Movie Review – The Boondock Saints
Review Of: The Boondock Saints
If you flip the cover of Boondock Saints over it reads “Brothers. Killers. Saints.” This shows the basic progression of the movie in as few words as possible. The main characters are the Macmanus brother, Irish catholic immigrants, who have no family known to them besides each other. They are low class, live in illegal loft apartments in the ‘Irish neighborhood’, and work at butchery. There devotion to their religion is made obvious and there devotion to each other even more so.
There are some very typical and some very atypical stereotypes portrayed in this movie. The brothers themselves are Irish with thick accents. They are poor and work at a meat factory and also seem to enjoy drinking. All of these are stereotypical characteristics of the Irish immigrant. Although, they are not the image of the uneducated worker but rather are very educated both in the traditional book sense and in the life sense. The bothers speak at least 4 languages and are able to think very quickly on their feet.
Very typical masculine roles are played out in this movie. The brothers are kind of goofs and seem to get into scuffles quite often. Although it is always portrayed in good fun when the fighting is over the masculine ideology is still present. The brothers are portrayed as being able to handle almost any confrontation, have a large knowledge base in weaponry, and are able to take massive injury and keep on going. When they start the transformation to killers, they had previously killed two men out of self-defense, they are represented with a god sent message while they slept that they are to “Destroy all that which is evil, so the good may flourish.” They take this message to heart and take it on themselves to be the judge and the jury for people who are ‘evil’; In this case members of the Russian and Italian mob. The portrayal of power and privilege is almost intoxicating but never questioned by either brother. More interesting is the idea that power/privileged is placed on two individuals who seem to seldom have either in life. They are given an opportunity to do something and they decide to take it with god’s permission.
Their first planned killing, although not going as planned, is successful and 8 men are killed. The brothers show very little emotion over the killing of these men and in a matter of minutes they are playing a joke on a friend. The brothers keep killing members of the mob and eventually get caught by the leader of the Italian mob. They are held in the basement and beaten and forced to watch their friend bleed to death. To get out of the situation one brother breaks the other ones hand by smashing it to allow the hand to slip out of the handcuffs. The idea that these boys can do anything and because of that and the fact that they are killing people the general public believes to be ‘evil’ allows for the title of Saint; Men who kill and are verified for doing it.
The only female character in this movie is a woman who works at a strip club and a butch lesbian who is to start work with the brothers at the meat factory. Both are obviously negative images for the feminist lesbian gets insulted and starts a brawl in the factory over an comment concerning the ‘rule of thumb’ and the stripper gets knocked unconscious and molested.
One of the most interesting representations of non-stereotypical roles is that of the FBI agent Smecker. Although his sexuality is not stated out right, we do see him sharing a bed with another man, his gestures are very effeminate as is his walk and even at some points the ways he uses words. When he first arrives on the crime scenes he takes all the local police down a notch by insulting their skills. After that he put in his head phones and listens to classical opera while dancing around the crime scene and investigating it. He comes up with the murder scenario in less then 5 minutes. Agent Smecker uses his supposed sexual orientation to make all of the local police uncomfortable but also they all seem to evolve as police investigators during the time that he is with them. Agent Smecker’s feminine representation of self never seems to bother the Macmanus brothers though. Through this strong representation of comfort around a person not performing typical masculinity the brothers come off as stronger characters.
Later in the movie agent Smecker finds out the Macmanus brothers have been captured and rush to their rescue. To do this agent Smecker dresses up in drag and presents ‘herself’ to a member of the mob to get access to the house. Although the plan itself doesn’t work out the ideology of a powerful man without a powerful position on the patriarchal ladder is intriguing. This man is, overall, represented as a strong and very capable character.
All in all, this movie was a vigilante thriller with a twist of life thrown in for fun. It brings up question about the rights of individuals to make decisions for the many. At the end of the movie the brothers, and there father, are seen warning the public to toe the line of evil for evil will be punished by the three of them. In our world it is a nice thought that there would be people willing to take justice up and protect ‘the people’. Unfortunately, all of the social structures that have affected our lives from our first days until now make us unable, in my mind, to determine a dichotomy of evil and good. For if these men truly did exist I would want them to have the same believes and values as me and I assume that is true for everyone.
