Girlz ‘N the Hood by Nyssa Shawstad
The film Boyz ‘N the Hood was largely male centric. There were few female characters and their portrayal was largely unfavorable. The two mother figures both were shown as somewhat distant, though for different reasons and in different ways. All the neighborhood girls were trashy and one dimensional. Even Tre’s girlfriend was the stereotypical ‘good’ catholic school girl. Rick’s girl was little more than his baby’s momma with virtually no dialogue or personality. They all fell within the simplistic “good/bad dualism” frequently found in Hollywood images of people of color (Chan 37).
They were further marginalized by the constant use of bitch, ho and whore. Most the characters did not even address the labels and the ones that did were not really reflective. Doughboy repeatedly suggested that women were essentially valueless. I think the oppression of women in the community is another facet of what Chan describes as “the unfortunate phenomena of autodestruction” (38). The males are externalizing the repression they feel from society. Essentially, if they are low on the social ladder, they need to make sure someone else is underneath him.
Sadly, if a film was made from the female perspective it would lose its drawing power. They would over sentimentalize the tragedies while cutting down on the violence. It would probably run like a Lifetime Original or some spiritual conversion. However it would not have been too difficult to just flesh out the women in the movie. To give them agency as individuals outside of “wife/girlfriend/mother” would have resulted in a more compelling and less sensational film.
WORKS CITED
Chan, Kenneth. “The Construction of Black Male Identity in Black Action Films of the Nineties” Cinema Journal, Vol. 37, No. 2 (Winter, 1998) pp. 35-48.