levis Strauss - Binary Oppositions
Alvarado
Barthes - Action Codes
Stuart Hall - Dominate Reading of Jolie's character
Todorov narrative structure - this scene establishes the disequilibrium
Liberal Values
Subverting social boundaries
A Feminist Icon
Generic conventions
Alternative representation
(R,M,I,G,A)(S)
Section 2A:
Analysis of characters
Separate paragraph on issues/debates - linking back to my question.
Cinematography in the film
Theories/ Key Words
Mulvey
Dominate ideologies
Patriarchy
Narrative pleasures
Reinforcing stereotypes
Primary audience - males
Dominate Representation
(R,M,I) (H,P)
Quotations:
To understand “black film” in this context is to insist that any film worthy of the label do significant work toward identifying, condemning, and dismantling systemic and institutional racism. It also necessarily opens the door for “fellow travelers”—political allies who are not black—to make “black film.” - Thirteen ways of looking at Black film (2014)- Heather Ashley Hates and Gilbert B. Rodman
Section 3: Historical Context
Links to Blaxploitation films
Shaft
'Boyz N the Hood'
Black male representations in films
'Bear' ??
- Reading of Boyz N the Hood
-Reading Bear
-Differences
Theories/Key Words
Levis Strauss - Binary oppositions
Alvarado
Stuart Hall - Dominate Reading
Todorov - Narrative Structure
Propp - Character Roles
Barthes - Action Codes
Matriarchy
Quotations:
‘there is social prohibition against the feminization of men, there is almost none against the masculinisation of women.’ - Macdonald, M. (1995).Representing women: myths of femininity in the popular media. London: E. Arnold ;. P215
“the general struggles any new medium has to go through before it gains wide social acceptance.” - Nielsen, S., Smith, J. H., & Tosca, S. P. (2008). Video Game Culture. Understanding video games: the essential introduction (p. 138). New York: Routledge.
Media stereotyping occurs when the roles and behaviour on personal characteristics of a particular group are portrayed in a limited fashion” - Williams, K. (2003). p. 131.
·‘‘Ethnic minorities are continually misrepresented by racial (and racist) stereotypes.”-Laughey, D. (2009). p. 78.
·“The stereotype as the "criminal black man", because people associate young black men with crime in American culture. She writes that the black male is portrayed as a "symbolic pillager of all that is good” Russell-Brown, p. 84.
"My argument is that black film makers necessarily have to deal with two moments in American film history, the period of Birt Of A Nation and the period of Blaxploitation films. These films offer a corrective re-coding of representations in Black films”-Boys, Boyz, Bois: An Ethics of Black Masculinity in Film and Popular Media
"First, many blaxploitation films were traditional genre films. However, the movies did not exploit specific events. Instead, blaxploitation films often included an intertextual relay within the narrative that focused no past and present issues plaguing America's black population."
Relavant thories:
Liberal values
Challenging the male stereotypes
Levis Strauss binary oppositions - masculine vs feminine (Society expectations of women in the 90's was to be feminine, however the Black character don't challenge dominate expectations by embracing her masculinity.)
Propp narrative roles
Perkins - Stereotypes are not always negative, establish elements of the truth.
Alternative representation
Section 4: The Queer Theory
Summary of the Queer theory
Affects on media from this theory
Censorship and it's problems
Black LGBT+ representation and awareness
Hyper-masculinity in jeopardy
Subversion of Gender roles
Quotations:
"'Queer' is used to describe the non-straight work, positions, pleasures, and readings of people who either don't share the same 'sexual orientation' as that articulated in the texts they are producing or responding to … or who don't define themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual (or straight, for that matter)"
"which explore, discuss or portray some aspect or feature of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or transgender experience, or sexual identity."
"post-structuralist theory and emerged in the early 1990s, alongside Women’s Studies - although Queer Theory is seen to have started in the 1970s. The theory includes both queer readings of texts and the theory itself."
" representation of an ill-fated love affair between two men,Making Love(1982) would not qualify as queer because it reinforces rather than challenges codes of heteronormativity by stereotyping gay behavior and by focusing upon the homosexual act as a disruption of the heterosexually based institution of marriage."
"Demonstrating the impossibility of any “natural” sexuality, it calls into question even such apparently unproblematic terms as “man” and “woman”"- Annamarie Jagose
"secured a wide, but not saturated release reflecting changes in society and the liberalisation of attitudes towards homosexuality (more and more US States are recognising same sex marriages although change is slow)
The debates surrounding popular culture representations of gayness became increasingly politicized." - Encyclopedia of gay and lesbian popular culture By Luca Prono
"Film actors have an aspirational quality that makes passive consumption by younger male audiences much more of a possibility"
""Not much has changed since the 1970s when, as an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan, I conducted a study of two metropolitan Detroit dailies’ coverage of the 1967 urban riots."
'TV drama features multiple lesbians, or looks beyond explicit sexual behaviour. Indeed, studies show that in the 20 most popular TV shows watched by young people, only 4.5% of the total programme time includes LGBT characters. For this reason, when shows feature multiple lesbian characters they are seen as a TV ‘event’, and this may immediately estrange audiences.' -Media Magazine 53
Conclusion:(100 words)
Extent of portrayal of Black males in 'Moonlight' using evidence from previous paragraphs as back up.
-Reinforce point about Hyper masculinity either being subverted or reinforced
-Why it gained so much attention within communities
-Subventions of Enforcing
-Overall message of the movie
Q:
“Stereotypes are thus neither neutral nor fair, preventing the examination of differences within groups”-Williams, K. (2003). p. 130
·"As
previously noted, black exploitation films are defined as motion pictures made by both black and white filmmakers between 1970 and 75 in
order to exploit the black film audience.
·"First,
many blaxploitation films were traditional genre films. However, the movies did
not exploit specific events. Instead, blaxploitation films often included an
intertextual relay within the narrative that focused no past and present issues
plaguing America's black population."
·"Gender based arguments have insisted that because women bear children,
therefore they should be the ones to stay at home .." p94
·"Gender
roles in magazines and advertising, for example, show that women are still
represented according to long standing cultural stereotypes .." p95
·"Women
were repeatedly represented shown as housewives, moths, home makers while men
were often represented in situations of authority and dominance .." p95
·"What
are needed are more realistic portrayal (e.g of women) since the media are said to reflect
society, and such reflections should always be accurate" p96
·"The
term post-feminism suggest that we are now beyond the need to struggle for
gender equality.." P96
·"Stereotype serve to naturalize the power
relationships in society; they have a hegemonic function" p39
·"Representation
and stereotypes serve to reinforce the dominate ideological views .." p143
·"The
action movie of the 1980's and 1990's has also introduced an interesting
variant on on the traditional representation of gender: women
as heroes" pg218
·"The
conclusion of Terminator 2 offers hope for the future: is this hope because
women are gaining more power in society? pg218
Black Demons: The Media's
Depiction of the African American Male Criminal Stereotype
·
“I was told that all back men were inherently aggressive and violent”
·“Many
fulfill white American’s image of them legitimately by becoming successful
gangsta rappers; others fulfill this image illegitimately by becoming
‘baaad-ass ni**ers’ Rappers therefore reinforce the popular belief that as
‘baaad-ass ni**ers’ young blacks can achieve fame, a recognition and a sense of
being (somebody). If they lose however they face a long stay in our jails and
prisons or even bodily injury and death.”
