Portrayals of Females in Boyz Essay

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.

Even where females are acknowledged for their professional accomplishments, strong accomplished professional working women like Reva Styles often suffer from perceptions that they are difficult, bitchy, domineering, or "ball busters" whereas males who exhibit the same qualities (like Tre's father, Furious Styles) are considered respectable, powerful, and reliable. Ironically, the character of Furious Styles is much harder on Tre than Tre's mother Reva, who is actually very nurturing and loving toward her son. To many American men, especially but hardly exclusively within the Hip-Hop community, a woman like Reva Styles is perceived as being cold, threatening, and in direct competition with men, even when that is not the case at all.

Ultimately, the images and characterizations about women presented in the film Boyz N' the Hood do represent values, beliefs and attitudes of males in the Hip-Hop community. Notwithstanding the degree to which Hip-Hop fashion and culture influences contemporary art and society, those perceptions about women are more likely reflections of prevailing social attitudes in American…