Stereotypes In Boyz N The Hood

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It is often the case that media and more specifically, film, perpetuates the stereotypes of black men. These stereotypes include not showing emotion, being physically aggressive, embrace violence, supposed criminality, associated with drug use, lack a father figure, sexually exploit women, and others. In the film, Boyz n the Hood, Tre’s father, Furious Styles, encourages Tre to demonstrate loyalty to other people in relationships, resist aggressive behavior, and foster and exhibit sexual responsibility. Thus, throughout the film, Tre challenges the society’s stereotyped norms of black masculinity and what it means to be a black man. To begin, Tre learns to display loyalty to his family from his father. Black men are stereotyped as not wanting to work and having an inability to care for their children or their families. However, Furious seeks to prove this as a myth. The film illustrates Furious’s dedication to raising his son to be a respectable young man and provide for him. Not only does he instill self-responsibility in Tre but also, communal responsibility. Tre learns

In fact, we could even say that the film is liberating because young black men are able to see themselves in a new reimagining of black masculinity in opposition to the stereotypes of whites and blacks alike. Although Boyz n the Hood helps to resist the stereotypes of young black men, and shed light on the real, lived experiences and institutional oppression of black people and young black men in particular, the film also reinscribes a stereotypical narrative that all black people are impoverished and become incriminated in gang activity. Not all black people experience poverty and gang activity. One could see this film as perpetuating the single black experience as if all black people are exactly alike and have exactly the same