"Boyz N The Hood"--Assignment #4

In the 1991 film "Boyz N The Hood," the positive aspects of masculinity are depicted through Cuba Gooding's character, Tre Styles. Tre is considered lucky because he not only knows who his father is, but actually spends time with him and resides with him after an altercation with another boy at school. Tre is a very intelligent boy whose parents are both educated and involved in his life. He grows up to be a respectable young man who doesn't get into any trouble, and wishes to attend college one day. He wants to live up to his father's expectations, but is torn because he also wants to fit in with his friends. His father encourages him to be a "real" man and get educated and a well paying job; to not end up a deadbeat like the rest of the neighborhood kids who don't have a father to guide them. He has strict rules to follow, and does so. He spends most of his free time with his best friends, Ricky and "Doughboy," and his girlfriend, Brandi.

Ricky and Doughboy are half brothers and live across the street from Tre. Ricky aspires to be a football player, he has his entire life. He wants to play for USC, but has doubts about his academic success, or lack thereof, because he has to pass his SAT with a minimum score of 700. He is a father already and lives with girlfriend in his mom's house. Doughboy, on the other hand, just got out of jail because he's a drug dealer and a gangster. He takes on his issues in an aggressive manner. He carries guns around like it's no big deal, does drugs, and drinks excessively. Doughboy is portrayed as a very angry character; he's angry at his brother, for being the favorite, angry at his mother, for not knowing who his father is and just not being affectionate, and angry at women in general. He addresses women as either "a ho, a hootchie, or a bitch" and has no close relationship with any female characters. Since neither Ricky, not Doughboy are raised with their father, they have to learn how to become "real men" from their peers on the streets.

Not only were these young men dealing with issues about masculinity, but also issues of race. "Furious" Styles, Tre's father, has many talks with Tre about how to deal with oppression. He advises them to not worry about the SATs because they are racist exams, purposely created to test knowledge of privileged white people. In another scene, after they take the exam, he takes them up to a hill to show them a billboard. There, he makes them realize that "They" (White Oppressors) want black people to kill each other. That's why there are liquor stores on every corner, and on every other corner there are gun shops. He tells them that the whole "gang" scene is created by the white people trying to get rid of all the blacks in the city. That in Beverly Hills, you don't see shootings, liquor stores, gun shops, or crooked cops.

Brandi, Tre's girlfriend, is a devout Catholic and refuses to have sex before marriage. He truly loves her, but is constantly insisting on having sex. She is a key character in Tre's life because having had sex with her, made Tre a real man in his peer's eyes. Her only role in the film, is as his sex partner, which to me, further depicts the degree of sexism at the time. The only other women portrayed in the film are the mother's and the "hootchies" who also do not have primary roles.

All in all, this film depicts many negative aspects of life in South Central Los Angeles in the 1980s. Black men are viewed as "bad" men who sometimes try to better themselves. Women are seen as sex objects who end up alone and do not even take care of their children, and maybe even resent them and blame them for their failures in life.