Lecture 11:
Black Masculinity in the 1980s
Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
Directed by Martin Brest
Professor Michael Green
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Previous Lecture
•
Race and Genre
Anxiety in the 1970s
•
Blaxploitation:
Setting the Context
•
Blaxploitation as
Genre
•
Writing About Film:
Using Sources I
2
This Lecture
•
Black Masculinity
and Culture
•
Eddie Murphy and
Black Representation
in 1980s Hollywood
•
‘Hood Films and the
Black New Wave
•
Writing About Film:
Using Sources II
3
Black Masculinity and Culture
Eddie Murphy Raw (1987)
Directed by Robert Townsend
Lecture 11: Part I
4
Key Course Images of Blackness
5
Stereotypes Have Persisted Over
Time
6
Black Gender Roles
• Gender roles have been
especially inscribed in
Black communities
where stereotypes and
myths have often gone
unquestioned.
• Black men have been
expected to be
phallocentric,
patriarchal and
masculine.
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Definitions
• Patriarchal: A social system of male
supremacy – could be family, church,
government, etc.
• Masculine: having qualities
culturally/traditionally ascribed to men, as
strength, leadership and boldness.
• Phallocentric: Centered on men or on a
male viewpoint, especially one held to entail
the domination of women by men. Also
refers to being defined by the penis.
– Dictionary.com
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Internalizing Myths
• bell hooks argues that Black people have
often been enraged by white, historical
representations of them, but just as often
have not challenged these representations.
• Rather, they have often internalized myths
and stereotypes, passively absorbing narrow
representations of black masculinity.
• According to hooks, contemporary black
men have been shaped by these
representations.
Pause the lecture and watch the clip from Eddie Murphy: Raw
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Cultural not Natural
“In traditional black communities when one
tells a grown male to ‘be a man,’ one is urging
him to aspire to a masculine identity rooted in
the patriarchal ideal. Throughout black male
history in the United States there have been
black men who were not at all interested in the
patriarchal ideal. In the black community of my
childhood, there was no monolithic standard of
black masculinity. Though the patriarchal ideal
was the most esteemed version of manhood, it
was not the only version.”
– bell hooks, “Reconstructing Black Masculinity”
Evolution of Black Gender Roles
•
Images of black masculinity emerged from
slave narratives in which black men were
hard workers who longed for the freedom to
take care of their family.
•
Some 19th century black leaders advocated
rights for black women but many black men
continued to want women to subscribe to
gender hierarchies set by white society.
•
After slavery ended, black men and women
had enormous conflict over gender roles.
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A Phallocentric Framework
“With the emergence of a fierce
phallocentrism, a man was no longer a man
because he provided care for his family, he
was a man simply because he had a penis.
Furthermore, his ability to use that penis in the
arena of sexual conquest could bring him as
much status as being a wage earner and
provider. A sexually defined masculine ideal
rooted in physical domination and sexual
possession of women could be accessible to
all men.”
– bell hooks, “Reconstructing Black Masculinity”
Examples
Wilt Chamberlin
Tupac Shakur
White Fascination
• White men have often admired and envied
notions of black masculinity and looked to
the black culture for masculine identity.
• The white imagination often fantasizes that
black masculinity is the embodiment of the
“outsider” and “rebel.”
“Within white supremacist capitalist patriarchy,
rebel black masculinity has been idolized
and punished, romanticized, yet vilified.”
-
bell hooks, “Reconstructing Black Masculinity”
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Violence as part of the Equation
• Violence as a form of social control became
an important part of (black) masculinity.
• This violence along with phallocentric and
patriarchal ideas of masculinity has been
perpetuated in many areas of black culture
including Blaxploitation films, gangsta’ rap
and the ‘Hood films of the early 1990s.
• These representations are perpetuated by
black men but also by dominant white
society, which controls U.S. media
production, distribution and exhibition.
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Nature of the Representation
• In popular culture,
representations of
black masculinity
often equate it with:
− Brute phallocentrism
− Woman-hating
− A Pugilistic “rapist”
sexuality
− Disregard for
individual rights
What’s Love Got to do With It? (1993)
Directed by Brian Gibson
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Slow to Change
• hooks argues that the thinking of most black
men refuses to acknowledge the pain
caused by sexist thinking and patriarchal,
phallocentric violence expressed in
dominance over women but also in
internecine conflict among black men.
• She asks black people to question why
white culture has responded to changing
gender culture and feminism while black
culture largely has not.
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Author’s Final Point
“Changing representations of black men must
be a collective task . . . Black people
committed to renewed black liberation
struggle, the de-colonization of black minds,
are fully aware that we must oppose male
domination and work to eradicate sexism. . .
We can break the life-threatening choke-hold
patriarchal masculinity imposes on black
men and create life sustaining visions of a
reconstructed black masculinity .”
–
bell hooks, “Reconstructing Black Masculinity”
Eddie Murphy and Black Filmic
Representation in the 1980s
Coming to America (1988)
Directed by John Landis
Lecture 11: Part II
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Eddie Murphy
•
Just as Sidney Poitier
in the 1960s, and
Richard Pryor in the
1970s, were the leading
black male actors of
their day – and virtually
the only ones – Eddie
Murphy dominated the
1980s as the decade’s
only black superstar.
