1Yoon

Roy Yoon

Dr. Grover

College Writing R1A

9 December 2018

How Does Policing of Masculinity in a Culture of Cruelty Shape Black’s Masculinity?

Adolescent boys experience Policing of Masculinity (POM) in a variety of forms

(performance insults, intelligence/disability insults, challenges and dares)1, and film ​Moonlight​’s

main character Chiron experiences these forms of POM as well. In the film released in 2017,

Chiron and his tough survival in the society demonstrate these categories of POM. Dan Kindlon

and Michael Thompson, in their book “Raising Cain” published in 1999, suggest, “Boys are

desperate for role models as they head into this uncertain age, and in most cases the dominant

image of masculinity is one that requires strength and stoicism.” In the case of Chiron reaching

to the period of adolescence, Chiron encounters societal pressure to behave more masculine on

the following three stages: Little, always getting picked on, worrying about his drug-addicted

mom, Chiron, who explores his deteriorating school life and home life, burgeoning sexuality,

and the extraordinary mess of circumstances he is faced with on top of the already difficult

challenges of adolescence, and Black, who reinvents himself becoming unrecognizable in his last

evolutionary stage of development.2 Chiron learns masculinity through environment where they

grow up, or a culture of cruelty. “Raising cain”, written by Kindle and Thompson, highlights a

1
Reigeluth, Christopher S., and Michael E. Addis. “Adolescent Boys’ Experiences with Policing of Masculinity: Forms, 
Functions, and Consequences.” Psychology of Men & Masculinity, vol. 17, no. 1, 9 Apr. 2016, pp. 74–83., 
doi:10.1037/a0039342 
2
​Bradshaw, Peter. “Moonlight Review – a Visually Ravishing Portrait of Masculinity.” T
​ he Guardian​, Guardian News 
and Media, 16 Feb. 2017, www.theguardian.com/film/2017/feb/16/moonlight-review-masculinity-naomie-harris.
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culture of cruelty as “a culture that offers no security. With every lesson in dominance, fear, and

betrayal, a boy is tutored away from trust, empathy, and relationship. What they learn instead is

emotional guardedness, the wariness with which so many men approach relationships for the rest

of their lives.” Due to an environment where boys grow up in societal pressure, men learn to

display their power for survival. Then, throughout his boyhood, how does POM in “a culture of

cruelty” shape Chiron’s masculinity? The school bullies motivate Little or Chiron to become

Black, who exhibits excessive masculinity, especially through appearance to avoid becoming a

victim again.

In the first act of the film, “Little,” POM teaches Little that he has got to show he is not

soft in order to avoid harassment. ​Boys believe they must be aggressive and tough and stoic in

order to earn respect from other boys; the article “Raising Cain” states, “Inherent in this thinking

is the idea that to be a real man requires something more than simple anatomical maleness, that a

boy must rise to a performance challenge that will earn him his manly status.” ​He receives this

lesson from his friend Kevin one day when Little and other classmates play a mixed version of

soccer and football on the playground. When Little sees his classmates piling up on a boy with a

ball during the game, Little immediately feels uncomfortable and hesitates to receive the ball.

Then, Kevin helps Little to escape from the situation by taking the ball himself. Later on, Kevin

emphasizes the fact that Little has to stand up against his classmates’ aggressive and ‘hard’

behavior, and encourages Little not to be ‘soft’. Then, they both engage in a rough wrestle,

where Little actively fights back. Kevin says, “See? I knew you wasn’t soft.” For Kevin,

wrestling Little is an examination of Little’s masculinity. In the culture of cruelty, only men's
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performances of strength, power, and aggressiveness determine masculinity. Therefore, Kevin

points out both Little’s lacking and potential masculinity.

