Bernard1 Richawn Bernard Dr. Dani Nyikos RHET105 21 April 2022 Author Note: It would be useful to include your thoughts on how the formatting is let me know if I must change it. also, it would be nice if you let me know if you see any grammar mistakes, I tend to do that. Also let me know if you think I should change my research question and if my sources are good. Let me know what you liked and what you did not like. Those are the main thing I would want you to tell me please email me or comment under my post if you need anything else for me to do. How race and gender Roles reflected in Queen & Slim. The movie Queen & Slim is a very impactful movie focusing on how the justice system impacts the African American community. In the movie Queen and Slim are on the run form the police because they where forces to shoot a white police officer. People all over the country hears about there story and supports them by helping them believing they had alternative motives. Queen does not follow specific gender roles she is strong courageous character while Slim is a live in the moment type of person and not as confident. as their romantic relationship starts to Slim becomes more dominate and Queen becomes more submissive. Usually in romance movies they tend to follow this trend with the male being the more dominate character. In the move Queen does thing that you normally would expect a women character to do for example after Queen and Bernard2 Slim Feld the scene they ran out of gas and flagged down a ride. In the ride was a ranger so Queen points the gun at him and orders him around (Sharp). This is something you usually expect the male character to do. In this this new time where everyone is showing who they are and expressing themselves how they to this just shows that Hollywood is shifting with the times also. In this essay I will talk about gender roles are portrayed in this movie, how the circumstances that they were put in might have influenced them to act differently they would normally. By presenting examples of how normal gender roles are presented in other movies compared to Queen & Slim. also looking at the fact that this is a Black couple and looking at how they are presented in other movies with similar life and death circumstances. A lot of the research I have done pointed to the same thing that the movie pointers to the race problem in America and that the movie follows along with that. Some agree with me, and some disagree with me the fact queen follows stereotypical gender roles. In the movie Queen relies on Slim to do all the difficult hard thing’s women would not do like when she made him threaten the clerk to get gas or when he had to push the car to the mechanic shop. Also, Slim made the hardest decision and decided they should go to Cuba. At first queen was not following the stereotypical gender roles like allowing the man to make the decision or having to be aggressive towards people. Also, a lot of the article pointed out how social media could affect how movies are made or current events. Also, in the first few minutes of the movie he while they are having dinner they Queen Ask Slim “do you really like having dinner in this place or is this the only place you can afford ” Slim response with “It’s Black Owned ” .While they are on the run and they stop for food they meet this child and there dad and they believe that queen and slim had some alternative motive on why they ended up killing the cop. They believed that they were just trying to clean the system and kill the crooked police officers. Queen & Slim was trying to show Bernard3 humanity the struggles that an everyday African American person must deal with. That why they get so much support form African American people in the movie. In the movie the mechanic’s son explain how much they inspire him and how he wants to be an inspiration just like them. Some sources compare them to people like MLK or even Malcom X I agree with that truly they had done something in self-defense and not on purpose and everything else behind it was them just trying to get away safely. Race in Queen & Slim plays a part in spreading the injustices in America. Race has historically been a contentious issue in America (Ngambwe). Sadly, year after year you hear a story about an African American people being killed by police. In the movie Queen and Slim are on the run because they believe that they would not have a chance in court. “Innocent Black people are about twelve times more likely to be convicted of drug crimes than innocent white people. That problem will only grow if drug-law enforcement is ramped up” (Michigan University). In the movie the officer had stopped them for swerving and was looking for drugs in Slims truck. In this sense we see the officer begin to threaten Slim with a gun because he said something he said. It exalted even more where he ended up shooting Queen and trying to shoot Slim. I believe that After Slim shoot and killed the officer Queen (being a lawyer) knew that they problem still get convicted even though they are innocent. “you’re a Black man that killed cop and took his gun.” (Queen & Slim 2019, 15:16-2:12:23). In American are more likely