Introduction
Queer people’s identities remain an insufficiently covered topic when it comes to racial minority populations. Moonlight, a popular drama film directed by Jenkins, seeks to address this gap by exploring the LGBTQ youth’s experiences using a team of black actors. Based on the beach scene and the scene in which little Chiron encounters homophobic slurs, the movie effectively illustrates the challenges of homosexual males raised in black communities’ hypermasculine cultures.
Summary
The plot of Moonlight centers around the three life stages of a young black boy named Chiron. As a young victim of bullying, Chiron meets Juan, a drug dealer who becomes his mentor, but his mother’s drug addiction and self-identity issues, as well as receiving homophobic comments from bullies, challenge his daily life (Moonlight). In adolescence, Chiron still lives with his mother, who is now involved in sex work, and his male friends start engaging in relationships with female peers, making Chiron feel like an outsider. On one occasion, after smoking weed together, Chiron has sex with Kevin, his bisexual friend, who solidifies Chiron’s identity as a gay black man. Unlike Chiron, Kevin treats it as an experiment and proceeds with heterosexual relationships, whereas Chiron becomes avoidant of new sexual experiences.
Analysis: Film Critique and the Analysis of Scenes
Overall, the film skillfully depicts the interactions between racial and sexual identities, as well as threats to a healthy social identity. The black community that Chiron belongs to, including his male peers, is supportive of the stereotypes of excessive masculinity, which makes even slightly non-conforming boys alienated. Kevin, to avoid being ostracized, actively demonstrates his “heterosexuality” and keeps any alternative thoughts a secret. Chiron, despite his desire to attract male partners, also internalizes these stereotypes as he grows older, including his criminal engagement and the willingness to build more muscle mass.
The internalization of stereotypes about femininity and queerness as something negative starts in Chiron’s childhood. This includes when he first gets called a hateful slur and asks Juan to explain this word’s meaning (Moonlight). In this scene, Juan honestly explains that this word serves to humiliate gay men (Moonlight). Despite this support, it is obvious that society’s homophobic worldviews influence little Chiron’s social identity, making him classify himself as a representative of an undesirable group in his black community. There is a conflict between masculinity-related norms and true desires, as well as the boy’s increased exposure to crime and poverty, which could be related to his race. It places Chiron at the intersection of two parallel social hierarchies, which is a tremendous challenge for a young developing mind.
In the second scene of interest, Chiron and Kevin discuss their childhood memories at the beach and suddenly kiss, which leads to an act of petting. These relationships’ limited social desirability promotes Kevin’s preference for staying in the closet. However, his enormous trust in Chiron moderates the fear of social punishment, enabling Kevin to take the initiative. The portrayal of pre-adulthood queer relationships that this scene offers is significant since it basically reaffirms teenagers’ right to differ from the ubiquitous heterosexual norm and conduct acts stemming from their desires to better understand their position on the sexuality spectrum. Additionally, since the beach scene becomes one of Chiron’s brightest memories that he still values as an adult, this specific representation of queerness confirms that the stability of a non-conforming identity is an existing phenomenon. It runs counter to a homophobic viewpoint that teenagers’ queerness is a passing stage and nothing more than experimentation. Thus, the scene and its connections to Chiron’s adult self offer insights into adult queer individuals’ maturation stories.
Conclusion
To sum up, Moonlight’s scenes provide an extensive overview of challenges at the intersection of queerness and belonging to a minority race. Chiron’s dual burden and identity crises share similarities with what I have learned from some transgender people of color I know. Aside from purely sociological issues, the movie implies the excluded groups’ internal fragility and loneliness, which is a topic for further exploration through artistic expression.
Work Cited
Moonlight. Directed by Barry Jenkins, Plan B Entertainment, 2016.