·“Studies
indicate that African American teenagers are aware that they are stigmatized as
being intellectually inferior and that they go to school bearing what
psychologist Claude Steele has called a ‘burden of suspicion’. Such a
burden can affect their attitudes and achievement.” –
-This quote shows that as
long as these stereotypes continue in society and are reinforced black males
will continue to believe that they are inferior which may decrease their
performance academically because the repetition in society has made them
believe they are below average or ‘destined to fail’ which affects their
self-confidence as youths.
·“According
to Russell…Blacks are the repository for the american fear of crime. Ask
anyone, to picture a criminal, and the image will have a black face. The link
between blackness and criminality and routinized by terms such as
‘black-on-black crime’ and ‘black crime’.”
·“Each
year, whites account for almost seventy percent of the total arrests, and they
today compromise about forty percent of the prison population. When the media
does connect someone white with a crime, for example serial murderer Jeffrey
Dahmer it does not implicate the entire white race. It is notable that phrases
such as ‘white crime’ and ‘white-on-white’ crime are not part of our public
lexicon on crime.”
·“On
television, half of all murder suspects arrested by the police are African
American, suggesting unequivocally that television has a long way to go before
achieving an accurate portrayal of murder suspects.”
·“Similar
to television, news coverage is yet another major source of information on
crime that influences society in defining what crime is and who is a criminal.”
·“Existing
research examining news coverage of the African American community reveals
disturbing biases and patterns of blatant distortion at the hands of the
nation’s largest and most respected print and broadcast media.”
Radicalized Politics: The Debate
about Racism in America- David O. Sears, Jim
Sidanius, Lawrence Bobo
Racism in America but not through just society but politically in
America. Black people in society are not valued as much in the place of work
and neither are other ethnic minorities, this would link to my investigation to
highlight how peoples ideology of other ethnic minorities effects them not only
in society but the place of work and are seen to be inferior wherever they go.
Porter, M. (2006). Rap and the eroticizing of black youth.
Chicago, IL: African American Images
Page xi - “miseducation and racism has
given rise to black poverty, crime, and other destructive behaviour”
People are not being educated when it comes to
black people in society when it comes to their lifestyle and the way that they
live. There are certain situations that they are in which causes them to feel
like the only way for them to survive is to do things which are illegal or go
into rap as they've been raised by the lyrics and similar life experiences that
the rappers have lived. When people are informed about black people and crime
it is seen as it was their fault and doesn't consider the external factors that
could've caused this to happen such as the area they're in, family life and
other factors. Maybe this is the reason rap has such a big impact is because
people look up to it and live their lifestyle according to that.
Page 6 - “negative rap songs and their accompanying
videos often instil erotic sadism in the black male child”
The rap videos that people are viewing will
initially influence them to recreate that exact lifestyle or bring the lyrics
to life such as selling drugs or killing people to gain recognition or the
glamour which is supposedly received when doing so in a rap song or video. This
is why people start to dress like thugs and behave in a particular manner which
the police see to be threatening or stereotypically accurate. This is why they
may go and search those who fit this stereotypical image to prevent anything
like this from happening.
Magazines:
Media Magazine: December 2008
Issue 26: Film
·"They seem to embody some core elements of
intense masculinity and femininity which attract the global audience" P21
·"Men
and women can identify with many characters during the spectacle of a
film" P21
·"Tasker
rejects the rigid idea of a male/female binary cinema spectator ship" P22
·"Can
enjoy the pleasure of the cinema and identify with who we want to regardless of
gender" P22
·"Angelina
Jolie is as heroic and skilled as Brad Pitt"P22
·"Traditional
film theory would use gender based assumptions to analyse the position of the audience in relation to this
text"P22
·"Viewers
can identify with either Pitt of Jolie, or both, a process she has termed
perverse identification" P22
·"This extortionary twist allows for spectacular and violent action
sequences, where the viewer could potentially perversely identify with either
Pritt of Jolie" P22
Media magazine 32
'The films of Cohen seem to have a slightly more positive representation
of homosexuality.'
In the movie bruno it is about Sacha Baron Cohen playing a gay
Austriann looking for fame in America. Sacha Baron has does many gay positive
scenes in his movies like Borat and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky
Bobby where he plays a gay character and kisses Will Ferrel character at the
end.
'The wrestling match where Bruno and his assistant end up passionately kissing in front of a jeering,
psychotic, angry crowd shows the awfulness of some American attitudes to homosexuality.'
The stereotype can be sometimes too much as for the celebrity want to show
positive gay people he exaggerates the stereotype to much in the movie.
'Bruno, on the other hand, is not a very nice character. He is a
highly-exaggerated stereotype of a fashion-obsessed homosexual. His sex life is portrayed as an exhibition of
twisted creativity and shocking acts of depravity; an exercise bike with a dildo attached, a chair
that catapults his midget partner into him'
Media magazine 53
'TV drama features multiple lesbians, or looks beyond explicit sexual
behaviour. Indeed, studies show that in the 20 most popular TV shows watched by
young people, only 4.5% of the total programme time includes LGBT characters.
For this reason, when shows feature multiple lesbian characters they are seen
as a TV ‘event’, and this may immediately estrange audiences.'
This represents the views on television as to the type of characters
they have used, the characters in the shows that are LGBT are very not common
in Tv series but it is going to be pushed as to old TV shows like Ellen and
Buffy the vampire slayer had Lesbians. Also the sitcom Happy endings had a gay
character which lead for 3 seasons. This is to represent the percentage of a
programme and it shows that it is not a big percentage but it will increase
over time.
The identity side of the equation depends on the
notion that “race” is a natural phenomenon that can be used to accurately place
the peoples of the world into discrete, non-overlapping categories.
In
actual practice, however, such categories vary significantly over time and
across space—which makes them cultural and historical fictions, rather than
universal, scientific facts. Moreover, as the growing population of
self-identified multiracial people, should remind us, those categories overlap
a great deal. Racial identity is more of a finely granulated spectrum than a
simple binary choice, which, in turn, makes it impossible to anchor the
identity end of the essentialism equation with any precision. To
understand “black film” in this context is to insist that any film worthy of
the label do significant work toward identifying, condemning, and dismantling
systemic and institutional racism. It also necessarily opens the door for
“fellow travelers”—political allies who are not black—to make “black film.” This
is not to advance some sort of simple “colorblind” claim in which racial
identity is wholly irrelevant to someone’s capacity for making black film.
Undoubtedly, it is much harder for white filmmakers
(be they directors or not) to make “black film” than it is for black filmmakers
to do so, since most white people have never had to face the harsh realities of
systemic racism in the way that people of color (filmmakers
or not) are forced to every day.
Guardian newspaper:
When the media
misrepresents black men, the effects are felt in the real world- Leigh
Donaldson
Black men
in the media have been represented in the media in a negative way which is
reinforcing the stereotype that black males and black people are bad which is
why they’re seen as an outcast in society. This is probably the reason why
people who are black are treated poorly in society which makes it hard for
them.
