Boyz In Da Hood Blog

The film "Boyz in Da Hood" demonstrates several different types of masculinities. On the one hand, males are expected to be tough, and the father-son relationship involves the father teaching the son to be a man and often providing him with a gun. However, boys are also encouraged to be somewhat reserved. At the beginning of the film, Tre's mom sends him to live with his dad because he is causing trouble at school. His dad represents the positive masculine qualities of being tough and being a disciplinarian, but also understanding the danger of calling forth trouble in South Central L.A. Tre's dad also expects Tre to be irresponsible involving sex, and tries to teach him that a man is responsible for the consequences of his actions.

Some of the masculinities depicted in the film correspond with racial norms of African Americans. There gender norm of the Black woman raising the family of the absent Black father (not necessarily her husband) is subtly repeated throughout the film. As a result, there is an emphasis on how a true man raises his children regardless of whether the family functions as a typical family. This gender norm is reminiscent of the gender norm of Mexican males and "la casa chicas." Gutmann's article demonstrates how gender/racial generalizations such as these are innacurate. "La casa chica" meant a variety of things to the people he interviewed, and although it generally referred to relations outside the marriage, it did not necessarily correspond with either being Mexican or being male (males and females of all races are guilty of extramarital affairs). The male characters in "Boyz in Da Hood" also demonstrated the inaccuracy of certain ideas of Black males, and the range of masculinities that exist within a culture and neighborhood.

Throughout the film, the women are represented as the most responsible characters. They also tend to represent extremes, and the female characters who are not main characters are often referred negatively to as "bitches" and "hoochies." The female characters with the largest roles are Tre's mother and his girlfriend. His mother is only portrayed in relation to Tre; her life independent of him is never shown. Also, the main character trait of his girlfriend is that she does not want to have sex with him because it is against her religion. Both of these women are passive agents because their roles in the film are completely determined by the actions of the males around them.

Some examples of "outsiders within" in this film are the white people who are referred to as trying to buy homes in the South Central area. Some of the African American characters refer to wanting to keep the land to "their people," and not letting in "people from the outside." Also, Tre's dad refers to Black men in the army as outsiders within. Although they are able to enlist, he does not think they have a place in the army.

There are also outsiders within in the neighborhood the movie is located in, mainly the characters who rebel against the norms of African American people from South Central. These outsiders within are similar to some of the outsiders within gay fraternies that are referred to in the Yeung Stombler article. Many of the members of gay fraternities feel that they are being mainstreamed, and feel that they are taught to downplay their sexuality in public.