Towards the Definition
Summary and response to: Towards the Definition of Patriarchy – by Heidi Hartmann
Patriarchy is a structure. It’s not a person or even a company but rather an entire institution pushing women, men, boys, and girls to fit the ‘normalized’ roles that there sexes and associated genders prescribe in today’s society. It’s important to note that the patriarchy is hierarchical as well as oppressive. No two people are going to experience patriarchy in the same ways. There are people who have other advantages that work to raise them up on the patriarchal ladder and others which place them towards the bottom.
The major division is drawn through the perceivable sex. This line pushes a dichotomy into play where if you are on one side of the line therefore you must opposite of what is on the other. While male identified people are strong, independent, and emotionless, women are emotional dependent on men, and considered less physically able. While men are considered the positive women are considered negative and therefore to be a man with feminine characteristics is unthinkable for a hetero-normative society. For women to be masculine is to be pushy or bitchy.
The labor force of women is highly unrecognized both in and out of the home. While a majority of women pull double shifts at home and then at work their unpaid and paid labor is seldom recognized. The work force is just one of many institutions that holds up the patriarchal backbone of society. Marriage is another. The idea behind the need for a women to be with a man to provide for her puts untold amounts of stress on both sexes, and others who do not identify within the hetero-normative culture. These stresses come from religious organizations, family, mass media, etc. The common sense of it all seems to justify ones personal experiences until you truly look into the history behind the systematic oppression of women’s rights and see that if this many people are suffering that is holding the end of the stick.
We as people fit into this hierarchy like puzzle pieces and it’s not until you can see the big picture that the world starts to fall apart. It’s strange that you can be so content to be like those around you, integrated into a system. The problem is that the system itself is forever changing and unless you’re carefully falling into it again and again is possible.
Something About the Subject
Summary and response to: Something About the Subject makes it Hard to Name – by Gloria Yamato
In the ‘axis’ of oppression racism plays a huge part. Race as developed into something that everyone willing or not, has to play a part in. There are many races but the majority of the influence revolves around the white vs. non-white. Then outside of your own micro level definitions and placement there are others that place themselves around you. It’s amazing how structured something so arbitrary can make our lives. Racism or the “monster” has made the majority of us believe that it simply is how life has always been and always will be. Some of us take it a step further and internalize the oppression. This allows us to believe in the stereotypes and assumptions of who we should be, how we should act, and who/what we should believe as truth. We end up being our own gatekeepers and without much work the dominant culture has ‘normalized’ our behavior.
When you normalize behavior you become able to categorize people and their behaviors. This also works with racist behaviors. Yamato classifies 4 types of racist behaviors: aware/blatant, aware/covert, unaware/unintentional, and unaware/self-righteous. Out of those categories I would personally hope that the people around me were unaware/unintentional, so that though education thoughts could change. I find that the easiest to deal with, on a regular basis, are the aware/intentional because at least they’re honest about it and realize their prejudice. You know where to not go and who to not deal with, but in a sense this is another form of internalized oppression. Granted it is better to have someone who is socially minded and trying to overcome racist believes then any of the other categories. The most difficult would be the last category, unaware/righteous. The idea that one is colorblind in a society that seems to see only in color and yet that every colored person should therefore identify strongly with their race origin. This feeds internalized oppression ideals that we are not yet Asian enough, African enough etc… to be Asian or African. These ideas are strange for we are not asking them to step forward and do a traditional Irish dance or where the clothing of the noble British Empire. There is a one-way street in those kinds of conversations showing the connections between privilege and power.
In the end racism isn’t just an individual level system. There are hundreds of years of history and the founding of many nations on racist ideologies. Wither you can categorize people as racist is semi irrelevant, it seems, when it is obvious that we all have preconceived notions thrown at us from institutions all around us. “Racism must be dealt with on two levels, personal and societal, emotional and institutional.” Each person has to find a space where they can identify as they please and from there invite people in to that space that will prove to be healthy additions. When there are enough people you can manage to create societal change and later institutional change.
