Boyz 'N The Hood
By: Elizabeth Bassett
Throughout the movie Boyz ‘N The Hood, the majority Black male opinion is clearly exemplified. With this strong emphasis on the male population, however, this movie has been accused of disregarding the black female voice of the time period as they were affected by the fractured families, drugs, and gun violence that were a stark reality within their culture.
During the course of the movie, I felt that the women’s perspective was largely ignored as women were portrayed through the eyes of the male opinion. The overall sense I received was that of women focusing on physical beauty. As long as a girl was cute and attractive, she could get a man and everything would be fine. School for females was very rarely mentioned and no scenes of girls studying together were portrayed in the movie. Only one mentioned the goal of higher education as most seemed to accept the reality that they would stay home and have babies for the rest of their lives. Men constantly talked about the “fine-looking” females that were around and seemed to view them as sex objects as the persistent chatter about “getting it on” could be heard within numerous male front porch discussion groups.
Tre often appears as the exception to this in the movie as he treats women around him differently than his male cohorts. One of the best examples of this takes place at the barbeque to celebrate Doughboy’s homecoming. As all of the guys rush to grab plates, Tre suggests that they act as gentlemen and allow the women to go through the line first. At times in the movie, however, Tre breaks the mold of letting women have a voice. This is visible as Brandy states that she wants to be a virgin when until she is married. To this, Tre still attempts to pressure her into having sex with him. This diminishes his credibility as, although he may not pressure as far as his friends, he fails to understand and respect her opinion as a female.
Name calling is another area in which the movie ignores the opinion of women. Throughout the movie, many of the males use “bitch” or “ho” when speaking to or with the ladies and “mother-fucker” when talking to their fellow brothers. Although this does not bother the men and is widely accepted as names for each other, the women do not seem to appreciate their slang names to the same extent. One example of the ignorance of the movie in portraying the women’s opinion is at the barbecue when one of the men calls a girl a “bitch.” Her reply is “I am not a bitch” to which Doughboy responds by calling her a “ho.” She continued to be displeased with both names, but Doughboy simply brushes aside her frustration and carries on with the party.
Overall, I believe the movie would have been very different had it been written with a stronger female influence. One of the main themes of the movie is the trial of the men at that time in relation to violence, school, and supporting a family. However, the female’s trials are unspoken and unresolved in the movie as they slip into the shadows of their male counterparts. Anti-violence may also have been a more common theme as the women appeared disgusted with the violence as evidenced by a girl stating “can’t we have one night without you boys getting in to a fight.”