Racialized Disgust Readings

This week, the readings explored the idea of gender and sexuality, especially in Phillip’s article, “DICKS DICKS DICKS: Hardness and Flaccidity in (Virtual) Masculinity”. The author discusses the relationship between the hard penis and masculinity, arguing that the idea of masculinity is this hard, chiseled body with a hard erect penis. I chose the quote, “The fixation on hardness restricts masculine individuals to a limited range of emotional and physical responses. Anger and violence, with their obvious shows of strength and rejection of weakness, predominate”, because I think that that can also be applied to Big Boo, a character on OITNB who is a lesbian butch persona. Phillips discusses the idea that men feel the need to embody this hyper masculine persona, with aggressive anger and big muscles, which can be hard to live up to. I chose a clip of Big Boo reacting to someone rudely cat calling her, with a lot of cursing and “fuck you”’s, the aggression apparent. Butch lesbians try to embody this masculine persona, which is seen in the way Big Boo handles the situation. The clip ends with the girl that she is trying to go home with leaving her, a little freaked out at how aggressive she handled the small cat call. The voiceover is from the actress that plays big boo, kind of making fun of her character in that she has to be this hyper masculine persona as well, but then orgasms delicately. This hyper masculinity that is portrayed by the media can have very negative connotations on gay men and straight men or anyone that enjoys being somewhat masculine, as it sets the bar too high. 

I used iMovie and overlayed the clip of Big Boo yelling at a passerby with audio from an interview with the actress, Lea DeLaria discussing the masculinity of her character.