What Every Indian Knows
Summary and Response to: The Forward and Introduction of Conquest Sexual violence and American Indian Genocide – by Andrea Smith
What Every Indian Knows
Auschwitz ovens
burn bright
in America
twenty-four million
perished in the flame
Nazi
not a people
but
a way of life
Trail of Tears Humans
Ends in Oklahoma
an Indian name of
Red Earth
Redder still
Soaked in blood
of two hundred
remove tribes
the ovens burn bright
in America
Ancestral ashes
sweep the nation
carried in
Prevailing winds
Survivors know
The oven door stands wide
and some like mouse
cat crazed and frenzied
turn
and run into the jaws
at night
the cat calls softly
to the resting
us
-Pam Colorado
I feel that is poem is a very appropriate starting place for a discussion on race and gendered based violence. The history of a people is its backbone and there are some things that only a few members of society can truly understand. It is obvious that the author has suffered for her fight and designation as Native American. She brings to the table the fact that every woman who is considered non-white is subjected to stereotypical behavior guidelines and the marginalization not only of your person but of your mental capacity and knowledge base; The colored point of view. Forever you will be known not as a person but as a colored person and some who that changes what you have to say. I agree that this happens. The fact that I am Chinese does not mean I can tell you what your zodiac sign is or the data of the next new years. But it is expected of me to know. It is expected of me to be able to hear an Asian accent and understand what the person is says or even to be able to respond in that language.
The term “ethno-stress” is used in Smiths case to describe the continuous taking from the naïve people. There land, there traditions, there bones, there right to a cultural education are all still slipping though the communities fingers as they fight so hard and are almost completely unheard by the general public. This process marginalizes the community further and slowly strips away the entire ‘threat’ to the government, patriarchy, and social structures.
When you bring in gender the questions get harder. Smith says that gender violence is basically just another tool for the oppression of the treat hiding in the corners of the patriarchal system but also in racisms and colonialism. To this day the United States and the Native Americans have a tired and thread bare relationship. Gendered based violence is another kick to keep them down. They do this by using state level limitations to make the Native peoples not people at all but concurred. They are inherently “rapeable.”
Although like Smith says they are still active and even after over 500 years of genocide Native Americans are one of the groups at the forefront of racial and gendered arguments. The message that Smith portrays is of warriors who have been so beaten down that their own bodies are not even theirs but with such spirit and drive to accomplish that disappearing is not an option. This book was written truly for anyone who wishes to experience that kind of power for in her writing you can very much feel her presence.
Pink — Dear Mr. President
In our times the key in the dark room is knowledge. It’s hard sometimes to think about others but consider your voice critically. Every breath can be a waisted opportunity and every silence another death. Music can save millions.
David Rovics — Jenin
Use it responsibly but you have to hear him.
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=111310
Jenin
Oh, child, what will you remember
When you recall your sixteenth year
The horrid sound of helicopter gunships
The rumble of the tanks as they drew near
As the world went about it’s business
And I burned another tank of gasoline
The Dow Jones lost a couple points that day
While you were crying in the City of Jenin
Did they even give your parents warning
Before they blew the windows out with shells
While you hid inside the high school basement
Amidst the ringing of church bells
As you watched your teacher crumble by the doorway
And in England they were toasting to the Queen
You were so far from the thoughts of so many
Huddled in the City of Jenin
Were you thinking of the taunting of the soldiers
Or of the shit they smeared upon the walls
Were you thinking of your cousin after torture
Or Tel Aviv and it’s glittering shopping malls
When the fat men in their mansions say that you don’t want peace
Did you wonder what they mean
As you sat amidst the stench inside the darkness
In the shattered City of Jenin
What went through your mind on that day
At the site of your mother’s vacant eyes
As she lay still among the rubble
Beneath the blue Middle Eastern skies
As you stood upon this bulldozed building
Beside the settlements and their hills so green
As your tears gave way to grim determination
Among the ruins of the City of Jenin
And why should anybody wonder
As you stepped on board
The crowded bus across the Green Line
And you reached inside your jacket for the cord
Were you thinking of your neighbors buried bodies
As you made the stage for this scene
As you set off the explosives that were strapped around your waist
Were you thinking of the City of Jenin
Women in the Games
Summary and response to: Sexism in the Gaming industry – by Julian Seale
This article was noticeable written by a male identified person most likely in his last teens or early twenties. I was important for me to keep in mind the audience in which this young male was trying to reach in order to understand the lens in which he felt was most relevant to use. The average gamer is most likely male and Mr. Seale is writing to fit such an audience. I know nothing about this author nor was able to discern anything form searches.