"Not much has changed since the 1970s when,
as an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan, I conducted a study
of two metropolitan Detroit dailies’ coverage of the 1967 urban riots."
"Men of color held in esteem by the media, while entirely worthy of
praise, too often personify a circumscribed spectrum of human qualities.
Prowess in sports, physical achievement in general and musicality are
emphasized inordinately. Common role models depicted by the media such as rap
or hip-hop stars and basketball players imply limited life choices. When is the
last time you have seen a black college professor, doctor, lawyer or scientist
selling a product?”
"Media images and words are known, according to the Opportunity Agenda
study, to have the greatest impact on the perceptions of people with less
real-world experience. People who have never interacted with a black family in
their communities more easily embrace what the media tells them. The most
negative impact is upon black individuals themselves."
"Yet
another article blaming everyone else for the black community's predicament.
How about
asking why Chinese, Asian and Jewish communities manage to produce such a vast
number of well-educated professionals, while being subjected to the same social
ills ?
The
answer is parental aspiration. While everything the author says may be true, it
still ignores the one vital truth: to be truly successful, the black community
has to first help itself."
Why men
fight- and what it says about masculinity
Men or
mice: is masculinity a crisis
Atlanta Black Star
Young Black Men Counter Negative Media Representation With Creative
‘Suit & Tie’ Video- Taylor Gordon
Black males in the media are not represented as
being in a suit and tie especially in rap videos, they are represented as being
violent and thugs which can cause and reinforce the negative stereotypes that
people in society have of black African Americans. I think that with this being
the case people who are against police brutality in America and the rest of the
world and racism as well shouldn’t reinforce the negative stereotype of themselves
by surrounding themselves by drugs and guns.
“The negative stories told daily in the media and in our culture about our
young African-American men tend to ignore their successes and don’t tell the
full story about how young Black men are becoming leaders within our community
schools,” said Gholson who also helped them organize the project.
·“The
stereotype as the "criminal black man", because people associate
young black men with crime in American culture. She writes that the black male
is portrayed as a "symbolic pillager of all that is good” Russell-Brown,
p. 84.
·“The criminal black man appears often in the context of athletics and
sports.” Arthur A. Raney and Jennings Bryant discuss this in Handbook
of Sports and Media (2006).
·‘‘Ethnic minorities are continually misrepresented
by racial (and racist) stereotypes.”-Laughey,
D. (2009). p. 78.
·“Media stereotyping occurs when the roles and
behaviour on personal characteristics of a particular group are portrayed in a
limited fashion” - Williams, K. (2003).
p. 131.
·“Stereotypes are thus
neither neutral nor fair, preventing the examination of differences within
groups”- Williams, K. (2003). p. 130
·Stereotypes have a complex relationship to
‘reality’. While stereotypes may be partial, they are not necessarily false:
they generally control a grain of the truth- Calvert, B. Casey, B. Casey, N. French, L. Lewis, J. (2002). p. 168.
·“My argument is that black film makers nessicarily have to deal with two
moments in American film history, the period of Birt Of A Nation and the period
of Blaxploitation films. These films offer a corrective re-coding of
representations in Black films”-Boys,
Boyz, Bois: An Ethics of Black Masculinity in Film and Popular Media
·“Post-New Black Cinema, anoter periodisation... where there is a shift in
blackness as a signifier which, in turn, produces blackness as a more
encompassing critical hermeneutic device in popular black cultural productions”-
Boys, Boyz, Bois: An Ethics of Black Masculinity in Film
and Popular Media
Negative Character attributes: Aggressive/violent: Performs acts of aggression, confrontation, or violence as a common practice. Sociopathic: Has low regard for human life, property, humanity, and shows little emotion. Dull-witted/stupid/easily led: Is distinguished by his poor decisions, immaturity, shortsightedness, or dependence on others Scoundrel: Is primarily dishonest, steals, cheats, and looks out for himself first. Is isolated: Does not have and/or friends and stays to himself throughout the film
Positive Character Attributes: Values friendships: Displays loyalty and places importance on friendships and important relationships. Chivalry: A strong character trait toward the defense of women/children. Wise: Primary characteristic are thoughtfulness, displays and demonstrates strong ethics. Has integrity: Believes in doing what is right, even at great personal risk. Noteworthy intelligence: Is well versed, well read, highly educated, and places importance on intellection.”
“Human beings do much better when supported and encouraged by those by which they are surrounded. We must choose our friends well and spend time with people who contribute to the better angles of our nature. How many times have you called your old friend lately to grab a burger? How often do you make a practice of maintaining friendships with positive men in your life? According to the entertainment we watch, men don’t need friendships that much. How wrong they are. Isolation among men contributes to depression, anxiety, affairs, and feelings of emptiness. Isolation is hurtful and unnatural. It’s my wish for all men to shake the ongoing construct of isolation. We are stronger when we come together. Call an old friend and meet for coffee. Call a friend on your way home from work and rekindle a friendship. Work to examine what, if anything has contributed to you feeling isolated. Chances are, you saw it in a movie.”
The idea of isolation having an effect on how male characters or people behave is very adamant in ‘Moonlight’. This being shown through isolative angled shots of Chiron in his adolescents and teen years, this means continuously Chiron has been ostracised by peers in his youth on wards also conveyed through the use of light colours being used as discomfort for him, while the use of darkness is used as comfort and safety for Chiron. The isolation has left him to feel unnatural in what he feels and acts, that, with the absence of a father figure soon in the film continues to show that isolation will always be a part of him and he himself must find himself.
The attributes of aggression and anger can be seen in traits of Chiron which he has in his teen years and adult. They are traits predominantly used for male characters throughout all films, however, there is a difference in ‘Moonlight’ showing multiple attributes which fit on this masculine spectrum which both subvert and conform to the idea.
Movies such as 'Leave it on the Floor', 'Paris is Burning' and the character Lafayette in 'True Blood'- all of these characteristics are an over exaggeration of Gay men, they are overly flamboyant, have accentuated high pitched voices and etc. which may not be a true representation of all Black males. They do, however, represent a part of what it means to be Black and Gay and show he struggles and misconception of them that others hold.
Black men in History have the perception of strong, big and violent. These traits maybe because of the representation of Black men during times of the Slave trade (sexualisation, bestial imagery, literal beasts, property) and Post-Segregation (Overly-sexual, thiefs, violent 'other')
In films have taken on this stereotype by having Black men have these traits in nearly everyday representation if it is not over flamboyant.
'KidULTHOOD'(2006) is an indie film which centres around the narrative of youth and their aggressive, violent and dangerous behaviours and the consequences of those youth living inner city and in low income households which i an effect of their environment leading them to their violent lifestyles.. This movie also showcases representations of young groups of minorities in a negative light, most often, the Black characters are represented as aggravated, part of gangs and the ones to be apart of the violence in the schools and deaths of the show. Also, the male characters are generally represented as ostracised and because of this have violent tendencies even to force others into fights who are weaker than them. This excursion of power for a male is classic trope in male characters when it comes to dominance.
