America's Complex Society and Breaking Stereotypes in Moonlight
The film Moonlight tackles the idea of what it means to be a black man growing in Miami in the nineteen-eighties. This film addresses the common misconceptions of African American men and debunks the myth of masculinity and expectations of what it means to be a man in America. We often see in the media men portrayed as hard and tough. However, Moonlight focuses on destroying these stereotypes, capturing the intimacy of male relationships and sexual exploration. How the film depicts race, class, and sexuality…
Moonlight is the story of African-American man growing up in Miami. The film divides the main characters life (Chiron) into three segments and through each chapter in his life Chiron is challenged by his community. In the first segment, we have a young Chiron (nicknamed Little) insecure of himself and questioning his differences with others. In the second segment, we see a teenage Chiron learning to conform to society’s rules and lastly, in the third segment, we are met with a grown up Chiron, that now goes by the nickname black. In this last chapter Chiron finally adapts to our culture’s standards and looks like what it means to be a black man. He masks his identity under tattoos, a golden grill on his teeth, and large muscles.
We are first introduced to Chiron as a young boy, being chased down by his neighborhood bullies. The bullies are running after Chiron calling him hateful slurs used towards gay people. In this scene the camera is extremely shaky symbolizing Chiron’s discomfort and insecurity towards himself and his peers. As mentioned in Lisa Wade and Myra Marx Ferree’s piece, “How to do Gender” we have people that break and we have people that conform to societal norms. In this situation Chiron is being harassed because of the way he expresses himself. Chiron enjoys dancing ballet, isn’t afraid to show his emotions, and as his mother says “you see the way he walks.” All of these are reasons as to why Chiron is being policed. He takes pleasure in things that a man shouldn’t find joy in. As this film is set in the eighties, we should take into consideration as to what American culture was like back then compared to now. In today's society more men are redefining masculinity and gender roles. For example, we see more men wearing makeup and nail polish. The men that are doing this are praised for disrupting toxic masculinity. However, we are now living in a more progressive society where doing these things are more acceptable. This reveals that our culture is artificial and man made (expand). Mention kevin and chiron sharing an intimate moment. Breaking black stereotypes and such
Chiron also happens to be the son of a drug addict living in a poor, black neighborhood in Miami. We specifically see Chiron’s living conditions in a scene where he goes to take a bath. In this scene Chiron takes a large pot of water off the stove and dumps it into his bathtub and to clean himself he throws in Dawn dish soap. Through this scene we learn what his living situation is like. People of color tend to be apart of the lower class because of institutionalized racism. For example the G.I. Bill was created to help veterans of World War II establish themselves after the war. But, this bill failed to give these benefits to African Americans, causing neighborhood segregation to be set in place.and other things like slavery and jim crow laws. Moonlight also shows that when you are born in a low income family it’s hard to escape it. Americans preach “if you work hard, everything will come to you.” However, this mentality doesn't work if you live in a corrupt country as we learn in theory of race and black the unemployment evidence and callback stats because of being a person of color) this is why towards the end of the film we see Chiron grow up to be a successful drug lord.
Moonlight rewrites the idea of an African-American man. The common stereotype that all black men in American films should be strong but never vulnerable. The film forces the audience to ignore these stereotypes and roles and to rather focus on the characters as human beings with their own flaws and positive characteristics than their associated misconceptions of them. One stereotype in the film that is addressed is the common misconception on drug dealers. We see them as cold-hearted, tough men but in the movie Juan, a drug lord, meets Chiron as a young boy and becomes his father figure.
Overall, Moonlight captures America’s complex society and debunks the myths of American culture.