He entire point seems to be locally wrapped around the fact that female representation in video games, much like every other form of media, is miss represented and eroticized. He states, “…you’ll find that movies and the vast media are increasingly advertising more robust, exotic, and erotic stereotypes…” He arguers that this is turning people into products and the term sex sells has again come to the surface in considering gender representation in the capitalist society. There is a disturbing trend in this country of over-masculinizing men and over feminizing women to the point where men must resemble Rambo and women Barbie. To be masculine must be the opposite of being feminine.
The video game industry is no different. It is important however to notice that there are higher structural inequalities at work here. The video game companies will not all of a sudden decided to make a complete line of female heroines who lead the way into the feminizing of video games not necessarily because there aren’t people who don’t want it to occur but rather that there are too many people in high positions who buy into the masculine and feminine role play to get funding down at the company level. The patriarchal society/system in which we live in must be recognized as influential on a local business as well as a global business level.
The American Holocaust
Summary and Response to: Encountering The American Holocaust. The politics of Affirmation and Denial – By Ward Churchill
The American Indians, who are so often dehumanized through practices of cultural imperialism into a single being, are grossly misrepresented in history. These native peoples were seen as less then the European colonists in terms of intelligence, imagination, and usefulness even though without their guidance the first settlers would have had little change of surviving their first winter in the Americas. Yet with no westernize system of land ownership and a strong spiritual connection to nature the government found it necessary to take it upon them to ‘civilize’ these peoples. Part of the ‘civilization’ was the forcing of westernized agricultural practices upon them resulting in the robbing of native land. These lands were then resold to white male farmers. The Native Americans where expected to participate willingly in the assimilation into westernized religion, clothing, language, and social behaviors as well as to teach it to their children.
Those who did not assimilate or give up their land as easily where said to be resisting change and therefore in need of eradication. Millions of native communities were subjected to horrific violence and marginalization. People on the frontier viewed Native Americans as ‘”…vermin, launched literally hundreds of campaigns to effect their extermination, and then reveled in the carnage which resulted.” Genocide is defined as “A deliberate killing of large groups of people, especially those of a particular ethic group or nation.” What was done to the Native Americans through targeted and brutal attacks was in my mind just that; a genocide no matter what the Zionist masses may believe.
There is a condition of mass denial in the United States when it comes to the Native American overthrow. The very language of the discussion tells a tale of long oppressed and stigmatized masses that where always considered the ‘other’ and dangerous. The idea of “Indian Wars” and the savages of the land bring to mind a war like people who came after the European settlers rather then the other way around. Also the ideology of the New World allows and accepts a purely westernized lens of awareness to our history even today. These ideologies are carried on even today in media representations through TV, news, and movies. We listen to “experts” tell us all about the revised history of America and all our children learn the settlers brave tales in school. With what Churchill calls the “interconnecting webs of mythic interpretation” the facts are almost impossible to discern from the mass information. Because of the lost history it has lead educated people to believe that the settlers and government just went a little too far; that the blame should be placed on no one because everyone is allowed to make mistakes. In my mind it’s the equivalent of a three year old says oops. Our government should be more responsible and aware. It is not appropriate for the death of millions to go unnoticed and unrecognized as tragic. Denial should not be tolerated.
Some take it a step farther in my opinion and say that we concentrate too heavily on the genocide and not enough on the positives that came out of it. Charles Krauthammer of Time magazine writes on May 27, 1991 “The real question is, what eventually grew on this bloodied soil.” Later in the article he states that without the mass murder of the ‘barbarous’ society that “…a culture of liberty that endowed the individual human being with dignity and sovereignty.” would not have been possible. The idea that we as a culture are more rich and diverse, or that we are some how better off by glorifying the American Holocaust in our history is absurd. Never would a mainstream author be able to say such things about the German Holocaust. When I place the events side by side I see only small difference in skin color and location in time; what could that say about our society?