Harlem Nights 1989)
Directed by Eddie Murphy
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Fish out of Water Comedies
•
•
In the 1980s, Murphy appeared in a number
of “fish out of water” comedies in which his
character struggled to thrive/survive in a
foreign and sometimes hostile world – a
common comedy narrative.
These comedies, which were among his
most popular and financially successful,
included 48 Hours (1982), Trading Places
(1983), Beverly Hills Cop I (1984) and II
(1987) and The Golden Child (1985).
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Black Fish in White Water
“This comic staple functions differently,
however, when a black comic is placed at
the center of the insider/outsider
paradigm. In such cases black stars are
situated in cinematic milieus cut off from
other representations of blackness, or
even from other black characters, thereby
placing them in the dubious position of
representing the race.”
– Bambi Haggins, “Post-Soul Comedy Goes to the Movies”
Pause the lecture and watch the clip from Beverly Hills Cop
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Serving the White Establishment
• In Murphy’s fish out of water comedies the
goal of Murphy’s character is to help/serve
the white establishment. As such, his
blackness is ultimately non-threatening.
– In 48 Hours, he helps Nick Nolte’s detective
solve a crime, even though he stands to gain
nothing in return.
– In Trading Places, he helps Dan Aykroyd’s
stock trader pull a revenge scheme.
– In the Beverly Hills Cop movies, he helps the
white establishment solve crimes.
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Constrained by Genre
• These films re-packaged Murphy’s stand-up
and SNL performances, his ability to slip in
and out of multiple characters.
• Ultimately, he became a black comic action
star, featured in genre films in which white
audiences historically accepted blacks.
• However, as with Sidney Poitier before him,
Murphy was not allowed to transgress other
Hollywood boundaries and be featured as a
romantic leading man.
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Challenging White Exclusion
“The source of energy and tension in all of
Murphy’s movies is race, and to a lesser
degree, class, deriving from Murphy’s
blackness as a challenge to white
exclusion (but not privilege or domination)
. . . and while Murphy gets the upper-hand
in almost all situations, the ultimate result
of such a challenge is integration and
acceptance on white terms in the film’s
resolution..”
– Ed Guerrero, Framing Blackness
Pause the lecture and watch the clip from 48 Hours
Culture Comedies
• Using his industry status, Murphy made two
movies at the end of the decade – Coming to
America (1988) and Harlem Nights (1989) –
that featured increased black representation
and Murphy as a romantic lead.
• Coming to America, though successful, was
still a fish-out-of-water fantasy that played
on African stereotypes; and Harlem Nights
was widely decried as featuring the worst
aspects of Murphy’s misogynistic tendencies.
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Murphy’s Phallocentrism
• Phallocentrism and misogyny were on
display in most of Murphy’s pre-1990s family
films, most graphically in the concert films
Delirious (1983) and Raw (1998) and the
romantic comedy Boomerang (1992).
• bell hooks calls Raw one of the most graphic
spectacles of black male phallocentrism, in
which women are represented as evil.
Pause the lecture and watch the clip from Eddie Murphy: Raw
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Murphy in the 1990s
• Murphy had exhausted the fish out of water
genre by the 1990s and moved into a series
of “kinder, gentler” integrationist family
comedies such as The Nutty Professor
(1996) and Dr. Doolittle (1998).
• In these movies and others like them,
Murphy abandoned the controversial aspects
of his black comic persona for Cosby Show
style family stories that all but erased racial
representation and difference in favor of
unproblematic integrationist fantasies.
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Gender Representation and The
1990s Black New Wave
Boyz in the Hood (1991)
Directed by John Singleton
Lecture 11: Part III
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History
• Until the late 1980s and early 1990’s, most of
Hollywood’s black-themed movies were
directed by white men, such as John Landis.
• Although studios released a few films by
black directors in the late 1960’s and early
1970s, films by African Americans would not
emerge in force until almost 100 years after
cinema’s birth.
• Even many of the producers and directors of
Blaxploitation films were white.
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New Voices
• Black (and some white) directors would react
to the racist stereotypes of a century of film
by creating movies that represented black
people more centrally and complexly than in
previous decades.
• The turning point in the history of the new
black cinema was She’s Gotta’ Have it, the
first feature film by Spike Lee (1986).
• Other filmmakers that kicked off the black
new wave included Keenan Ivory Wayans,
Robert Townsend and John Singleton.
Spike Lee
• Lee was a pioneer who had a lot of success
early in his career. Because his early films
made money – including School Daze, Do
the Right Thing and Mo’ Better Blues – the
studios gave other black directors a chance.
• Lee has now directed more then 20 films
(including documentaries like Get on the Bus
and When the Levees Break) and is
considered the “dean” of black directors by
virtue of his talent, productivity and attitude.
Spike Lee and Gender
Representation
• Possibly, because Lee was such a pioneer in
racial representation, gender representation
in his movies has often gone overlooked.