to be convicted even if they are innocent. Queen knew this, so she wanted to just run away from everything. Understanding the climate of America when It comes to Police brutally the directors decided to put scene like this to show people who do understand the problem In America. These things happen every day increasingly. Also, this scenario follows the scenarios that happen in America where African Bernard4 American people are racial profiled for something they did not do. Thought it was a race thing where they were accused of drinking and driving at the beginning of the movie, and they were getting a lot of support from people in Black communities some people did not support what they were doing. This would be the downfall of them they believed everyone was on their side and they let their guard down ultimately allowing them to fall. In another scene when they are trying to make it out of the uncle’s friend’s house a Black officer that was being treated badly by his white partner let them go. So, they began to trust more people. In media they try to hide what really happen by saying that Queen and Slim are murders that they are armed and dangerous to stop people from helping them. Even in the end the news report had lied and said that they had told on the news that they were arm and dangerous just it gives the police a reason to shot them. The view know that this was a lie so that they could make them look worse to the people that were supporting them. this just show that the police know how much media influences the public option of people. Gender roles in Queen & Slim follows certain stereotypes. a Knowing these directors, they try to show people that does not understand the problem and spreads the message. When a female character is portrayed in media, they have these qualities” they tend to be younger characters and to have a known marital status—within the storyline—to a greater extent than males; they are less likely to be high-ranking professionals or even to have an identifiable occupation and to appear in their work setting” (Capra). Looking at Queen and Slim we see that they do not follow this stereotype that at least the part about the high rank job Queen is a lawyer and Slim is a retail worker. There is a shift in the gender roles in this new day in age compared to the older movies. Though there are only a few of these types of movies where the female character has a lead Bernard5 where they do not follow standard gender roles. I think this shift in gender roles and race is because the audience is more aware of these things also the thing going on in media will influence what movies look like.” Queen's haircut implies that she no longer adheres to society's norms and finally decides to live truly and love not only herself but Slim as well.” (sharp) this point of the movie they began to switch to more stander gender roles. She did not care what society thoughts of her but after that Slim got his hair cut too and he began make more head on decision about what they were doing for example in the movie Slim decides that he wants to stop running even though queen did not want to do this. While they are in their uncle’s house one of the women say that at home the man should be a king and the women should make him feel like one. then Queen went and began to comfort Slim because she knows that he is stressing out because he just killed someone. also, in another scene When she cut her hair, it is not usually for women to have short hair or in the style that she had it in, so she is not following the norms in this situation. Later in the movie Queen starts to open to Slim showing her more feminine side to her. She tells Slim why she is not close to her uncle she explains to him that her uncle killed her mother on accident. Slim begins to comfort her realizing how much pain that causes her. This plays into the gender norms like the women is in destress and the male character must be there to comfort her. In another sense Queen dislocates her arm and slim must relocate her arm while trying to comfort her. This does not necessarily portray queen as a weak character, but it shows how Slim had to lead the situation while Queen was just following. that in the final scene they talk about how Slim wanted to be there for her and that queen wanted to be his legacy. But if it were switched would that scene follow gender roles not really in that moment, we see the venerable side of Queen that not really shown that much in the move. If the roles were switched, then Slim would’ve as Queen that question. after she gets shots and dies slim picks her up and Bernard6 carries her to his death. But again, this follows regular gender roles. the gender norms that say that the man should be the strong one the gender role that the man should be brave and courage. In the movie Queen & Slim follow more stander gender norms than not. They did this to appeal to a broader audience the director sprinkled some scene in there that do not follow them but majority of them follow. Queen & Slim is a movie before its time before a lot of the BLM and Police brutality in media was as prevalent as it is today. It brings light to the problem of