Thomas Campbell - Boyz 'N The Hood
In this film there is a lack of consideration for women and how they are portrayed in this film. The treatment of women in the film was rather appalling. The constant use of “bitch” and “ho” when referring to women shows how appalling the treatment was. It was surprising that none of them seemed to take offense to it. The girls just shrugged it off, because it happened all the time. Women in the film were only shown as mothers and hook ups, and they were shown negatively. There were many examples of this. In the beginning of the film when the daughter was across the street, two of the boys were fussing over whose girlfriend she is, one of boys said he “puts his dick in her every night.” Tre’s mother sends him to live with his dad after issues at school. She attempts to get back in his life and neither Tre’s nor his father wanted this to happen. Tre’s had no respect for his mother and even blows off a weekend with her to stay with his “boyz”. Older women in the film are shown as crack heads, or even abusive mothers. In one scene a child is found out on the street and when brought back inside by a male the mother did not seem to care that the child was out on the road almost run over. Kitwana explains, “Parents may not be perfect and at times fit into neat stereotypes (such as welfare mothers), but they hold their families together as best they can” (pp. 125). Women usually stayed out of violence in the film, and wanted their families and children stay out of it as well. Men in the film treated the women as if they were ignorant, and did not listen to the women’s views, even though they would have been better off doing so. The fact that men did not listen to their women’s views emphasizes that women’s perspectives are largely ignored in the film. However with regards to this idea that women’s perspectives were largely ignored in the film, we have to remember the film is called “Boyz n the Hood”. The main characters of the film were males, and the women were not important to the films story line. John Singleton created this film to show the view of drugs and violence within the poor inner city with the use of male characters.
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