• However, according to bell hooks and other
scholars, Lee perpetuate the same
phallocentric and patriarchal ideas of
masculinity as many other black male artists.
Pause the lecture and watch the clip from Do the Right Thing
Other New Wave Directors
• Other male directors from the Black New
Wave – 1986 – 1996 included:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
John Singleton (Boyz n the Hood, Poetic Justice)
Bill Duke (A Rage in Harlem, Deep Cover)
Reginald Hudlin (House Party, Boomerang)
Mario Van Peebles (Posse, New Jack City)
Carl Franklin (One False Move, Devil in a Blue Dress)
Charles Burnett (To Sleep with Anger, The Glass Shield)
The Hughes Brothers (Menace II Society, Dead
Presidents)
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Style and Content
• These movies tended to be more formally
sophisticated then their 1970s counterparts.
• They were more complex in characterization,
emotion and theme; most importantly, there
was a wide range of stories.
• However, they were almost all directed by
men and marginalize black women.
• The ‘Hood films, especially, for their honest
depiction of race and class, perpetuate many
stereotypes of black masculinity.
‘Hood Movies
• Hood films detail the difficult coming of age of
a young black male protagonist in an
economically depressed, socially contained,
often violent inner city setting, or “Hood.”
• They were born, as their seventies urbanthemed counterparts had been, of a
Hollywood economic depression and studio
decisions to produce inexpensive films
targeted at niche audiences in the hopes of
making quick profits.
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‘Hood Films (Continued)
• These new black-themed urban films
emerged also out of specific economic and
social conditions that African Americans
were enduring in the nation’s decaying urban
centers, such as Los Angeles.
• They depicted what their (mostly) young,
black male filmmakers felt were the difficult
realties in black America. They showed a
hierarchy in which black women were on the
bottom.
‘Hood Films Tropes and Themes
•
•
•
•
•
Display of the black male body
Guns and violence
Drug use
The marginalization of black women
The use of gangsta’ rap – and its attendant
misogyny – on the soundtrack and rap stars in
the cast
• The male coming of age narrative
• Absent black fathers
Summary of Points
• The representation of black
men has improved and
evolved over time as black
men have expanded their
roles in Hollywood films.
• However, such films have
often perpetuated
stereotypes of black
masculinity while
marginalizing black women.
Writing About Film: Using Sources
II
Trading Places (1982)
Directed by John Landis.
Lecture 11: Part III
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Summary: Using Sources I
• Sources should only support your
argument; always proceed with your own
voice and thesis.
• Use sources judiciously.
• Integrate sources into your paper and
explain how you are using them.
• Be true to the original source material.
• Get help when you need it.
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What are Scholarly Sources?
• Scholarly sources are scholarly journals
and books published by university presses.
• Scholarly journals are journals that are peerreviewed by experts in an academic field.
These experts make up an editorial board for
each journal that reviews all articles before
they are accepted for publication.
• Examples of preeminent university presses
include Harvard University Press and the
University of California Press.
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What is in a Scholarly Journal?
• Scholarly journals contain articles written
by researchers doing original work in a
subject field. These articles contain
bibliographic references to other articles
and sources.
• Most scholarly journals are devoted to a
particular topic. Several important journals
in Film Studies are The Journal of Film and
Video, Film Quarterly, and Film Comment.
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Examples
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Primary and Secondary Sources
• Primary resources – such as books and
peer-reviewed journal articles – contain
original research. They might also be literary
works, autobiographies or original theories.
• Secondary Sources – Compile or critique
original works. Examples include literary
criticism, biographies, encyclopedia articles,
and journal articles critiquing others’ work.
• Both are acceptable support for a critical
paper, though primary sources are best.
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Popular Sources
• Popular sources are books, magazine and
newspaper articles – whether in print or
online – written for the general public.
• Examples of popular sources include The
New York Times, The Wall Street Journal,
Time Magazine and Newsweek.
• Though these sources are scrutinized by
editors, they are not vetted by experts.
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Popular Sources (Continued)
• The also tend to be written for profit, where
scholarly work is typically written to
contribute arguments, research and
knowledge to a given field.
• Though you can cite popular sources in your
critical writing, you do not typically want to
use them to support your critical argument.
• They are not scholarly and should only be
used in a supplemental way or perhaps as
the subject of analysis.
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Finding Sources
• Scholarly books and journal articles can be
found in university libraries.
• Scholarly articles can be found by searching
computer databases such as JSTOR,
Academic Search Premiere and LexisNexis,
all of which can be accessed through
university libraries such as the ASU library.
• Searching is time-consuming and a good
search requires patience and effort!
• You can ask your librarian for search tips!
Importance of Scholarly Sources
• Scholarly sources are important because
they are not simple opinion.
• They are the result of a checks and balances
system, in which experts critically examine
and scrutinize each other’s work, asking
crucial questions and examining the quality
of the arguments.
• They are also built on the existing research
in a field, which has already been vetted by
the experts in that field.
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End of Lecture 11
Next Lecture: Gender Crisis in
the 1990s
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