Creating Racial Identities Through Film: a Queer and Gendered Analysis of Blaxploitation Films Angelique Harris Marquette University, [email protected]
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Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette Social and Cultural Sciences Faculty Research and Social and Cultural Sciences, Department of Publications 4-1-2013 Creating Racial Identities Through Film: A Queer and Gendered Analysis of Blaxploitation Films Angelique Harris Marquette University, [email protected] Omar Mushtaq University of California, San Francisco Published version. Western Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 37, No. 1 (Spring 2013): 28-38. Publisher link. © 2013 Washington State University Press. Used with permission. Creating Racial Identities Through Film: A Queer and Gendered Analysis of Blaxploitation Films Harris, Angelique;Mushtaq, Omar Western Journal of Black Studies; Spring 2013; 37, 1; ProQuest pg. 28 Creating Racial Identities Through Film: A Queer and Gendered Analysis of Blaxploitation Films ANGELIQUE HARRIS-MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY OMAR MUSHTAQ-UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO Abstract This paper examines how racialized knowledge is reproduced through film. Through an analysis oftwenty blaxploitationfilms, this paper examines how gendered and sexualized discourses are used to shape Black identity. Discussed are the two typologies ofqueer images found within these films, the jester and the scoundrel, and how these images are used to frame Black identities. Consequently, we argue that queer images in blaxploitation films contribute to how racialized knowledge is produced. Introduction power these images have over us. Thus, following Hill Collin's (1990) logic, images are used as representa Sociologist Patricia Hill Collins ( 1990) discusses tions to reinforce knowledge through the "Eurocentric the intersections of knowledge and race. In particular, masculinist knowledge validation process" (p. 203). she goes on to describe how some types of knowledge Knowledge is racialized through creating images are privileged over others. Hill Collins ( 1990) writes, or representations. These representations are created "Institutions, paradigms, and other elements of knowl through a complex system of privilege (Bonilla-Silva, edge validation procedure controlled by elite [W]hite 1997). This system of privilege includes both institu men constitute the Eurocentric masculinist knowledge tional and individual components (Bonilla-Silva, 1997). validation process. The purpose of this process is to Taking the cinematic representation of the image as an represent a White male standpoint" (p. 203). Here, example, this image is a representation that is produced Hill Collins describes how knowledge is governed in the institutional context of"Hollywood" and panders by White elites, and argues that the White male gaze to the populace or the audience for its survival - the "validates" what constitutes as knowledge. Yet, as a individual component. Hollywood is then the site ofre part of this validation process, representations of this producing specific "knowledges," especially knowledge power become reified and act as ways to maintain this produced under racism, and that racism was reinforced power. One way these representations are reproduced is and reinterpreted by White audiences. These audi through the use of images. It is when these images are ences, in tum, identify with images on screen because mass produced that the knowledge paradigm does not the portrayals were created through a White dominated shift, and that resistance to the images becomes futile. institution. The complexity lies when the discourses Image theorist Guy Debord ( 1995) argues that we then of specific knowledge sets intertwine with racism, identify with these images and reinforce the discursive heterosexism, and patriarchy. Further, the process of Angelique Harris, Ph.D., is Assistant Omar Mushtaq, MA, is a Ph.D. student in Professor of Sociology in the Depart the Department ofSociology at University of ' ment of Social and Cultural Sciences at California, San Francisco. His research in Marquette University. Her research and terests include the sociology ofculture. sport/ teaching interests include the sociology fitness. health. gender and sexuality, media of health and illness, race and ethnicity, studies, the body. and race and ethnicity. gender and sexuality, religion.film/media studies, and social movements. 28 The Western Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 37, No. 1, 2013 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. knowledge reproduction becomes complicated when main processes: categorization and self-enhancement audience shifts. In other words, when the audience (Hogg &Terry, 2001). Hogg & Terry (2001) argue changes from a White audience to a Black audience, that individuals, through a socio-cognitive schema, does racialized knowledge reproduce the same oppres associate themselves with a particular identity, for sion found in cinema? Thus, we seek to explore how example, a national or ethnic identity. As individuals racial identities, particularly the Black racial identity, do so, they then create a sense of self and belonging. are constructed through cinema and created by defining Along with this sense of belonging, clarity about itself against what is, in essence, White supremacy. This one's identity occurs as she is able to distinguish paper argues that in light of a shifting audience, from between her own identity and others (Hogg &Terry, a White audience to a Black audience, the discursive 2001). Thus, self-enhancement of the group occurs, power of knowledge and White supremacy reproduces where groups develop specific norms and stereotypes itself along with other processes of patriarchy, hetero that reinforce the group's identity (Hogg &Terry, sexism, and racism. In order to understand how mar 2001). People then use self-enhancement to make ginalized "audiences" or groups negotiate discourses, comparisons between themselves and others (Stets we examine a series of films in a specific genre that & Burke, 2000). Ultimately, by attaining a social appeals to marginalized audiences to see how the identity, groups create an in-group, out-group dominant discourse still manages to reproduce itself, dynamic where other groups are excluded in order to even though the audience and/or institutions attempt to maintain group solidarity. redefine the space. We examine twenty blaxploitation films in order to understand how racialized knowledge is transmitted for Black audiences, in turn reproducing oppression. In this essay, we argue that racialized op The Politics ofSemiotics pression in blaxploitation films is reproduced through the production of queer images and sexualities. Visual theorist Gillian Rose (2003) contends that vi sual representations are created in the midst of complex Literature Review cultural meanings. These meanings have to be ascribed through various social agents (Rose, 2003). According To establish how Black Americans are represented to cultural theorist Stuart Hall (200 l ), this ascription in American cinema, we will briefly explore several occurs as social agents make choices to create an image. topics that place these representations into context. This image is then widely distributed and becomes en First, we will examine how visual semiotics work in the coded into the cultural framework in which people base context of social identity theory (Bordens & Horowitz, their choices (Hall, 200 I). Thus, the relationship be 2005) to examine the processes of how images become tween cultural representations and images reflect larger "raced" and the meaning of these representations in social structural patterns. Levi-Strauss ( 1986) makes the context ofrace relations. Next, we will place these this clear as he argues that cultural myths operate as ref representations in their historical context by looking at erents to larger social structural patterns similar to how how gendered representations intertwined with race in images on screen represent the social structure (Hall, American cinema. Further, we will examine theories of 2001 ). In this framework, we then can elaborate on the queer sexualities and note the current understanding of relationships between audience, race, film, and identity. how Black sexualities that are represented in American Social psychologist Henri Tajfel proposed that cinema are based on heteronormative assumptions. We people create their identities based on their identification then briefly discuss queer theory and how racialized with certain groups (Bordens & Horowitz, 2005). Con sexualities have been depicted in cinema. This will sequently, those groups start to create in-group biases, segue into our discussion about how alternative Black and eventually through a series of processes, begin to sexualities are represented in a series of films targeting discriminate against other groups (Bordens & Horowitz, Black American audiences - blaxploitation films. 2005). lfwe take films as an example of how groups solidify their identities, early films that focused on creat Social Identity Theory ing the "Black image," such as Birth of a Nation, were Social identity theory argues that group identity essentially a medium of communication governed by is created in relation to other groups through two Whites because of their ability to construct representa- The Western Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 3 7, No. 1, 2013 29 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. tions that negatively portrayed Blacks (Gordon, 2003). (CORE), as well as Black churches and cultural insti The in-group