Boyz N The Hood Blog

In the movie, Boyz N The Hood, the majority of the females in the movie—with the exception of Tre’s mom and Tre’s girlfriend—were not active agents because many of them were very dependant on males and let the males degrade them. Tre’s mom and Tre’s girlfriend are good examples of “outsiders-within” because they aren’t the stereotypical African American women; they both get a good education and try hard to make a life for themselves.

For the males in the movie, masculinity is very important, but depicted in two very different ways. Tre Styles’ father, Furious Styles, represents a more positive image of masculinity because he is a strong, single man who cares for his son, served in the army, respects women, promotes safe sex, has a career and is financially stable. Also, Tre and Ricky, were both masculine in a positive way because for the most part, they avoided trouble and were trying to be something greater: Tre was trying to advance his education and Ricky was trying to support his family through football and possibly the Army. Contrary to Furious, Tre, and Ricky were the more “dangerous” male characters: Doughboy, Chris, and all the gang members—all of who called girls derogatory names, had “no lives,” and were involved with drugs and other illegal acts. Although these two portrayals of masculinity are very different, since the movie was centered only on African Americans, it really showed the biases and racisms aimed at all African Americans—which I believe greatly affected the young male African Americans the most because they felt the need to masculine the most.

Furthermore, even though there are two very different portrayals of masculinity in the movie, I noticed that all the young male characters were very interested in sex; Ricky and his girlfriend had a teen pregnancy and even Tre pressured his abstinent girlfriend into having sex with him. This reminded me of one of the articles in the Prisms Book called, “I couldn’t ever picture myself having sex: Gender Differences in Sex and Sexual Subjectivity” by Karin A. Martin. This article talks about how females look for ideal love while many times, males just want sex. Martin states, “Boys seem to be looking for a blend of friendship and sex in relationships with their girlfriends. They are not looking for romance or ideal love…males often insist on, provoke, or encourage girls to have sex” (165,167). The males in the movie were often provoking and pressuring females into have sex. However, I think this is an issue that pertains to all races and not just the African American race.