police brutality and the justice system in America. Also, its certain parts of the movie depict a difference in gender roles. Though certain parts follow the generic parts of gender roles there are certain sentences that break that in a time that there was not that many movies with as strong African America female character. Race plays a big part of this movie a lot of the people relate it to a movement like BLM. on the surface Queen is a stern character that does not allow any one too push her around but later in the movie we see that the death of her mother causes her to be like that. With slim we see that he is a family person, and he takes life day at a time and is more content with his life. The 2019 movie had paved the way to other movies like Us and Get Out with black lead character and the Black cultures shown in Hollywood. it also allows the viewer to understand the Black couple culture in crazy circumstances. It takes us for the journey of two strangers that did not know anything about each other in this journey they become one in terms of loving each other. Being in unforeseen circumstances they must overcome together we see how each character thinks Queen is more of a stagiest than Slim. Slim is more of a go for it first type of person and think about it later. Later in the story they both began to think before they do what because they know the police are around every corner. The 2019 fil may have similar themes to movies about race and police brutality but the character that are use and the circumnutate that eh Bernard7 character was put in make this move unique. Queen & Slim allows the view to see a Black community come together to work to bet the system in the way that Queen and Slim where just trying to survive in self-defense and the entire country was after them. It also teaches the lesson that you may loss the battle but leave a legacy. The cultural theme in the story is really captures in the music, where everting is placed, and the music that being played. This movie took a new perspective on police brutally, love, and gender roles. I could have looked at how the police tries to change the narrative of the people that are innocent. Also, I could have done more research on why directories follow stander gender roles in movies. Bernard8 Works Cited Alspaugh, Iesha Monique. “‘CONGRATULATIONS, YOU PLAYED YOURSELF’: QUEEN AND SLIM, AND THE CONSUMPTION OF ‘AUTHENTIC’ BLACK VOICE.” Cardinalscholar.bsu.edu, Ball State University, July 2021, https://cardinalscholar.bsu.edu/bitstream/handle/123456789/202851/AlspaughI_20213_BODY.pdf?sequence=1. “College of Innocent African Americans Are More Likely to Be Wrongfully Convicted than Whites and Spend Longer in Prison before Exoneration.” Law.msu, Michigan State University, Mar. 2017, www.law.msu.edu. Ngambwe, Ronic. “Get out, Queen & Slim: A Content Analysis.” Scholar.umw, University of Mary Washington, 1 May 2020, https://scholar.umw.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1377&context=student_research. Sharp, William. “Matsoukas, M. (Director/Producer), Waithe, L. (Screenplay/Producer), & Frey, J. (Story by). Queen & Slim [Motion Picture]. Universal Pictures, 2019.” SpringerLink, Springer US, 22 May 2020, https://link.springer.com. Ward, L. Monique. “Media and the Development of Gender Role Stereotypes.” Annual Reviews, University of Michigan, Dec. 2020, https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev-devpsych-051120-010630#_i3. Bernard9 RESPONSE POSTS: LUKE GARINGAN 1. What, in your words, is the author's position in relation to the academic conversation? What is this paper adding to the conversation? What more would you like to know about that? I believe the author is taking the position of how Queen and Slim and other films encapsulate the issues and hardships the African American community and women face. The paper offers many connections and an in-depth look at some examples supporting the initial claim. I would just like to know a little more of what the specific examples were. 2. What, in your words, are the major claims of this paper about the rhetoric being used by the primary source (the piece of media)? What more would you like as support for each claim, both from the primary source and secondary sources? The primary claims in this paper pertaining to the film are how it portrays the struggles of African Americans in the US as well as how it flips the gender norms and roles of women. Then Some specific claims dive into specific examples within the film. I would like more examples As support from both primary and secondary sources. 3. Do you have any questions or anything you'd like to know more about? No, not really, the paper was streamlined. Bernard10 4. How well do the secondary sources described support the claims being made by the author? Do you have any suggestions for reorganizing the paper to focus the paper on the author's own thesis and claims? Overall, I think he does a good job at using secondary sources to support the claims. He makes Sure, to always include the film first and then use his secondary sources to support his claims Overall, the author stays true to supporting his initial claims and thesis.
