Critical Summary: Monster's Ball
Critical Summary: Monster’s Ball
Hollywood movie, Monster’s Ball, condemns females into the darkest pit of degradation. It cleverly takes on a noble disguise where it attempts to teach viewers about morality and life lessons; however, it dismisses the issue of equality between gender differences that is yet to be questioned in our society’s popular culture. On the glorifying surface, Monster’s Ball tells a moving tale of a white, racist man, Hank, who eventually learns to discard his hatred and prejudice for Black people as he finds himself falling in love with a Black woman, Leticia. The story revolves around the persistence to overcome the obstacles facing racism while unfolding and discovering redemption through hope and the ability to put one’s differences aside. It shows that interracial relationships are possible, and the story ends powerfully with the universal idea that ‘love conquers all’ – the ideology of romantic love in which “love is the ultimate solution to all our problems” (Storey, 104) when Leticia chooses to stay with Hank. However, one can imagine the rage and shock of feminists and females alike when one unfolds the underlying message of the movie; underneath this polished layer of a journey to discover hope, peace, and love, lies an ugly scheme of stereotyping that focuses heavily on women. Not only does Monster’s Ball portray women as weak, passive and lonely souls who thirst for nothing but a man’s care and nurture, it heightens the notion that women are forever suppressed and objectified under the power of men. This essay will reveal the ways Monster’s Ball stereotypes females, and will analyze the passages “Lacanian Psychoanalysis”, “Freudian psychoanalysis” and “Reading Romance” from book Cultural Theory and Popular Culture to support the arguments being presented.
It has always been a popular belief that women are inferior to men. Through media, literature, and other forms of texts, the representations and practices that
Hollywood movie, Monster’s Ball, condemns females into the darkest pit of degradation. It cleverly takes on a noble disguise where it attempts to teach viewers about morality and life lessons; however, it dismisses the issue of equality between gender differences that is yet to be questioned in our society’s popular culture. On the glorifying surface, Monster’s Ball tells a moving tale of a white, racist man, Hank, who eventually learns to discard his hatred and prejudice for Black people as he finds himself falling in love with a Black woman, Leticia. The story revolves around the persistence to overcome the obstacles facing racism while unfolding and discovering redemption through hope and the ability to put one’s differences aside. It shows that interracial relationships are possible, and the story ends powerfully with the universal idea that ‘love conquers all’ – the ideology of romantic love in which “love is the ultimate solution to all our problems” (Storey, 104) when Leticia chooses to stay with Hank. However, one can imagine the rage and shock of feminists and females alike when one unfolds the underlying message of the movie; underneath this polished layer of a journey to discover hope, peace, and love, lies an ugly scheme of stereotyping that focuses heavily on women. Not only does Monster’s Ball portray women as weak, passive and lonely souls who thirst for nothing but a man’s care and nurture, it heightens the notion that women are forever suppressed and objectified under the power of men. This essay will reveal the ways Monster’s Ball stereotypes females, and will analyze the passages “Lacanian Psychoanalysis”, “Freudian psychoanalysis” and “Reading Romance” from book Cultural Theory and Popular Culture to support the arguments being presented.
It has always been a popular belief that women are inferior to men. Through media, literature, and other forms of texts, the representations and practices that
Cited: Storey, John (2009b) Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: A Reader, 4th edn, Harlow: Pearson Education Coward, Rosalind (1984), Female Desire: Women’s Sexuality Today, London: Paladin. Lacan, Jacques (1989), Four Fundamental Concepts in Psychoanalysis, New York: Norton. Lacan, Jacques (2009), ‘The mirror stage’, in Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: A Reader, 4th edn, edited by John Storey, Harlow: Pearson Education. Hall, Stuart (1992), ‘Cultural studies and its theoretical legacies’, in Cultural Studies, edited by Lawrence Grossberg, Cary Nelson and Paula Treichler, London: Routledge. Chodorow, Nancy (1978), The Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender, Berkeley: University of California Press.