Boyz in the Hood Blog

Throughout Boyz in the Hood, it constantly showed me the stereotypes involved in this harsh world. Everyone in the movie simply understood that if you were of the black race or you lived in there area of town, then you were like them. However, some of them were not and were actually good people. They would show the typical homeless people begging for money and everyone begging for drugs. What was te most extreme to me was when they showed the dead male body and all the gang members were saying to leave him alone. The masculinities that are portrayed as dangerous include: guns, drugs, low riding cars, being rude to women and much more. It was very accepted in this movie that every man would be extremely rude to every single girl. They would say degrading thing and the women would simply listen and take it. This was very much pointed towards African American stereotypes. The gangs and guns and alcohol and drugs is very much a black characteristic. Also, the way they spoke. Our culture classifies black people like this and this is wrong. They don't see that everyone talks and acts this way when they want to. These symbols are all active agents in the film.. Young boys would see there older role models acting like they do and then they would act that way as well. They would grow up seeing nothing more then this region and they would adapt to this region as well so that they would fit in. Also, not having any women as main characters showed me something as well. It shows that they did not treat women equal and that hopefully this is adapting. This reminds me of "Working Class Chicas Get Working Class Jobs" because throughout the movie they would constantly talk about how they couldn't get certain jobs because of who they are and how they were raised. Especially when Ricky was going to go to college and his mother is so happy because he is breaking the "norm." Also, the article about "Race, Class, and Gender." Each individual feels as though they must fit into their classifications and become who others see them to be. In this movie it showed that when someone tried to break away from what they were supposed to be they would not succeed, until Trey. Trey proved that you could break free however, in the end, Trey still lost his best friend and the stereotypes still existed. Lastly, the African American cop stood out to me. He showed the huge contrast to the typical African American stereotype. He did not accept his people and acted rude to them instead of conforming and being friendly. This could show that it is not acceptable for you to break out of the "norm" and that if you do so you will not be one with your brothers.