Portrayals of Females in Boyz

PORTRAYALS of FEMALES in BOYZ N. The HOOD

Types of Female Characterizations:

While the 1991 film Boyz 'N the Hood is not about relations between the sexes or perceptions about the role of women in the American urban community, it does reflect several predominant themes that permeate Hip-Hop culture with respect to females. Specifically, even as ancillary characters, the film portrays women in three distinct ways, corresponding to commonly accepted delineations in the Hip-Hop community about women.

As is the case within the rest of the same genre of films and other mass media (i.e. music and videos), women are portrayed in the movie in one of three stereotypical ways: (1) "baby mamas," (2) "chicken heads," and (3) professional women. Those in the first category fulfill only the role of mother and contribute little else to their families or communities; those in the second category are either addicted to drugs or represent sexual objects rather than human beings to the men who use them for sexual gratification; and those in the last category represent an image of respectability in the form of the only types of females that men (and society in general) respect.

Since 1991, relatively little has changed in so far as the degree to which those same characterizations still apply in the Hip Hop community. In fact, many observers suggest that the situation has only deteriorated further as a result of the continual social degradation of females throughout the various media and cultural elements of Hip Hop culture in the United States. Many males still subscribe to stereotypical beliefs and view females as necessarily falling into one of those three categories, which ignores female individuality even apart from the inherent lack of respect associated with two of the three predominant characterizations.

Gender Relations in the Movie:

Some of the more subtle ways that males in the Hip-Hop community relate to women disrespectfully transcend even those specific characterizations, functioning as a barrier between men and women in general, even between men and those women they consider to be part of the most respectable category of women. Notwithstanding the excuse of immaturity, Tre Styles illustrates the relative lack of fundamental respect for females on the part of males by the way that he talks about his girlfriend Brandi.

On one hand, Brandi represents the same type of respectable working professional woman as Tre's mother, Reva. She is intelligent, responsible, studious, and dedicated to making something out of her life and accomplishing something meaningful through her academic studies. In that regard, Brandi represents exactly the type of women entitled to the highest level of respect from men. On the other hand, even though Tre is sincerely interested in her as potential future partner (and presumably, mother of his children), he speaks about pursuing sex with her very disrespectfully in the company of his male friends and refers to "running game" on her in conversations early on in the film.

While women like Brandi and Reva are afforded at least some respect by males in the Hip-Hop community, women like the crack-addicted "chicken head" in the street and the housebound drug addicted mother represent the opposite end of the spectrum. Brothers Rickie Baker and "Doughboy" illustrate the complete disdain and lack of respect for these women in the manner that they repeatedly ridicule the street addict and chastise the housebound mother to take better care of her unsupervised infant daughter. In these exchanges, the fact that both women appear to be their elders plays no part at all in the respect to which the boys feel they are entitled, notwithstanding the fact that the housebound mother in particular appears to be approximately the same age as their own mothers. Their view of the women is shaped by their perceptions of what category of woman they represent.

Symptoms of a Much Larger Social Issue:

In many respects, the gender relations illustrated in Boyz 'N the Hood are merely symptoms of a much more general problem of misogyny and the general lack of mutual respect for females in many areas of American social culture, especially in the Hip-Hop community. Both Tre's early relationship with Brandi and Rickie's relationship with the mother of his baby illustrate the psychological distance that males maintain between themselves and their female partners, even within romantic and domestic relationships respectively. Neither woman is involved in her partner's life in the same way as the male friends. Instead, they remain within a highly compartmentalized role and kept almost completely separate without significant integration into their lives.

If anything, that dynamic is only a relatively mild version of the prevailing general lack of respect for all women within the Hip-Hop community. Within the film, Doughboy's comments during his "Welcome Home" barbeque that "Ho's gotta' eat too" directed at all the female attendants rather than just to any who happen to fit that specific pejorative characterization. This, in fact, is a concept that is epidemic both within the Hip-Hop community and also in many other segments of American society: in general, males bond to other males more sincerely and with greater loyalty than typical of their relationships with females.

In that regard, the phrase "Bro's before ho's" in particular may have originated in the Hip-Hop community but it is by no means restricted to that small society, having spread to college campuses as well as to many other social cultures outside of the Hip-Hop community. That concept incorporates the idea that relationships among males are fundamentally much more important and deserving of respect than relationships between men and women. Often, that remains true even where male friends betray their friendship by pursuing or even bedding one another's romantic interests. Instead of recognizing the betrayal for what it actually is and allowing their friendships to deteriorate as a natural consequence of such betrayals, they often rationalize that the fault lies with the female for entertaining both of them while denying the reality of magnitude of harm that pursuing one another's female interests should cause within their friendship.