'Attack the Block' is a fantasy/science fiction film focusing on the life of a so called "gang", a group of friends, going out and being swept up in a fight against aliens who have taken over their estate. The movie does have the stereotypical image of young youth in Britain especially as the boys consist of Black boys with one being racially ambiguous. For starers, the movie begins with the boys 'mugging' or stealing off a woman, solely on that she would not being from their area, but they would later on that she is from their estate and seek help from her. The characterisations of the boys is a strong demeanour with a negative look on those not from their area and a hate for those of who are more wealthy. The use of negative (hyper)masculinity is seen a lot in the behaviour of the boy, as when faced with the encounter of the extra terrestrial being they sought to fight it with their bats and even when their friend is violently attacked they sought to use violence against them. The main character Moses is faced with partaking in illegal drug activities and as a Black boy it hi9s violent demeanour and violent ways would be expected by audiences as many have their own perceived stereotypes of Black boys, showing the film doesn't subvert the negative images of black males.
These images can be seen as negative but also positive as these men do exist and do poses these traits as those of the film, but since it is wholly this 'negative' image then it truly becomes a disservice and blatant dismissal of All black males.
The first, from Kidulthood, shows a young Black male pointing a knife in the face of another Black youth in an attempt to show his power over him.
The second, from Attack the Block', the five group of boys are standing in formation staring at the camera menacingly. Having four of them covered in masks ad the only one staring at the camera is a Black boy may be a comment from the movie. This maybe be just because he is the main character, which is a typical trope of film posters, However, this may be a comment on the stereotypical image of Black boys being bad and violent as he stares at the camera but also wears a hoodie over a baseball hat an outfit which is described most in many teen violent acts on the news.
Is about a male character named Jody who is a 20-years old male who lives with his mother and is unemployed living in the dangerous south central LA. So he is forced to mature as he has a baby with his girlfriend of five years and another daughter with another woman who he cheated on with his girlfriend’s now. He is told constantly to get a job and live with his girlfriend and their son but avoids it. Then his girlfriend’s ex boyfriends is released from prison and forces his way into her life and her house as he abuse her and tries to rape her. But he realises she still loves Jody so he tries to kill him in a true gang la style in a drive by but he is unsuccessful. The movie is classic and is an urban comedy drama.
Boyz N the Hood (1991) is a look at the lives of three young boys coming of age in South Central Los Angeles during the 1980s and 1990s. The film addresses the social, economic and cultural issues that challenge the youths and cultivate a culture of violence, poverty and abuse. "Boyz N The Hood" suggests that fathers need to take more responsibility for raising their children and expresses that violence and machismo will only contribute to the destruction of families and the devastation of neighborhoods and communities. The film shows us a lifestyle in which black men are regularly killing one another -- one out of every twenty-one die by homicide according to the opening titles, most at the hands of another black man. This pulls more fathers out of their children’s lives, including ones like Ricky, who likely would have grown up to be a constant and powerful presence in his child’s life, the way Furious is for Tre. Instead, he is murdered in an alley simply because someone didn’t like the way he talked.
This links to my investigation as father figures a recurring theme of ‘Moonlight’ .The conspicuous lack of fathers in the film makes Furious' character all the more worth examining. Much like the ever present figure of Juan to Little in the beginning of the film and the added effect from his words to the protagonist. The absences of fathers from the two movies showcases the effects on the protagonists.
Post Colonialism:
Is the study of the effect of colonialism on societies and cultures
Pocahontas was made in 1995, this movie is about how two cultures collide. The set of this movie is "The New World" when men were sent on a ship to find gold and fame but found something else. The main characters are Pocahontas the Native American and John Smith this blonde hair blue eyed hero.When you watch the movie you can see there is a huge culture difference, the Native Americans communicate more with nature and spirits while the English men don't care about the values of the land unless there is gold.
Oueen of Katwe was made in 2016, the two existing cultures would be that of Kenyan culture and the lasting effects of colonialism from the main characters inability to be taught chess. Also, the representations of how there is no real source of education or knowledge of things outside their cultures i.e chess, which is what the movie what conversing to the audience.
Crisis of masculinity:
Two percent were lesbian, gay, or bisexual. As a comparison, 3.5 percent of America identifies as lesbian, gay, or bisexual, according to a recent survey. Plus, things would be a lot worse without just two movies, Pride and Love Is Strange, which accounted for more than half of the LGBT characters shown in film in 2014 and 2015.
Seven characters—not seven percent, but seven individuals—were transgender. Four of those characters appeared in one show.
Among the LGBT characters of 2014 and 2015:
Seventy-two percent were male. Seventy-nine percent were white.
The majority were shown to be in committed relationships, but fewer than one in five were shown as parents or caregivers.
Representation theorists:
Bell Hooks- Interconnectivity of race, class and gender.
Pen name of Gloria Jean Watkins. First major work “Ain’t I a woman? Lack, women and feminity” written in 1981. Focused on the perpetuation of systems of oppression and domination in the media paying particular attention to the devaluation of black womanhood. The idea of ‘lack’ or ‘otherness’ refers to the way that women and ethnic minorities are usually represented as ‘other’. Their primary purpose is simply to be other than the norm (usually a white male hero). They are therefore known more by the context of lack than by a realised or complex identity. This theory can be linked to ideas of the monstrous feminine found in feminist analysis of literature and art.
Alvarado- 'Racial Stereotypes Theory'(1987)
The Exotic:Certain ethnic groups can be represented as being exotic. This is sometimes portrayed through Latino Americans as they are seen as being sex symbols and are represented as being rather explicit. This idea is presented through the usage of their transparent clothing, which is deemed as inappropriate to the rest of society, and controversial behaviour
The Dangerous:Some ethnic groups can be portrayed as dangerous through the analysis of certain people's behaviour. For example, characters in soaps such as Eastenders with a different ethnic background to others is related to violent and aggressive behaviour e.g. abuse. By this representation through the media it creates an awareness so the audience relates this behaviour to the rest of the ethnic group. This is a very prevalent theme through Rap music which makes it a very widely 'accepted' stereotype that black males are a very violent ethnic group.
Humorous:Other ethnic groups are represented as being humorous through the use of animation and cartoon characters such as Simpsons. This is a stereotypical view of people who are apart of an ethnic group that has been portrayed through the media for example in films.
In the 1970’s race was a major vehicle for comedy. Programs removed the threat of different races by making them the butt of the jokes. Some movies with a black American man is tend to be seen to make particular jokes against his race or ethnicity. By doing this it creates a humorous affect for the audience and makes a comedic atmosphere.
The Pitied: Adverts and documentaries raise awareness for African people and young children who are in need of water and food in order to survive. By doing this not only is it presenting real problems in the world but also creating an atmosphere of pity within the audience which in turn persuades members to pay and portray beneficial methods so they can help these young children in need. An atmosphere of sadness is also made by audience/viewers identifying the lack of basic necessities some children have compared to themselves.
The representation of ethnic groups may be seen as deprived victims or groups that experience natural disasters or sometimes even conflicts.
