Introduction
Within the American culture, sexual desire between races is regarded a highly problematic issue. In addition, for many societies, there are gender roles that are ascribed for males and females. For many years, Americans have expurgated sexual associations between blacks and whites because this has been regarded as a taboo. The portrayal of inter-racial sex is thorough in Hollywood stories that represent debates surrounding the questions of race and sex. Candyman is a movie produced in 1992 that calls upon conservative cultural structure of sexuality and race. This paper argues that Candyman is about race, sexuality and gender differences and boundaries that should not be crossed.
Analysis
The self-perpetuation in myths and legends …show more content…
Candyman not only crosses from the ghetto space into the white woman’s world, but also gets inside her life in her home. In the story, Candyman serves as the racial other that represent the sexuality of white associations. The invocation of Candyman is utilized in the movie as a sensual foreplay for the white girl, Claire and Billy. As his name is called by Billy, he gets busy caressing the breast of Claire that resist, thereby making him fail a test of manhood because he does not complete the required five Candyman’s calls. The invocation of Candyman is an approach used by characters foe desire expression. The use of Candyman by the lady is meant to initiate, and displace her desires through him, while disavowing her sexuality onto the black man. However, Candyman oversteps the sexy function of black observation of white sexuality by his too much masculinity as well as his hyper-phallic status. Different from a black female that can exemplify natural features of white associations in innocuous terms, the sexuality of Candyman is extreme and destructive at the end. The whites have to invite Candyman in their homes through summoning in the mirror because this is not his place. Candyman’s place is in the ghetto community with other blacks and this is where he belongs. Therefore, when summoned into the homes of white people, he associates with the sexual and intelligent overindulgences of white females, a character that was forbidden in the white community and perceived as a
Within the American culture, sexual desire between races is regarded a highly problematic issue. In addition, for many societies, there are gender roles that are ascribed for males and females. For many years, Americans have expurgated sexual associations between blacks and whites because this has been regarded as a taboo. The portrayal of inter-racial sex is thorough in Hollywood stories that represent debates surrounding the questions of race and sex. Candyman is a movie produced in 1992 that calls upon conservative cultural structure of sexuality and race. This paper argues that Candyman is about race, sexuality and gender differences and boundaries that should not be crossed.
Analysis
The self-perpetuation in myths and legends …show more content…
Candyman not only crosses from the ghetto space into the white woman’s world, but also gets inside her life in her home. In the story, Candyman serves as the racial other that represent the sexuality of white associations. The invocation of Candyman is utilized in the movie as a sensual foreplay for the white girl, Claire and Billy. As his name is called by Billy, he gets busy caressing the breast of Claire that resist, thereby making him fail a test of manhood because he does not complete the required five Candyman’s calls. The invocation of Candyman is an approach used by characters foe desire expression. The use of Candyman by the lady is meant to initiate, and displace her desires through him, while disavowing her sexuality onto the black man. However, Candyman oversteps the sexy function of black observation of white sexuality by his too much masculinity as well as his hyper-phallic status. Different from a black female that can exemplify natural features of white associations in innocuous terms, the sexuality of Candyman is extreme and destructive at the end. The whites have to invite Candyman in their homes through summoning in the mirror because this is not his place. Candyman’s place is in the ghetto community with other blacks and this is where he belongs. Therefore, when summoned into the homes of white people, he associates with the sexual and intelligent overindulgences of white females, a character that was forbidden in the white community and perceived as a