Hot Sad White Guys: Race, Sexuality,Film
General
Course Long Title
Hot Sad White Guys: Race, Sexuality,Film
Subject Code
FSFV
Course Number
444
Department(s)
Academic Level
UG - Undergraduate
Description
Sad Hot White Guys is a screening/discussion course exploring gender, race, and sexuality through archetypal media representations of white men. From military propaganda to the politics of pretty, Beau Travail to the white guy of the month on Tiktok; we're bringing a queer gaze to the socio-political implications of hypermasculine white figures in media to expand our definitions and representations of masculinity. Student work will include weekly writing, essays, and film/video projects.
MILITARY PROPOGANDA. SENSUAL OPTIMIZATION. GENDER ENVY. This course aims to connect films and writings across genres under the umbrella of a certain kind of racial and gendered beautification. From the intentionally homoerotic Beau Travail and Beach Rats to the laughably macho Top Gun and Rambo and perfectly calibrated sensitivity of Paul Mescal in Aftersun, these works rely on the figure of the "movie star", a traditionally or untraditionally attractive white man who broods and/or shoots his way into the viewer's heart. At one extreme, these uncanny beauties, arguably fascist in their perfection (shockingly muscular, shimmering from sweat, and threatening in presence) exact copious amounts of violence (revenge fantasies, military operations, both if we're lucky) on "deserving victims". At the other extreme, a lithe, lean sad boy self-flagellates through an emotional repression of his own design. Across genres (action, coming of age, etc.) these dynamics of violence and emotional inaccessibility craft a distinct archetype in cinema. The Sad Hot White Guy.
While these tropes have historically been observed as subliminal homoerotic exercises or straight pornographic male fantasies, I posit that through a femme, Queer, and Black gaze, these films occupy a space in media of simultaneous threat and aspiration. They're military and patriarchal propaganda. They're indulgence. They're camp. They're dogma, but they're also kind of fun! They invite us to stare, gawk, even be, but never touch or understand. In its exaggerated perfection, this archetype becomes an Other that marginalized viewers can inhabit and claim as their own.
MILITARY PROPOGANDA. SENSUAL OPTIMIZATION. GENDER ENVY. This course aims to connect films and writings across genres under the umbrella of a certain kind of racial and gendered beautification. From the intentionally homoerotic Beau Travail and Beach Rats to the laughably macho Top Gun and Rambo and perfectly calibrated sensitivity of Paul Mescal in Aftersun, these works rely on the figure of the "movie star", a traditionally or untraditionally attractive white man who broods and/or shoots his way into the viewer's heart. At one extreme, these uncanny beauties, arguably fascist in their perfection (shockingly muscular, shimmering from sweat, and threatening in presence) exact copious amounts of violence (revenge fantasies, military operations, both if we're lucky) on "deserving victims". At the other extreme, a lithe, lean sad boy self-flagellates through an emotional repression of his own design. Across genres (action, coming of age, etc.) these dynamics of violence and emotional inaccessibility craft a distinct archetype in cinema. The Sad Hot White Guy.
While these tropes have historically been observed as subliminal homoerotic exercises or straight pornographic male fantasies, I posit that through a femme, Queer, and Black gaze, these films occupy a space in media of simultaneous threat and aspiration. They're military and patriarchal propaganda. They're indulgence. They're camp. They're dogma, but they're also kind of fun! They invite us to stare, gawk, even be, but never touch or understand. In its exaggerated perfection, this archetype becomes an Other that marginalized viewers can inhabit and claim as their own.