Nick Lacey - Image and Representation Key Concepts in Media Studies(1998)
"Stereotype serve to naturalize the power relationships in society; they have a hegemonic function" p39
"Representation and stereotypes serve to reinforce the dominate ideological views .." p143
"The action movie of the 1980's and 1990's has also introduced an interesting variant on on the traditional representation of gender: women as heroes" pg218
"The conclusion of Terminator 2 offers hope for the future: is this hope because women are gaining more power in society? pg218
Branston, G. and Roy Strafford, R. (1996)- The Media Student's Book Third Edition
"Gender based arguments have insisted that because women bear children, therefore they should be the ones to stay at home .." p94
"Gender roles in magazines and advertising, for example, show that women are still represented according to long standing cultural stereotypes .." p95
"Women were repeatedly represented shown as housewives, moths, home makers while men were often represented in situations of authority and dominance .." p95
"What are needed are more realistic portrayal (e.g of women) since the media are said to reflect society, and such reflections should always be accurate" p96
"The term post-feminism suggest that we are now beyond the need to struggle for gender equality.." p96
"Cinema is ideological (based on ideas) because the films are created to represent reality. This means that because film is created to illustrate different ideas, everything has meaning - from the camerawork to the editing"
"Ideology is not imposed on cinema, but is part of its nature (through the viewer) and it shapes how we think"
"This theory is that the central position of the spectator/ viewer within the perspective of the text is also ideological - it is a reproduced reality and the experience of cinema influences the viewer on a deep level"
"Judith Butler’s work on gender is set out in Gender Trouble (1990). In Butler’s terms the performance of gender, sex, and sexuality is about power in society."
"Sex is biological while gender is culturally constructed"
"Butler argues that gender is performative.She says that no identity exists behind the acts or performance that express gender, and these acts constitute the illusion of the stable gender identity".
John Berger- Ways of Seeing (1990)
"Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at"
Peter Lehman- Masculinty
"bodily metaphor to describe an emotional blockage and to argue that men's emotional consipation' is a psychological condition" p. 135
The idea of 'constipated masculinity' and if 'men are to be liberated from the 'harness of male role, emotinal energies must be released
"the melodramtic penis" Peter (the hyper-dramatization that surrounds the revelation of me's bodies" p. 294
Horrorcks, R. (1995). Male Myths and Icons: Masculinity in Popular Culture
Femnism p. 6
Femenism has carried out an inevetable task in the last thrity years: it has uncovered the political nature of gender
Masculinity and feminity are socially constructed, and function as ideological placements
Men have generally been exalted and women demeaned patriarchy
Gender embodies concrete structures of male domination and female subordination
Masculinity is primary and dominat, and that feminity is kind of castrated masculinty, and exiss in its own right only under the shadowns of the male p. 3
Freud and Lacan see feminity as a shadow of masculinity
Men dread female pwoer, the idea of castraction anxiety
Represeting Men -Kenneth mackinnon
Murray Healy talk about hyper masculinity over- compensating; macho dress codes and gym-created body nearing to nakedness are pars, which allow the star to declare machismo. However, hper masculinity exposes rather allays anxiety about masculity
hegemonic masculinity, Connell in 1987 p 9
the 'new man' and soft masculinities, the new man essectially is the revised version of traditional masculinity and embodies anti-sexism p 13
when men are objectified 'it suspends his activity and dominance for a shot period' p 31
Hegemonic masculinities from gender and society
Gramsci's writing focuses on the dynamics of structual change involving the mobilisation and demobilisation of whole classes. The idea of heemony would be reduced to a simple model of cultural control
The idea of hierarchy of masculinities gre directly out of homosexual men's experiences with violence and prejudice from straight emn.
The plurality of masculinites and the complexities of gender construction for men, and gave evidence of active struggle for dominnace that is implicit in the Gramscian concept of hefemony.
Thus, media narratives that challenge hegemonic masculinites have the potential to destablize the hetronormative gaze.
Violence and aggressive behaviour have long been part of the codes of masculinitey in American culture and, in particular, a part of the image asscoiated with the mascho-cowboy masculinity of America's heartland. (Cuklanz, 1998 p.444)
Within this conceptual framwork, gender is positioned as a social construction and thus the way gender functions in individuals' lives is also viewed as sociallyconstructed (Scheman, 1997, p.145) Such an approach works to undermine the "binairilly opposed and mutually exclusive" lables of women and man , of feminity and masculinity.
Prono, L. (2007) - Encyclopedia of gay and lesbian popular culture
"Gay and lesbian celebrated queers as producers of culture, thus countering media representations of gays as producers of the plague. "
"The debates surrounding popular culture representations of gayness became increasingly politicized."
Dines, G. McMahon Humez, J. (2003) Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Critical Reader
"Despite some important advances in gay and lesbian visibility in media culture in recent years, representations of sexuality in mainstream pop culture continueto be, for the most part, rampantly heterosexual."
"Part of the reason for this is the continuing homophobia that producers assume continues to characterize the majority of media consumers in most targeted audiences. "
GAUNTLETT, D. (2002) Media, Gender and Identity
"Homosexuality distorts the natural bond of friendship that would naturally unite persons of the same sex ."
"For example, whilst the official diagnostic manual of American psychiatrists ceased to define homosexuality as pathological in 1973, in 1980 it introduced a new illness called 'Gender identity disorder', which explains that girls or boys who are interested in non-stereotypical activites may have fallen prey to this psychological malady."
HISTORICALTEXT ANALYSIS: BLACK HYPERMASCULINITY PORTRAYED IN MOVIES
'Boyz N The Hood'(1991) dir. John Singleton
'Boyz N the Hood' is a movie examining the social issues and experiences of three friends that grew up in a Los Angeles ghetto. The film takes place in 1985, and then flashes seven years into the future to 1992. The film follows Tre Styles, an intelligent ten year old who was aggressive and immature in his early school years. As a result of his hot temper, his mother, Reva (Angela Bassett), sent him to live with his father, Furious (Laurence Fishburne), who proves to be stricter and more watchful than his mother.
Dropping her son Tre off , Reva tells Furious, “I can’t teach him how to be a man; it’s your job.”: the quote suggests a singular type of masculinity, the film contests this notion, showing differing masculine role models and boys’ attempts for achieving manhood. In the process, it converses popular white notions of black masculinities and lifestyles, brought by Reva as she denounces Tre’s white teacher for suggesting Tre's problems were rooted in family instability, such as parental unemployment and an absentee father. Here, she separates her family from these stereotypes and suggests multiple experiences rather than one unified under a singular conception of a “black” lifestyle.
Throughout the film’s childhood sequence, Furious focuses on keeping Tre out of the harsh street life and teaches him how to be a true man, not the masculine male image young black men are all too familiar with. In fact, the first night that Tre is with his father, Furious shoots at and misses a burglar.
Furious renounces building his masculinity on sex and violence, trying to teach his son the power of respect, in part gained through responsibility. This proves difficult as from a young age, the boys see and react to men’s power with physical violence. For emxample, the boys lose their ball to physically stronger older boys and, unable to defeat them physically, one of the boys keeps repeating he wants to “kill that m*therf*cker.” The boys find themselves caught in hierarchy based on violence whose effects they cannot escape. Two choices offered by Furious: either add to the violence and problems of the neighbourhood or not.
