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Beauty Shop Final
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Corey Kula
Molly Daniel
ENC 1145
2/28/13
Beauty Shop
The movie Beauty shop contains a male character who is judged immediately
when he’s introduced in the movie. The people who judge this man are the
employees who work at the beauty shop, who all happen to be females. When the
man (James) begins his job for the first time, some of the women immediately get
the idea that James is gay because he is a hairdresser. They begin to talk and gossip
about him as if he’s not in the room. At first, all of the women all agree that James is
perfect and is the “hottest” man they have ever seen. Then one of the workers brings
up that fact that she thinks he is gay because he is smiles way to much and is just
simply “too perfect.” One of them jokes and says, “50 percent of his muscles are
from working out, and the other half from pushing other men off of him.” As the
women stand there and watch him work on the lady’s hair, Gina Norris ( played by
Queen Latifah) walks by and hands him a cup of cappuccino. As he takes a sip out of
the mug, he lifts his pinky off of the handle. The workers all smirk conclude that he
is 100 percent gay. The women then continue to discuss James’ sexual preference
and say how much they wish he were straight. Right when the characters notice
James, they are using Logos. Their mindset is that he is a hairdresser so he must be
gay. Obviously, that logic is offensive and in this situation, false. The audience is still
unsure what James’ sexual preference is, so they are psychologically forced to go
along with what the characters believe. Of course since a man is a hairdresser, he’s
gay, right? Also, just because he lifts his pinky off of the cup, he is 100 percent gay,
according to the employees. The fact that the females aren’t sure if James is gay
gives them something to gossip about, which shouldn't be the case at all. Why is it
their business what his sexual preference is? If he were straight, they wouldn’t have
anything to gossip about. This scene is trying to depict to their audience that being
gay isn’t the norm. It’s scenes like this that people just watch and think is funny, but
actually affects society and shapes the way we think about gender.
So the movie goes on and the next time you see James is when he is blasting a
women’s rap song while dancing and singing by himself. One of the workers walks
by and watches him bust it out, but he has no clue she is standing there. When he
notices her, she jokes and says what were you doing, “Taking someone’s man?” The
movie is making it clear that no straight men sing and dance when they’re alone, and
if they do, they are gay. The female who witnesses James singing and dancing to the
girl rap song assumes that he is gay. Just because he is enjoying a rap song by a girl,
that makes him gay? Her reaction to James shapes the way the audience thinks. In a
scene later on the movie, she brings up to her fellow workers that she saw him
dancing and singing very feminine like by himself. In this case and throughout the
entire movie, the audience has no choice but to assume that he is gay.
A couple of scenes go by and the hairdressers, including Gina, are getting
ready to leave the shop. Everybody is walking out when they notice James trailing as
he is putting on what he calls a “man bag” around his neck. He claims that it is the,
“hottest new accessory in men’s fashion.” One of the women jokes and asks him if he
has any men’s lipstick in that bag, and the workers leave James in the shop and are
seen laughing and gossiping about James. The audience is forced to think something
is wrong because of the camera work. The camera zooms in on James, and right
there, the audience is forced to look for something. The man bag goes against the
male gender norm. No straight man would ever wear a bag around their neck, right?
So James is stereotyped as being gay just by the way he dresses. This scene perfectly
plays into the idea if Ethos. Throughout the movie, the workers and Gina’s
troublesome niece look up to Gina for support. She is the owner of the shop as well,
so she is well respected by the characters and ultimately by the audience. Since Gina
seems to agree with the fact that James is gay, everybody buys into it as well. This
could’ve ended horribly. This isn’t true in the movie but let’s just say for example the
hairdressers were making fun of him for his man bag, but the reason he had the bag
was because he has diabetes and his medication was in the bag. Assuming
somebody’s sexual preference based on his or her fashion is completely wrong. To
make matters worse, James becomes all embarrassed when the women crack on
him and are seen walking out of the shop whisper and giggling amongst themselves.
The scene leaves the audience with only this in mind: James is gay because of the
way he dresses.
Another instance where James’ sexual preference is judged is when there is
an argument outside between Gina’s niece and a man. James sees what’s going on
and walks outside. All of the women employees rush to the store window to watch
the altercation from inside. James asks them if there is a problem, and the other man
throws a punch. James dodges it and hits the man right in the face. That’s not it.
After James hits the guy in the face, he shakes his hand and says, “Man, I hate
violence.” All of the women giggle and continue to question his sexual preference
even more. This scene just adds more fuel to the fire. For a second, the characters
and the audience think he’s brave and strong so how could he be gay, that doesn’t
make sense? Immediately after punching the man, James cringes and makes a face.
He shakes his punching hand and says he hates violence. This scene represents
pathos. This scene is very upbeat and fast paced that the characters let their
emotions get the best of them. When James says he hates violence, that signals to the
characters that he is soft and must be gay because a straight man would never say
that. When that comes out, the audience then goes back to their original way of
thinking that he is gay. The stereotype of a straight man isn’t to be a wimp and say
you hate violence. Society believes that a straight man should be brave, strong and
tough. So just because a man gets hurt after throwing a punch and says he doesn’t
like violence makes him gay. This is just one more example of how gender roles are
enforced through this film.
Then comes the dance club scene. All of the ladies are sitting down on
couches in the club when James walks up and asks one of them to dance. The girls
seem startled. She accepts and both of them walk towards the dance floor. As they
head to the dance floor, one of the girls speaks and makes comments as if she is
jealous of the hairdresser who is about to dance with James. The other girl calms her
down and reminds her that James is gay and is not interested in any of them. The
next thing they notice, James is standing on the dance floor, amazed at the moves the
female is putting on. The two begin to dance. This is when everybody becomes
completely stunned and begins to freak out a little bit. All of sudden, he turns her
around and they begin to intensely make out. This is a prime example of logos. The
characters believed that they had nothing to worry about since James was
absolutely gay. Well that logic was apparently false. The characters feel stupid for
their assumptions which rubs off on the audience. There was no other choice but to
assume he had to be gay. Everybody now realized he is straight and that their
preconceived notions were false. The girls all get up at the same time and walk to
the dance floor, in pursuit of trying to impress James.
Throughout this entire movie, it is apparent that the movie is depicting that
James is gay. He goes against many of the male gender norms and crosses the
gender boundaries. In reaction to his “female-‐like” actions, the women
automatically assume that he is gay, which ultimately results in the audience
thinking the same way. This is just one of the many examples of the ways media and
other outlets shape how society indicates what is the norm and how each gender is
supposed to act. This film is definitely a good example of how Ethos, Pathos and
Logos are portrayed and how people are shaped to think. Just because of James’ job,
clothing, and actions, the characters and the audience all assumed and gossiped
about James being gay. Judging and gossiping somebody’s sexual preference strictly
because they are crossing the gender roles and norms is completely wrong. The idea
of Ethos can definitely be seen throughout this entire movie, as the emotions of the
female workers obviously get the best of them. This movie is a prime example of
how media and other outlets subconsciously set gender roles and norms, and
portrays to the audience that going against what is expected of you is not normal
and will result in people gossiping about you.
LINKS:
http://stagevu.com/video/sydvnijjjzou (Times-‐ 47:20-‐49:10 and 112:40—1:13)
(Probably hard to watch, this is the only link I could find for these scenes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS4ePK8ojqc (3:00-‐4:37)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8YKZFhrLOA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jhEe9nr-‐Js