In the end those populations of Native people’s that were not ‘liquidated’ where ‘restocked’ and stuffed on to land that had little if any agricultural use. This forced many families into a cash based system of survival. With no good to sell and little too offer a stigmatized society other then there bodies through hard labor and prostitution the people were set up to fail. Today the so-called clumped together Native people of North America are scattered and extremely marginalized, exploited, and abused. For all there suffering I see very little positive benefit to anyone today except those who now occupy land unknown to them as battlefields in history.
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Responses-
To dehumanize a people is to keep them as others and this allows them to become not important as individuals or contributing members of society. This fading also occurs when history is taken away or distorted to such an extreme extent that self identification is difficult. In the minds of many ‘American’s’ there are two gendered version of the Native America. A man: without a shirt sitting bareback on a horse with a bow and arrow or a women: who has long black hair, is wearing skins and has a baby strapped to her back. These are not accurate representations to show anyone especially not the children of Native ancestry. This all leads to a point where all that is seen is the negatives blared at us 24 hours a day making it easy to believe in such ‘common sense’. Children are not exposed to truth because, among other reasons, we don’t think they can handle it and therefore the cycle continues. In so many other countries children are required to learn other languages and cultures of the peoples they live next to and go to school with. The melting pot of America has resulted in an assimilation of children and assimilated children become assimilated adults. We would not need such intense degrees of programming.
Faces of Oppression
Summary and Response to: Five Faces of Oppression – by Iris Young
“The function of literature, through all its mutations, has been to make us aware of the particularity of selves, and the high authority of the self in its quarrel with its society and its culture. Literature is in that sense subversive.”
– Lionel Trilling
When you look at a group of peoples there are things about each of them that set them apart from one another. Even two identical twins are going to have differences. These differences historically have been the building blocks of oppression and domination also known in the wider sense as injustice. These oppressive behaviors and ideals expressed on a micro level have traveled to the macro effecting laws, labor divisions, and cultural practices in the United States and around the world. It can also be said that these Macro systems have in turn stigmatized groups and communities of individuals reinforcing generalized stereotypes. To make the situation even more complicated it is almost impossible to describe a single set of criteria that fit all of the oppressed. Even further the nature of oppression and oppressive behavior has changed over history along with the communities it encompasses.
The word oppression has lost much of it’s tyrannical connotations. According to Iris Young the word oppression has come to encompass communities and individuals of people being harmed by structural systems with no distinct aggressor. This causes problems when organizations try and solve such inequalities at a larger level. The need for a scapegoat is felt in almost any conversation with oppression at its core. People worry that they will be blamed for having privilege. These are not necessarily individuals, or even groups of peoples behind the oppressive nature of society but rather an all-encompassing system.
This brings us to the problem of even defining human beings into groupings. For each individual a group and community will mean something different. There might be geological aspects, biological aspects, social aspects, or physical aspects, which brings a group together. These groups are lumped into two categories aggregates and association. While there is generally safety in numbers grouping people together in itself creates marginalization; one of the 5 faces of oppression. The other 4 are exploitation, powerlessness, cultural imperialism and violence. According to Young a group is oppressed if they experience at least one of these categories.
Marginalization is the process of making a certain group of people unimportant and invisible as individuals but keeping the characteristics of them mainstream. These characteristics usually are not flattering and often depict people as violent, low class, unintelligent, or lazy. Exploitation is a process by which monetary gains are made by classing groups of individuals; making certain individual’s time, work, and skills, worth more than another’s. This has been used to justify a large majority of non-euro white workers, specifically females, in factories, as maids/house servants, and in agriculture. Powerlessness is rather self-explanatory. This represents the lack of individual power a person can own, specifically non-professional workers. Without this power of voice, or money to back ones opinions and experiences, it is very hard to rise in status in a capitalistic society. Cultural Imperialism is the fear of new and different things. The idea that the western ideal is normal and everything else is ‘other’ is a good example of this. This thought process has allowed many military leaders to rationalize the ‘civilizing’ of the ‘other’. Last there is violence. This encompasses violence that is socially and systematically acceptable or tolerated by the people in power upon the ‘other’. A good example being the lynching of African American individuals for committing crimes such as looking at a white women or sitting in a ‘white only’ area.