Most choose the former, expanding their sense of masculinity through sex. One example would be a dramatic highlight of the film in which Tre tells his father with details of a sexual tryst which, along with the dangerous gunplay, acts as another, sweeter example of mis-channelled machismo.
Also, demonstrated in the barbecue scene and the following dialouge amongst the characters, a lack of education around sex as well as stigmatization of virginity flourishes in the hood, with babies and STIs following in its wake. A comparison can be made to Doughboy’s references to women as ho, bitch, hootchie, etc. with bell hooks’ conception of black phallocentric masculinity, which hooks conceives of as “a phallocentric model, where what the male does with his penis becomes a greater and certainly a more accessible way to assert his male status” . Hardened by jail time and adamant to reassert his fearsome reputation on neighbourhood foes, he talks and acts violently, but in a manner that’s entirely nonchalant. Forceful aggression is so ingrained within him that basic civility now seems quaint. When he refers to women as “bitches” and “hoes”, it’s not because he wants to, but because he has to.
Throughout the film, Tre struggles with this dilemma of how to respond to male aggression. In one moving scene, he reaches the pinnacle of his frustrations and starts punching the air in front of his girlfriend. Impotent to affect an immediate change in his situation, he cries in front of her, at first embarrassed as it goes against his friends’ ideas of maintaining a powerful persona and position toward women. However, not responding rashly by adding to the aggression, he enacts his father’s vision of masculinity, which is followed by a symbolic second step towards enacting a masculinity—responsible sex with his girlfriend. Importantly, he does so sensitively, and, when she expresses a fear of pregnancy, he tells her not to worry—the audience is left to infer that he is using a condom as taught by his father, reinforcing resistance to black masculinity.
Black culture was both embraced and criticised in this film. Singleton celebrated certain aspects of African American inner-city culture, such as the closeness in community and family. However, despite a strong sense of empathy, the criticisms of the violent culture of the Los Angeles ghetto outweigh the positives in the film. The objective was to reveal the constant cycle of murder and the self-fulfilling prophecy due to the pressures of masculinity. In order to do this, Singleton risks reinforcing the stereotype that young black males are violent. Whether or not stereotypes exist in this film is purely subjective, because, for example, Singleton portrays the reality of “the Hood,” but an outsider may view it was stereotypical. Race politics and arguments are inevitably implied, because Singleton’s film addresses societal problems related to race specifically. Police brutality is a sub-issue alluded to in the film through two scenes involving a black cop abusing his authority and threatening the young black males. For example, a cop pulled Tre and Ricky over and the black cop presses his loaded gun to Tre’s neck while verbally threatening him. Scenes like this one bring up serious societal problems surrounding race.
A lot of characters in Moonlight assume that masculinity means asserting dominance. Kevin is the first example of this, playing up to an image of a heterosexuality that practically comes across as parody. A similarly humorous sequence occurs in Boyz n the Hood, when Tre (Cuba Gooding Jr) tries to impress his dad with a phony story about a sexual conquest. Kevin attempts to keep up appearances are desperate, especially during a scene on a beach with Chiron. Following the near-admission that he cries, he backtracks and responds: “Nah. I wish I did.” It’s almost comical that even in a scene as intimate as this, Kevin feels the need to maintain his hyper-masculine facade.
Moonlight and Boyz n the Hood may be vastly different in style and tone, but there’s enough re occurring themes for these films to be considered companion pieces of sorts. They are personal, unique and honest explorations of the connection between the hostile environments that young African-American men are met with, and how they respond.
Bear, is a 10 minutes long, silent, and consisted of two naked men, one of them him, wordlessly circling each other, staring and sparring, Steve McQueen's first major film. From looking at articles the video raises sensitive issues about race, homoeroticism and violence. It depicts two naked men-one of which is the artist-sparing and teasing one another in a confrontation which goes from tenderness and aggression. The film is silent but a series of stares, glances and winks between the protagonists "creates an optical language of flirtation and threat."(Tate)
The film opens with a close-up, a cinematic convention, shot of one man's shoulder. The camera then moves slowly upwards and to the right, travelling his face with close proximity that suggesting the camera is feeling across the dents of his face. I think, McQueen may reinforce the idea of the sexuality Black male bringing into the idea of Black men being seen as sexualised objects rather than humans, at certain points, medium shots revealing underneath of the men showing their genitalia maybe to reinforce such ideas but also subvert them as Black men aren't able to freely be open with their sexuality or ability to be intimate sexually or platonic with other men- a sexual empowerment of Black men not represented in culture.
Throughout the film, the disorientating camerawork and silent movement of the two bodies moving across a shaft of light, adds to the existing sense of ambiguity. The ability to have the two characters, black males, moving around caressing each other but also fighting one another playfully depicts the on going relationship of Black men and the inability to not allow the society to justify their own identity, extending into a refusal to appear vulnerable, ‘feminine’ or just plain weird. both Jenkins and Singleton provide a similar answer: it’s not about adhering to or performing specific gender stereotypes, but rather a feeling of independence, and the right to choose a life for one’s self. This would reinforce the idea of McQueen's need to have the video play in an empty space quite and lilting . McQueen states in an interview: "You are very much involved in what's going on. You are a participant not a passive viewer," and concerning the disconcerting sound of 'Bear' he states "The whole idea of making it a silent piece is so that when people walk into the space they become very much aware of themselves, of their own breathing,"
The viewer is left to watch the scene with the intentions of making their own images and ideas of what it is trying to communicate but the main idea is the two characters are in a world of their own and created their own identifies and unnerved from that of onlookers: "I want to put people into a situation where they're sensitive to themselves watching the piece"
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'Blaxploitation' genre (1970s)
The genre emerged in the 1970's in the United States and is a hybrid word using Black and exploitation. It targeted urban Black audiences and switched roles from the norm from the general white characters but making them villains and having Black heroes making it socially and politically conscious of it's time. There was the general stereotypes, which did exist, urban setting, drugs , prostitution but also social injustice, racial discrimination, brutality of the police.
Male character in Blaxploitation films characterised as:
-Hypermasculinity
-Virility -Macho black hero -Well-dressed -Sexual prowess -Sexual empowerment of black men in mainstream culture -The hero fights against injustice (and/or white men) outside of the legal mechanisms
'Shaft'(1971) dir. Gordon Parks
'Shaft' follows a fairly conventional noir plot. Shaft is hired by local mob boss Bumpy Jonas (Moses Gunn) to find Bumpy’s kidnapped daughter – though not until Shaft has made it clear that he despises everything Bumpy stands for (he tosses one of Bumpy’s men out a window to get the message across). Similarly, the case brings him in contact with a Black Panther-like militant group that he also scoffs at. Shaft is seen to only serves no cause but his own. Even so, he ultimately becomes a uniting force, bringing both of these factions together to face a new enemy threatening the neighborhood: the Italian mafia. This is where the movie’s enlightenment ends, as well as its provocative headiness. The final third follows a well-worn action pattern, with Shaft, of course, taking the lead. The picture’s final shot is of Shaft walking alone down the street, offering a bookend of sorts with the walk he took over the opening credits. On that earlier stroll, he passes movie marquees boasting names like Robert Redford and Dean Martin. Shaft saunters right on by, leaving those stars behind, He’s taking us into a whole new era.
