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In both “Gender is Burning: Questions of Appropriation and Subversion” by Judith Butler and “‘She’s Gotta Have It’: The Representation of Black Female Sexuality on Film” by Felly Nkweto Simmonds, some of the most controversial issues in Hollywood are addressed. Gender, race, and sexuality. The idea behind these essay is that performance and “genderization” of characters is derived from basic stereotypes. Regarding race the idea is broached of how the black woman is seen as a “breeder” in most films. This stereotype used in film plagued Hollywood and held back the progression of great black, female actors. This also limits the exploration of black and black female sexuality within texts. Limiting sexuality as a whole to only one smaller portion of the population.

The essays “Gender is Burning: Questions of Appropriation and Subversion” by Judith Butler and “‘She’s Gotta Have It’: The Representation of Black Female Sexuality on Film” by Felly Nkweto Simmonds respectively explore gender and sexuality. Butler presents the theory of gender performativity which states that gender is constructed through a set of performances or “norms” rather than biological standards. Certain performances appear more masculine and thus are correlated with the male gender. Moreover, she discusses how heterosexuality has made normalized itself and established itself as original. Nkweto describes the difficulty of black female sexuality. She writes against the historic view of the black woman as being merely a “breeder” and describes the difficulty black women have in expressing their sexuality because of societal views

Pariah (2011) is a film that explores the life of a teen black lesbian who struggles with expressing her sexuality. She desires to be a “tom-boy,” but her mother is opposed to this. Thus, Alike finds herself navigating a minefield for most of the film as she attempts to please her mother whilst maintaining her identity. Her method for doing this is by changing clothes and performing the typical “girl” while in front of her mother. One scene that shows this “transition” is the scene where Alike changes her clothing on the bus. Here she goes from being dressed in typical male clothes (a flat back cap and a wife beater) to typical female clothing (including earrings). This transition uses Butler’s idea of performativity to express gender through the adherence to clothing norms. Not to state that Alike is attempting to become a male through her clothing, she merely wishes to express masculinity which she accomplishes through this transition. Moreover, her need to transition is founded in her inability to express her sexuality to her family. Society sees homosexuality in such a negative light that she feels a need to hide herself. This inability is reflective of Nkweto’s assertions about black women struggles to express their sexuality and Butler’s assertion about heterosexuality having normalized itself. These two constructs must be overcome by Alike and her doing so drives forward the narrative.