6. James Gilligan attributes feelings of shame as a primary cause of violent behavior, and claims that inflicting violence on other lessens and overshadows a person’s own feelings of shame. In Brokeback Mountain, Jack and Ennis grew up in a time and place where homosexual feelings and relationships were strongly rejected from society, and where people who were thought to be homosexual were shunned, harassed, and attacked, often to the point of being murdered. The general attitude toward homosexuality at this time caused people to reject their homosexual thoughts and desires, and to associate feelings of shame with these longings. Frequently, the people that acted the most violently toward homosexuals were those that had homosexual desires
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In the United States, prison culture is filled with sexual violence, with rape having become a common means of relieving sexual urges as well as asserting dominance among other prisoners. In American Me, Santana has several encounter with rape, during his prison sentence as well as before and after it. The audience learns that Santana was conceived through the gang rape of his mother by racist sailors during the 1940’s “Zoot Suit” Riots. Santana is eventually arrested for gang violence and sent to a juvenile detention center, to be released when he turns eighteen. However, on that night another inmate holds him at knife point and anally rapes him. In retaliation, Santana murders his rapist, extending his own sentence for almost two decades and sending him to a maximum-security prison for adults to finish his jail time. While he is there, he builds his gang, La Eme, into a respected power and sets in motion a gang war between La Eme and an Italian crime lord. When Santana is eventually released from prison, he begins a relationship with a woman he meets names Julie. The scene in which they first have sex is extremely violent as it is cross-cut with a scene showing members of La Eme back in the prison gang rape the Italian crime lord’s son, whom Santana ordered the death of. Cross-cutting is an editing technique used to clearly show
In the United States, prison culture is filled with sexual violence, with rape having become a common means of relieving sexual urges as well as asserting dominance among other prisoners. In American Me, Santana has several encounter with rape, during his prison sentence as well as before and after it. The audience learns that Santana was conceived through the gang rape of his mother by racist sailors during the 1940’s “Zoot Suit” Riots. Santana is eventually arrested for gang violence and sent to a juvenile detention center, to be released when he turns eighteen. However, on that night another inmate holds him at knife point and anally rapes him. In retaliation, Santana murders his rapist, extending his own sentence for almost two decades and sending him to a maximum-security prison for adults to finish his jail time. While he is there, he builds his gang, La Eme, into a respected power and sets in motion a gang war between La Eme and an Italian crime lord. When Santana is eventually released from prison, he begins a relationship with a woman he meets names Julie. The scene in which they first have sex is extremely violent as it is cross-cut with a scene showing members of La Eme back in the prison gang rape the Italian crime lord’s son, whom Santana ordered the death of. Cross-cutting is an editing technique used to clearly show