This film regales itself on worshipping its central figure (played with an easy smile and an easier scowl by Richard Roundtree). Isaac Hayes’ Oscar-winning title song sings Shaft’s praises over the opening credits. When he struts across six lanes of New York City traffic, the cars give him the right of way. The first sex scene barely notices the woman on hand: it’s Shaft who poses nude on the couch; it’s Shaft’s (much darker) skin that the camera lingers on; it’s a framed photo of Shaft that the camera drifts toward as the couple goes about their business.
The film is flashy and does posses the traits of using Black people to subvert the images normally seen in noir films, as instead of white actors being seen as the heroes they are the villains and it is a Black man who is put as the protagonist of the film, serving his own justice to crooks and immoral police officers. However, the film still olds notable traits of stereotypes of a Black man as Shaft himself is over bearing and dominating common traits represented on Black men , after slavery, the idea held of Black men of just being seen as bodies is evident, since slavery, Black men have been seen as scary and big which is why many were able to hung and killed just for simply being these traits or even not being evidently masculine (as they were killed too), this maybe due to the director being a whote man representing an image of a Black man, rather than it being a black man as seen in 'Boyz N the Hood' and 'Moonlight'.
In the documentary, 'Black Hollywood', Jim Brown discusses that blaxploitation films that were under white control and production took advantage of the black audience and black actors, in order to create cheaply produced films which often perpetuated stereotypical images of black men and women; which is evident in 'Shaft'. The ability to just not conform to those stereotypes of Black men isn't seen in many Blaxploitation films because of the zeitgeist of the time, though flashy and different, they do not refrain from commenting on Black men as overly masculine, scary and angry. Robert Staples in his book 'Black masculinity' writes an explanation on how Black masculinity have been influenced and created throughout history. He explains how black men in the US have been unable to earn the same patriarchal privileges attached with the status of being males because of their racial identity. “Black men face certain problems related to institutional 9 racism and environments which often do not prepare them very well for the fulfillment of masculine roles. In addition to the problems created by institutional and overt discrimination, they encounter negative stereotyping that exists on all levels about them: being socially castrated, insecure in their male identity, and lacking in a positive self concept”(Staples, 1982:8) Staples concept of the problems black men face helps to show that blaxploitation films worked to perpetuate stereotypical images of black men. As white masculinity is dominate in our society and thus makes inferior of marginalised types of masculinity, like black masculinity and female masculinity. “Hegemonic masculinity among whites sustains the institutional oppression and physical terror that have framed the making of masculinity in black 6 communities” (Connell, 1995:80). Connell explains here of the difference between hegemonic masculinity vs. marginalised masculinity and could be used as a way in which blaxploitation films were influences by hegemonic white masculinity to produce the marginalised masculinity show in the films .
·"They seem to embody some core elements of intense masculinity and femininity which attract the global audience" P21
·"Men and women can identify with many characters during the spectacle of a film" P21
·"Tasker rejects the rigid idea of a male/female binary cinema spectator ship" P22
·"Can enjoy the pleasure of the cinema and identify with who we want to regardless of gender" P22
·"Angelina Jolie is as heroic and skilled as Brad Pitt"P22
·"Traditional film theory would use gender based assumptions to analyse the position of the audience in relation to this text"P22
·"Viewers can identify with either Pitt of Jolie, or both, a process she has termed perverse identification" P22
·"This extortionary twist allows for spectacular and violent action sequences, where the viewer could potentially perversely identify with either Pritt of Jolie" P22
Media magazine 32
'The films of Cohen seem to have a slightly more positive representation of homosexuality.'
In the movie bruno it is about Sacha Baron Cohen playing a gay Austriann looking for fame in America. Sacha Baron has does many gay positive scenes in his movies like Borat and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby where he plays a gay character and kisses Will Ferrel character at the end.
'The wrestling match where Bruno and his assistant end up passionately kissing in front of a jeering, psychotic, angry crowd shows the awfulness of some American attitudes to homosexuality.'
The stereotype can be sometimes too much as for the celebrity want to show positive gay people he exaggerates the stereotype to much in the movie.
'Bruno, on the other hand, is not a very nice character. He is a highly-exaggerated stereotype of a fashion-obsessed homosexual. His sex life is portrayed as an exhibition of twisted creativity and shocking acts of depravity; an exercise bike with a dildo attached, a chair that catapults his midget partner into him'
Media magazine 53
'TV drama features multiple lesbians, or looks beyond explicit sexual behaviour. Indeed, studies show that in the 20 most popular TV shows watched by young people, only 4.5% of the total programme time includes LGBT characters. For this reason, when shows feature multiple lesbian characters they are seen as a TV ‘event’, and this may immediately estrange audiences.'
This represents the views on television as to the type of characters they have used, the characters in the shows that are LGBT are very not common in Tv series but it is going to be pushed as to old TV shows like Ellen and Buffy the vampire slayer had Lesbians. Also the sitcom Happy endings had a gay character which lead for 3 seasons. This is to represent the percentage of a programme and it shows that it is not a big percentage but it will increase over time. Media magazine 36
"I believe that Scorsese films have a lot to say about the ideological nature of the representation of masculinity."
" I will argue that the switch in 2002 to working with DiCaprio marks an ideological shift in the representation of masculinity in Scorsese films."
"He is the provider not the receiver, capable of love but not made vulnerable because of it. These are the qualities of a masculinity that was prevalent until possibly the late 1970s or early 1980s."
"He is the provider not the receiver, capable of love but not made vulnerable because of it. These are the qualities of a masculinity that was prevalent until possibly the late 1970s or early 1980s."
"Scorsese’s casting of De Niro is probably partly because he is a brilliant actor but also because he represents the kind of hegemonic masculinity he grew up with."
"De Niro in a Scorsese film where he portrays a more contemporary masculinity, a masculinity that is more fluid, less traditional and less hegemonic."
" Back then, questions of men’s relationship to housework and childcare were not on any political agenda. But since the end of the 1970s men’s roles as fathers and their domestic responsibilities have been widely observed and discussed"
" In one scene he goes to visit Madolyn at her place when she is packing to move in with her boyfriend; as he stands in a doorway she looks at him and says ‘your vulnerability is freaking me out right now’. They then make love. This representation of masculinity is shown as flawed, vulnerable, troubled, tender and needy"
"In terms of ideologies around masculinity, De Niro is the personification of traditional masculinity. He is handsome rather than pretty or beautiful; muscular and stocky rather than slim and toned; strong, both mentally and physically."
-in regards to physicality of men which reinforces their masculine representations
Media Edu Search: queer theory
Film Theory and Language-Nicole Ponsfors
Queer Film Theory (Identity Politics)
This is the term used to describe films
"which explore, discuss or portray some aspect or feature of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or transgender experience, or sexual identity." Although ‘queer’ is sometimes used as a term of abuse, it is used here as positive. It can be seen as part of the
"post-structuralist theory and emerged in the early 1990s, alongside Women’s Studies - although Queer Theory is seen to have started in the 1970s. The theory includes both queer readings of texts and the theory itself."
