Racialized Disgust Response

My blog post connects my final project, the keywords and the readings. I used the theme of my final project and connected it to the readings to create the post. However, I also wanted to show the theme of a bromance in pop culture so I incorporated scenes from a popular rom com “I Love you, Man.

I started with a clip from the movie “I Love You, Man” whose plot revolves around Peter, a guy who has always had girl friends, trying to find male friends to be his groomsmen. The story is a comedy that surrounds the awkward line and unnecessary line that men walk when trying to befriend other men, but in a “straight” way. This need to remain tough and invoke heterosexuality in male on male friendships is enforced throughout society. For example in pop culture boys will use the phrase, I love you “no homo” to constantly remind everyone that they are straight. Men are so scared to cross the line in friendships and be seen as anything but masculine and tough. Amanda Phillips in Dicks, Dicks, Dicks: Hardness and Flaccidity in (Virtual) Masculinity writes “Society wants masculinity to be hard, from its cock to its biceps to its steely, impenetrable self-assurance.” The clip in I love you man shows Peters uncomfortableness calling another man and asking him to hang out his awkwardness is unbearable and funny to watch. To contrast that, I used a clip from “The Bachelor” in which two contestants JJ and Clint have a strong “bromance”, and the producers edit the footage to allude that they have something more. In Afterword: on disgust  it says, “For in a consumer society in which the public sphere has become increasingly coextensive with the marketplace, the spectrum of desires is simply broader than that of disgust, offering a rich multiplicity of ways to define and express all sorts of attraction.” Clint and JJ are comfortable with their attraction as friends and it is made into something that is supposed to be seen as weird and looked down upon. This should be the norm in our society and it’s sad that it’s still reinforced that men should remain “straight and tough and masculine” and bros instead of being able to be vulnerable and open around their friends.

To make my blog post I downloaded the two clips and then added the text overlaying them on iMovie and then added some transitions.