Parriah Film Analysis

A Media against Marginalized Groups – Upholding the Heteronormative Hierarchy In a world where the media and popular culture can either have a positive impact on us or take a toll on how situations and individuals are portrayed – one of which is social norms – by marginalizing a coalition of people based on race, sexual orientation, socio-economic class, gender etc. It has been evident that the media for a long time has fostered the dominance of social norms by constantly displaying subordinated groups like women, minorities, the LGBTQ community and the working class with less importance in our society or by classifying these groups with stereotypes and demeaning expectations. I would like to address the ways by which the intersection of race,

In so many films, there are no positive representations of Black women or Queer women; however we are able to sight both in the movie Pariah. When we analyze Pariah we notice that there is an intersectionality representing a minority, middle class, lesbian teenage woman who struggles to express her sexuality and gender through her clothing, sexual experiment and poetry. However, like most media portrayal of gender, Alike (the main character) believes she has to adhere to the rigid definition of what it means to be a lesbian – expressed by her friend Laura; or adhere to the family dynamics of what it means to be a woman – demanding from her mother. This is evident in the club scene where Alike wants to “pick up chicks” in a very heteronormative way. Also, Alike struggles to satisfy her mother’s family dynamics by switching her clothing from a hyper masculine attire (when with Laura) to a hyper feminine attire (when with mother). We notice this during the bus scene home from the club when Alike changes out of her loose baggy jersey and takes off her baseball hat as soon as her friend Laura gets off the bus. As Alike takes off her hat and baggy jersey, she reviews her hair and a more fitted blouse that her mother desires because it “shows off Alike’s figure”. She also explores her sexuality in a heteronormative form by experimenting with a “strap-on”. At that point she believed that to

In many mainstream music videos, violence against women are very much accepted and demonstrated. Some of these videos encourage a rape culture and many young minds are being conflicted by this misanthropic “culture” against women. The intersection of race and gender amongst women of color play a very imperative role in domestic violence for minority women and the media those not seem to view this as a serious issue. In Kimberlie Crenshaw’s article Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Physically assaulted women located in minority communities and working class communities are being subjected to live with their abusers due to poverty and fear. For example, Kimberlie Crenshaw addresses that one reason in which minority women who immigrate to the United States to get married to a U.S. citizens or permanent resident are threatened by the fear of being deported. In other words, if these women are being domestically abused by their husbands, they endure the battering because they don’t want to be deported; they basically choose protection against deportation over the protection against violence. However, can we put blame on these women? Hence, they get deported, they return to poverty without any idea of how to survive; if they stay with their abusers they are subjected to domestic