Lecture 11: Black Masculinity in the 1980s

1. Lecture 11:Black Masculinity in the 1980s Professor Michael Green Beverly Hills Cop (1984) Directed by Martin Brest

2. Previous Lecture • Race and Genre Anxiety in the 1970s • Blaxploitation: Setting the Context • Blaxploitation as Genre • Writing About Film: Using Sources I

3. 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

4. Black Masculinity and Culture Lecture 11: Part I Eddie Murphy Raw (1987) Directed by Robert Townsend

5. Key Course Images of Blackness

6. Stereotypes Have Persisted Over Time

7. 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.

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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”

11. 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.

12. 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”

13. Examples Wilt Chamberlin Tupac Shakur

14. 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”

15. 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.

16. 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

17. 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.

18. 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”

19. Eddie Murphy and Black Filmic Representation in the 1980s Lecture 11: Part II Coming to America (1988) Directed by John Landis

20. 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 20

21. 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).

22. 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

23. 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.

24. 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.

25. 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

26. 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.

27. 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

28. 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.

29. Gender Representation and The 1990s Black New Wave Lecture 11: Part III Boyz in the Hood (1991) Directed by John Singleton

30. 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. 30

31. 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.

32. 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.

33. 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

34. 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) 34

35. 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.

36. ‘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 urban-themed 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. 36

37. ‘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.

38. ‘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

39. 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.

40. Writing About Film: Using Sources II Trading Places (1982) Directed by John Landis. Lecture 11: Part III

41. 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. • Betrue to the original source material. • Get help when you need it.

42. What are Scholarly Sources? • Scholarly sources are scholarly journals and books published by university presses. • Scholarly journals are journals that are peer-reviewed 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.

43. 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.

44. Examples

45. 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.

46. 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.

47. 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.

48. 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!

49. 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.

50. End of Lecture 11 Next Lecture: Gender Crisis in the 1990s