Critical investigation Plan- Task #5

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