The label of this blog identifies it as about race, class, gender, and sexuality. This gives the reader at least a general idea of the content to be found herein. These things in and of themselves are also labels. When we attach specific ones to people, we hope to have some idea of the content to be found within them.
However, there is much more at play than this. This is because unlike the title of this blog, whatever specific label from the cornucopia one chooses to identify oneself, in doing so there is also a larger attachment to the community that chooses the same label. Black, rich, male, gay, all of these labels also describe many other people. Even taken altogether, one will inevitably find someone else who will unite under that banner.
It is also inevitable that others outside this chosen community will have ideas and predefined notions about that label. Think back to that list, and pick one of those labels that you yourself do not identify with. Now, go through in your mind the characteristics of that group. Undoubtedly you have some stereotypes about that given group, whether you consider them benevolent or benign or bad. And it is almost certain if you are reading this as someone living in the United States that many of those stereotypes have been drawn from American Cinema.
"So what?" you may ask. The problem is that these labels also represent a sense of identity, an identity probably isn't displayed by those stereotypes. I myself identify as a mixed race, middle class, straight male. Each of these lends itself to my identity, but only tells a partial story.
My father is white but my mother is Mexican. Both of those have markers in my appearance, my cultural traditions, and my world view. I speak Spanish and English. I know how to dance Merengue. I can cook a beef stew just as well as frijoles a la charra. When I enter the room of a family gathering on my mother's side, I hug and kiss everyone as I enter. On my father's side, this isn't necessary.
I am from what is now a middle class background, but in my more formative years it was impoverished. I remember being a family of eight in a two bedroom apartment, sleeping on a cot in my parent's bedroom at age 4. I remember when a rare treat for good grades was a Burger King dollar whopper for dinner. Yet now I sit and type this on a thousand dollar computer, looking at a 27" screen, sitting in a five thousand square foot home.
These things are not instantly apparent by the labels that I've chosen to describe myself. Nor do the tell the whole story of who I am. Yet it is likely that some individuals reading this may have seen things I have said and identified personally with them, thereby creating a sense of community from those labels.
These things also identify individuals by what they are not. I am not female, nor will I ever be. I can never experience first hand what that means. I rely on the narratives of others to tell me what that experience is like, so that I can understand what the attachment of that label means. Nor am I gay. Part of my understanding of that label depends on people who I have seen in cinema that have that label. I can observe uninterrupted and without judgment Simon Bishop (As Good As It Gets) and try to understand what being gay means.
This process happens whether we want it or not. If I had said I were Indian, there are many who would instantly think of Slumdog Millionaire and understood me through that lens. As it is, many who think of Mexicans might see it through the lens of something like The Three Amigos. As the films we view are then an inextricable part of us (whether we agree or disagree with the portrayals they depict) we cannot but help have them alter our perception of the world around us.
The rubber hits the road, so to speak, by the fact that in this country, we're all in it together. For each of those categories there are many different labels to choose from that can be found here, and that we will interact with on a daily basis. Because of this, these portrayals matter. In order to have healthy and productive relationships with those around us, we must understand how cinema affects the way we view one another, and the way we view ourselves.