Although Young says that these are all encompassing I believe that we should be carefully using that word. There are no two people the same and if we generalize in the theory trying to explain the systems of oppression there will be only more segmentation of ideas. Also this was a very western lens focused piece, which was not truly accessible to those outside the field of higher academia.
Formation of Race
Summary and Response to: Racial Formation by Michael Omi and Howard Winant
Race has been a stepping-stone for blood spilling in this country and globally for as long as our history has been written. The purification, the dehumanizing, and the efforts to save those who are living in such circumstances has started more conflicts on all levels of organization than any other cause. In the United States racial evolution has been very convoluted. The awareness of race traveled from a religious field to a scientific awareness and finally to a political stand point in policy making. The allocation of a biological definition in itself, leading to the justification of differential treatment based on race, has been in the works since the early 1800’s yet is still unsuccessful with modern technology but continues on today. The idea that race was more then just skin deep and could determine a persons more complex mental and physical attributes had lead to a “common sense” notion that race is normal and the racial line is needed to understand our world. With this ‘common sense’ government agencies have been able to control the masses under their order and striate them as seen fit.
The ideology behind such segregation are centered in the belief that race is an essence; something that is unchangeable and fixed. The opposite side is the ideology that race is a mere illusion and should just simply be eliminated leading to a color blindness in society. Both of these stances have their problems and neither really considers the social implications of a 300-year history based on racial profiling in this country. Although, when social implications are presented there are those who see racial injustice and inequality overall as just that; prejudice and bigotry. If this is the cause the solution would be just education and the need for tolerance. This ignores the socialization of racist ideals that have taken hold over the hundreds of years of oppressive conflict. Still one could argue that making it sound as if racism is engrained in every person the task of pin pointing it and making progress to change it is almost impossible. If the solution were really that simple the answers would have come forth and been resolved. But in fact the messiness of the racial order and racial projects are part of their very definitions.
Definitions no longer just cause conflicts pertaining to a forced categorization of racial orders but also to ways in which the systems of oppression are categorized within each movement. Racial formation, with its macro level social processes, political spectrum of racial formation and leading down to the micro level of analysis, states “…race is a matter of both social structure and cultural representation.” A racial project is stated as containing “…interpretation, representation, or explanation of racial dynamics, and an effort to reorganize and redistribute resources along particular racial lines.” The definition leads one to believe in a ‘black and white’ representation of these categories where there truly is nothing but grey. Racial formations can lead to running around inside a circle of arguments while a racial project in itself can be racist. But without a starting point nothing can be accomplished so acknowledge the possible flaws in these trains of thought we move on hoping for new ways of defining the world around us and integrating the messages so everyone, not just the highly educated westerner will have access to the benefits.
For me it is easy to blame an outside force for the problems I face due to my racial categorization as Asian, Chinese, or mixed depending on the observer. The idea that the media, schools, history, the government are all to blame leads me to fall into a pit where the problem is too big for me to handle and adaptation seem the only option. The ‘common sense’ mentality that this is just how it is penetrates every corner of my life. I am torn between being proud of my heritage and hating the cages of definitions which society runs on. When I am not Chinese enough to be truly Chinese or I have been in this country too long to consider myself Asian I find that I’m not a or b but somewhere down the line. A person without connections seems powerless but because I recognize where this powerlessness is coming from I am able to reclaim my identity as just that; mine. It matters very little what the man down the street thinks of me or my skin color, hair, or eyes for if I can look in a mirror and find hope for not only myself I consider it a productive day.
Interconnections — Ayisha Knight
To be the other is one thing but other is not enough. You are not other enough to be part of a specific other. So where do you go now? You are not A and not B so maybe x, y, or z. How do you find a place in the world where you fit? In my opinion Ms. Knight has the best idea.
