StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Cultural Psychology - Paris Is Burning - Coursework Example

Cite this document
Summary
The paper "Cultural Psychology - Paris Is Burning" states that generally speaking, the gender organization totally disintegrates from hegemonic norms of gender and sexuality in the way that people have the ability to choose gender and sexual identities…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER94.6% of users find it useful
Cultural Psychology - Paris Is Burning
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Cultural Psychology - Paris Is Burning"

“Paris is Burning” is an acclaimed 1990 documentary that depicts several concepts of cultural psychology through its themes and plot. The main themes of the film relevant to the study of cultural psychology include gender roles, femininity, masculinity, sexuality, social class, psychological distress, and social exclusion.

The themes in “Paris is Burning” illustrate, enhance, and contradict lessons from readings and lectures in class. The documentary idealizes femininity, masculinity, and queerness, which reinforce gender roles assigned in society (Kitayama and Cohen, 2010). It illustrates the challenges gay men and transgendered women faced in their everyday lives in New York City nightlife. Some of the men dressed as women, while some women assumed masculine roles to coexist in society. Drag queens symbolized the gay liberation movement, and some viewers may see this psychological influence as a mockery of women. The behavior of the drag queens in the documentary contradicts the concept of masculinity and femininity.

The documentary portrays the gender system as a collection of gender and sexual subjectivities that surpass the basic concept of femininity and masculinity. The movie contradicts class readings in the way that members of the ‘houses’ in the movie choose to identify with a certain gender category.

Even so, it enhances class readings because the gender system expressly defines the role of members in the house in terms of sexual orientation. In this case, the movie configures gender roles socially, rather than biologically. For instance, house parents guide their children, house mothers cook and clean, while house fathers mentor their ‘children’ and serve as authority figures.

The movie depicts the effect of cultural psychology on gay and transgender people. The movie challenges the myths of gender and sexuality because instead of focusing on the cultural and social behavior of reproduction, it identifies with surface aesthetics. In essence, the clothing and make-up one put on determine masculinity and femininity. For example, a scene in the documentary depicts a man walking into the house dressed as a woman, while a woman walks in dressed as a man (Coles, n.d). Astonishingly, they swap their bags at the checkpoint because of the resultant confusion that their newly assumed gender roles would cause. The class readings and lecture emphasize social narratives of family and reproduction, but the documentary only serves patriarchal interests, which go against feminine and masculine identity.

“Paris is burning” is an exhilarating documentary that presents a subculture with rules and regulations, which define the effect of cultural psychology. It is refreshing to see how people are happy in their social confines, rather than the traditional precincts of society. The documentary is useful for scholars in cultural psychology because of its relevant themes that touch on gender roles, femininity, masculinity, sexuality, social class, psychological distress, and social exclusion. About class discussion, it is evident that the recurrence of actions results in stabilization, which eventually results in the naturalness of the behavior of a specific group. Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Film Critique Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words”, n.d.)
Film Critique Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/psychology/1684917-film-critique
(Film Critique Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words)
Film Critique Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words. https://studentshare.org/psychology/1684917-film-critique.
“Film Critique Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/psychology/1684917-film-critique.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Cultural Psychology - Paris Is Burning

Breaking cultural boundaries with art works

The aims of this paper are to examine the overall concepts of cultural identity, how this relates to society, politics and art and how this pushes or creates boundaries in contemporary culture; to study the changes being made according to cultural differences; define the concepts of expression and artistic works according to different artists.... The identity is one which begins with labels and divisions that are associated with an individual and is inclusive of everything from cultural ideals to belief systems and expectations which occur....
26 Pages (6500 words) Dissertation

Sigmund Freud

Freud moved to paris, which was then the world centre for neurologists and the study of neurology.... He also became interested in the possible symbolic significance of various cultural objects.... Sigmund Freud Ask anyone to name a famous psychologist and the name of Sigmund Freud is likely to come up....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Social Psychology (Choose 1 of the 3 topics)

But, after total devastation of the main buildings, there are an invasion of heroes: big letters of S, F, and P are making a victory over Fats, burning them down.... are designed as if they are burning down fat-drops.... Aim of the paper: to understand practically --- in action --- to what extent social psychology, as partially academic discipline, could be applied to real world situations.... First, Evidence will give some considerations on how promotion strategies looks like, and Report will provide a basis of social psychology' theoretical concepts for the current real world (e....
3 Pages (750 words) Essay

Managing Sexual Harassment at Workplace

The phenomenon is defined as a mechanism that is working in order to tame the female professionals to submit to the institutional and cultural strength of the males.... I would like to communicate my heartiest gratitude for getting an opportunity to work on this important topic.... The basic and fundamental purpose of writing this essay is to find out the reasons that are known to contribute towards aggravation of sexual harassment at the modern workplace....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Edward EvansPritchard's contribution to anthropological theory

ultural Anthropology: studies the differences in human behavior and psychology in the past and present.... Take history, biology, chemistry, psychology, sociology and economics for example.... cultural anthropologists are required to travel to foreign lands and live within foreign communities in order to understand the people and their culture.... rcheology: this branch, like cultural anthropology deals with the diversity in human behavior in the past....
15 Pages (3750 words) Essay

To What Extent Migrating to the Us Impacted on Arab Identities

In most cases, the change in location or region –migration creates bereavement of the cultural identity.... The paper "To What Extent Migrating to the Us Impacted on Arab Identities" describes that with transformations and passing on of time, the Arab American culture has resisted the assimilation by the American culture leading to marginalization of the Arab American in the region....
12 Pages (3000 words) Essay

Cultural Interpretations of Nature and the Effect on the Environment

This paper "cultural Interpretations of Nature and the Effect on the Environment" discusses the word of nature that creates a sentimental feeling when spoken aloud.... Nature has had an influence on many aspects of cultural development.... However, the cultural perception of nature creates a stronger impact on the world than the many disciplines that derive their principles from the concept....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

How the Witnessed Cultural Globalization Influences Consumer Culture

The paper "How the Witnessed cultural Globalization Influences Consumer Culture " discusses that the two-way status competition street shows that status competition apart from inspiring imitation also inspires differentiation.... This paper aims to dissect how the witnessed cultural globalization influences consumer culture and whether it has a hand in creating homogeneity.... Attractions towards the marketplace have pushed consumers' cultural attributes across a variety of consumer segments in a significant manner....
14 Pages (3500 words) Coursework
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us