In Act 2 of the film, POM teaches Chiron not to show his weakness to others and

necessitates taking revenge on the bullies. He receives this lesson from most of his high school

experience. Chiron goes through numerous conflicts with a school bully called Terrel. As a

“dictator” at school, Terrel forces Kevin to beat Chiron up to raise other students’ fear against

Terrel himself to show that his hierarchy is much higher than others’. This scene shows how

Terrel maintains or elevates his status in the hierarchy by victimizing physically or socially weak

boys. Even though Kevin has an intimacy with Chiron, Kevin feels peer pressure and necessity

to survive among peers, then begins to beat Chiron up against Kevin’s will. In the process of

beating Chiron up, Kevin tells him to stay down, but Chiron keeps standing up. Chiron’s action

shows his masculinity by hiding his weakness to resist dominant Terrel’s behavior, displaying he

will not be defeated easily. Witnessing the situation that Terrel threatens everyone near him

sparks Chiron’s thought of showing masculinity externally.

As Chiron washes his face with cold water filled with ice after beaten up by Terrel, he

decides to revenge himself upon the bullying he no longer can endure. As soon as he arrives at

school, he harshly opens the doors, enters into the class, then strikes Terrel with a wooden chair

in classroom. These actions indicate the enhancement of Chiron’s masculinity and change of his

behavior in response to the stressful situation. The article ”Raising Cain” emphasizes a

possibility of boys changing behavior in order to guard their masculinity: “POM as a social

learning process that can lead some boys to significantly modify their behavior.” No one could

predict Chiron, who was perceived to have inadequate masculinity by the peers who harass him,
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would show such violent behavior. Not only his revenge could be seen as a rite of passage for

him, but it also could be seen as the toxic masculinity. This is the signal of end of his innocence

and beginning of his hardness. Even though he hurts someone, he is supposed to do this for

himself for himself and his masculinity.

In the beginning of Act 3, POM solidifies Black’s thought that he has to show his

absolute masculinity externally to prove that he is strong. Overcoming difficulties like having

terrible experience at high school, releasing from prison, and being betrayed by his high school

friend makes Black “hard”. He engages in washing his face with ice water, which is

reminiscence of the moment when he was a high school student and decided to revenge. As a

drug dealer, Black threatens his subordinate so that his subordinate cannot think of deceit against

Black. Black thinks bulking his body up, wearing gold “fronts” in his teeth, and listening to loud

music would make himself look like a “real” man. However, another scene of Black timidly

confessing he has not been touched by any guy since Kevin suggests, unlike his outward

features, his mind is still vulnerable like Chiron in front of his previous love, Kevin.; in fact, he

did not change internally. He is like a timid “hulk”.

For Chiron, POM is a hurtful and emotionally damaging experience during his

adolescence, because of school bullies who wanted to show their power or higher status by

bullying supposedly weak people. Learning from his tough experience of boyhood, Chiron

forced himself to show his masculinity in an excessive way by wearing fronts and others;

however, his mind was still vulnerable. This sums up how POM in a culture of cruelty shapes

Black’s masculinity. The topic of “coming of age,” a genre of story that shows the main

character’s growth, seems to be quite complicated, since one’s appearance can deceive everyone
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by means of nurture rather than nature, but his or her true identity remains at the origin. ​In the

last shot, Kevin will accept him despite differences in preference of sexuality, and Chiron will

accept Kevin despite the past, just like Chiron must accept himself considering the boy that he

was, the man that he is, and the man that he will be.
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*Works Cited

Reigeluth, Christopher S., and Michael E. Addis. “Adolescent Boys’ Experiences with Policing

of Masculinity: Forms, Functions, and Consequences.” Psychology of Men & Masculinity, vol.

17, no. 1, 9 Apr. 2016, pp. 74–83., doi:10.1037/a0039342

Kindlon, Daniel J., et al. ​Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys.​ Penguin Books,

2000.

Bradshaw, Peter. “Moonlight Review – a Visually Ravishing Portrait of Masculinity.” ​The

Guardian​, Guardian News and Media, 16 Feb. 2017,
www.theguardian.com/film/2017/feb/16/moonlight-review-masculinity-naomie-harris​.