Boys in the Hood - Blog Assignment

The types of masculinity that are promoted in the film as positive mostly center around responsibility, independence, and unity. The film promotes most of these aspects by using Tre as a central model for these positive traits. Although doughboy does, to a degree, represent a positive aspect of the hood by his unity to family and friends. Tre portrays responsibility through what he has learned from his father, Furious Styles. He takes responsibility for his own life by working his way through high school, having a job, practicing safe sex, and helping Furious around the house. The firlm also portrays Tre as being independent by the fact that he left his mother at an early age to learn to become a man. The idea here is that he left his childhood with his mother, along with the restrictions of it, and moved with his father to learn how to perform his masculinity. With his father he is seen as another man and can come and go from the house as he pleases. Of course this ties into the idea of men as responsible since Tre must be responsible even when he is exercising his independence. Lastly the film shows that men build strong bonds between each other which are never broken, and which are protected if needed. An example of this is Doughboy as he goes on a mission to avenge his brother Ricky. The unity he felt for his brother was strong enough to move Doughboy to take action and avenge his brother. Although the end is violent the intention and meaning behind the action is that friendship and family are ties that are highly honored and protected by men.

The types of masculinity that are seen as dangerous are a short temper, assertion of strength through violence, and altercations to save face. The way that the film shows the danger behind a man's short temper is through Ricky's murder. Because Ricky had been pushed while at a street hangout Ricky reacted by cussing at a member of a gang. This sign of disrespect drove the gang member to murder Ricky. This example also ties into the idea that men must defend their honor through altercations and an exchange of possibly violent words. Ricky felt that he had disrespected, which he had, by the gang member so he reacted by cussing at him and making his masculinity known. The danger behind this is that it may start fights between two men. Each would be trying to prove his elevated masculinity and to put words into action they may attack each other to see who is the alpha male. The last view of masculinity that is portrayed as dangerous is the assertion of strength through violence. The best example of this is Ricky's murder. Because the altercation between Ricky and the gang member was left unresolved the gang member felt that he had to assert his power over Ricky and his small "gang." So in order to do this he violently murdered Ricky in cold blood. Men feel that they must outwardly portray their masculinity through actions, and more often than not it leads to violence.

The role that race has in depicting African American masculinity in the film is that since African American men live predominantly in the "ghetto" areas of cities it portrays their masculinity as one with a higher need to assert one's strength in order to survive. Because the poorer regions of cities have higher crime rates the people living in these areas must be on the defensive at all times. So masculinity is a necessity in order that one may left alone because they are seen as a threat to other males. This carries with it an inherent idea that because a man is black he is seen as tough and in this way race helps to depict African Americans' masculinity.

The women in the film do not play a large part in the events that take place througout the movie. They are not seen as "active" because of their lack of action in the movie. But they are also not passive because what affects the men also affects them. An example is the girlfriend of the gang member when she asks if there can be a night where there is no bloodshed. She takes a small action but it is shot down by Doughboy, a man. So women may try to be active agents but men take the lead. But the women are important factors in the development of characters such as Tre and Ricky. Ricky's mother always pushes him to succeed and tells Doughboy he is worthless. These self-fulfilling prophecies do come true as Ricky becomes a successful football player and Doughboy becomes a street thug. Tre's mother also pushes Tre to succeed and he does, also a self-fulfilling prophecy.
A character that can be seen as an "outsider-within" is Tre. Although he is accepted by his friends, who in majority, are thugs, Tre himself is a good kid who gets good grades. He hates the "hood" where he lives and desperately wants to escape it. Through this desire he is an outsider within the community and bubble of friends in which he lives.