Queer Cinema was coined by B. Ruby Rich in Sight & Sound magazine in 1992. It defined a movement in queer-themed independent movies in the early 1990s. It explored a fluid / changeable sexuality and
"represented LGBT protagonists "(lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender),
"normally living outside of ‘normal’ society, same sex marriage / domestic relationships or the rejection of ‘heteronormativity’ (heterosexuality is the normal sexual orientation of men and women)."
Queer Film Theorists
Eve Kosofsky Sedgewick (American, 1950-2009. See Epistemology of the Closet)
Judith Butler (American Philiosopher, 1956-present day at time of writing. See Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity 1990)
Lauren Berlant (American Professor, 1957 - present day at the time of writing)
Adrienne Rich (American poet and essayist, 1929-2012)
Michel Foucault (French 1926-1984)
Michael Warner (American Professor. See The Trouble With Normal)
An Introduction to Postmodernism- John Lough
Camp queer transgressive sexuality Madonna popularises S&M imagery queer theory post 1970s HIV sexual identity as unstable socially constructed in flux reclaims past queer heroes Rock Hudson, Fassbinder in films such as Pedro Almodovar transgressive transsexuals John Waters, Derek Jarman
Representation of Masculinity in Film- Rob Miller
"Film actors have an aspirational quality that makes passive consumption by younger male audiences much more of a possibility"
"British films that were distributed by American studios tended to offer more one dimensional representations which appealed to mainstream audiences – Alfie (1966) "
*An example would be the suggested "Young Soul Rebels"
"Jude Law’s behaviour is seen in much more of a negative way (he questions his shallow, self indulgent lifestyle in a final monologue) reflecting changing representations in society. Instead of sex he needs and shoulder to cry of but even this is denied him and throughout the film is framed for the female gaze as a boyish, stylish but ultimately flawed anti hero."
" In Teaching Men and Film (BFI 2008) Matthew Hall explores notions of challenges to the hegemonic construct of masculinity in the 21st century offering a more diverse, liberal pluralistic analysis of gender discussing a ‘crisis in masculinity’ focussing on Fight Club (1999) and the films of Todd Haynes as case study analysis developing ideas of 1990s ‘Queer Theory’."
"a Brokeback Mountain in 2005 can be analysed using this theoretical framework...challenges audiences’ perceptions of masculinity by offering on a manifest level hegemonic representations of rough, touch cowboys but shocking audiences with explicit homosexual love scenes"
- "secured a wide, but not saturated release reflecting changes in society and the liberalisation of attitudes towards homosexuality (more and more US States are recognising same sex marriages although change is slow)."
e-Jump Queer Film Classics review- Roxanne Samear
"e. Word Is Out made its theatrical tour in the wake of Anita Bryant’s successful “Save Our Children” campaign in Miami, and the film first was first broadcasted on public television two weeks before Californians voted on the Briggs Initiative, which moved to ban gays and lesbians from working in California public schools."
"In the chapters “F is for Feminism” and “T is for Third World Gay,” Youmans explores how the film engaged with some of the most heated controversies happening across U.S. gay and lesbian communities in the 1970s, including generational divides among lesbians around feminism and its relevancy or influence on their sexual lives. "
"Queer Nation had mobilized activists across gender and sexual identities against the mass shaming of HIV-positive people and mainstream gay and lesbian organizations’ reactive politics of respectability. "
"Teresa de Lauretis and analyzed the processes undertaken to normalize heterosexuality in classical cinema or otherwise found threads that unraveled such texts, baring queer desires.[5] Others studied explicitly queer films and/or films by queer directors."
"New Queer Cinema (NQC) erupted on the 1991 international festival circuit, and in 1992 B. Ruby Rich gave it its name."
-------------------------------------------------- QUEER THEORY
A field of critical theory that emerged in the early 1990s.
Suggests gender is not the result of nature, but is socially constructed.... Both have built their success on challenging expected notions of femininity
1950s – police actively enforced laws that prohibited sexual activities between men.
Queer theory suggests there are different ways of interpreting contemporary media texts
-Batman and Robin (1960)Contemporary Texts
Queer theory can also be applied to texts where heterosexuality is dominant.
Queer theory suggests there is now a more open and fluid approach to sexuality
-Brokeback Mountain(1999)= success of this Hollywood film an indication of more progressive attitudes to homosexual
What was called at the time “the new queer politics” began around 1990.
Theorists vary in their configurations of which groups and perspectives are included under the blanket term.
"'Queer' is used to describe the non-straight work, positions, pleasures, and readings of people who either don't share the same 'sexual orientation' as that articulated in the texts they are producing or responding to … or who don't define themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual (or straight, for that matter)"
One might argue that despite the overtly gay subject matter in its representation of an ill-fated love affair between two men,Making Love(1982) would not qualify as queer because it reinforces rather than challenges codes of heteronormativity by stereotyping gay behavior and by focusing upon the homosexual act as a disruption of the heterosexually based institution of marriage.
"Broadly speaking, queer describes those gestures or analytical models which dramatise incoherencies in the allegedly stable relations between chromosomal sex, gender and sexual desire…queer focuses on mismatches between sex, gender and desire. Institutionally, queer has been associated most prominently with lesbian or gay subjects, but its analytic framework also includes such subjects as cross-dressing, hermaphroditism, gender ambiguity and gender-corrective surgery…queer locates and exploits the incoherencies in those three terms which stabilise heterosexuality.
Demonstrating the impossibility of any “natural” sexuality, it calls into question even such apparently unproblematic terms as “man” and “woman”"- Annamarie Jagose
-understanding of queer... its origins in an encounter in the early 1990s between the radical identity politics of groups like Queer Nation and constructionist accounts of sexuality
A FRIEND OF DOROTHY
Homosexual; a gay or queerman.
Gay historians say that the term came into popular use in the 1950's as gays and lesbians developed a special connection with Judy Garland, whose ballads of hopeand despair and whose relentless spirit, and tragic history, mirrored their struggles in everyday life.
She wasn't the first diva or drama queen, but certainly the one who resonated the most to a generation of gays and lesbians. Garland's most famous role -- as the ever-optimistic and wistful Dorothy in the 1939 classic "The Wizard of Oz" -- gave gays and lesbians a "secret" code word which they could use to refer to themselves.
At cocktail parties or company gatherings where one could not be comfortably "out and proud," gays would inquire discreetly of each other, "Are you a 'Friend of Dorothy?'" The wink-wink admission of "I am, too!" would likely lead to fabulous and fast bonding in an age when gay bars were clandestine, and in some cases dangerous.
Today, the term is used mostly by Baby Boomers and an older generation of gays and lesbians; the gay members of MTV kids and Generations X and Y would probably not recognize the meaning of "FOD" unless they learned it from some older friends!
A biopic to be made of Judy Garland and AH was to paly the main role. So , what i found the term 'a friend of Dorothy' can be used for someone who supports LGBT+ rights
"We can take comfort that Hathaway has proven herself a staunch defender of the gay community, particularly her views on gay marriage and adoption. And now she will embark on playing the greatest icon the LGBT community has ever had."
