Disgust & Masculinity – Moonlight

For this week’s post, I wanted to focus on Moonlight again since I am using the film for my final project. In this scene, the main character Chiron gets beat up by his best friend/the person he had his first sexual encounter with, Kevin. Kevin was dared to beat him up by the school bully, who is the guy with the dreadlocks and the white shirt, because the bully thinks Chiron is gay. Kevin did not want anyone to question his masculinity, so he beat up his best friend even though he did not want to. I felt like this related to the quote from the Phillips reading where she discussed masculinity. I slowed down this part of the clip so that the full effect of the punch can be heard and felt. I also used a quote from the Ngai reading where he talked about disgust. I used this quote mainly to comment on the part where Chiron is jumped by the group of boys at the end. The main one, with the white shirt and dreadlocks, claims to be disgusted by the fact that Chiron is gay throughout the movie. However, he constantly bullies Chiron throughout the film. I also rewinded this part so that there could be more of a dramatic effect. I found an instrumental on YouTube that I felt was fitting for the clip.