Pariah (Social Justice Event)

     For my social justice event I watched the film Pariah. This movie is about a young black woman named Alike who identifies as a lesbian and her struggles finding a place in the lesbian community as well as being accepted by her family. Unlike many popular LGBT stories in the media this isn't a story about a girl struggling with her sexuality, instead Alike is very sure of who she is from the beginning. As a matter of fact everyone around her also knows even though it remains something that isn't talked about. Throughout the movie Alike lives the life that her parents want her to live while at home by wearing more traditionally feminine clothing and then changing into a more butch style and navigating her first experience with romance (which spoiler alert doesn't end well). She lives in these two worlds until the end when she finally chooses herself and her own happiness by moving out of her house where she couldn't be her authentic self.

What did I learn?

     To be honest I feel like I didn't really learn anything from this experience. These themes presented in the movie were not new to me.  However there are a lot of things or points made in this movie that I think are really important to talk about such as:

1) You can not make someone into who you want them to be and trying to change them will only backfire and push them away.
                -  Alike's mother was very suspicious of her daughters sexuality and in an attempt to keep her away from fully immersing herself into the lesbian lifestyle she pushed her into a friendship with another young woman from church. But here's the thing.... she didn't want her daughter to like girls so she forced her to spend all of her time with a seemingly nice and likable girl??

              Well jokes on you because now they are just going to be gay together!!

               

2) Make your intentions clear!!!

                          - Now remember when I told you that there was a romantic aspect to this movie? Let's unpack that. Alike of course fell for Bina, the nice girl from church that her mom made her become friends with. The two friends became really close and flirty and at one point the two hooked up and they lived happily ever after right? Wrong. Don't be too discouraged, Alike also thought that they would be a couple after this but instead Bina broke her heart and said that she wasn't, and I quote, "gay-gay" she was just having fun and it would never happen again nor could they talk about it again. Just a little advice... Don't do that. Just be straight up with people about what it is you want before anyone can get too hurt.

Connection to Texts

1) Privilege, Power, and Difference by Johnson-  I think that someone with no connection to the LGBT community watched this movie they would become more aware of things that they don't have to got through. Also Johnson emphasized the importance of talking about privilege and our differences and in this movie everyone ignored Alike's sexuality, which proves that not talking about it does not make it go away.

2) Christensen Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us- This article basically can be summed up by three words "accurate representation matters" and that is exactly what this movie gave us. This movie centered around people of color, specifically black people and the main character was a butch lesbian. This is not something that is typical of mainstream media. It shows that people like that exist and they can have happy endings.

3) McIntosh White Privilege Knapsack- Even though this movie did not talk about white people and their privilege I think that it is important to acknowledge that the black community generally has a harder time accepting homosexuality. I mean for one, it is very rare that queer media represents people of color. This is because just like the people in Alike's life, a lot of black people want to sweep these things under the rug. Maybe it's because they know that black people already have it hard enough in the world and they feel like they can't afford to have another thing going against them. I don't know. But seeing black people and people of color get to be the leaders in stories that have been typically told from the perspective of white characters is refreshing. I am not at all saying that black people are more homophobic than any other group nor am I saying that these same reactions don't occur in white families. I'm just saying that it is interesting to look at these issues from a different lens and think about the root