In R.
Kelly’s Trapped in the Closet music video (Chapters 1-12), a representation of
black men in the gay community is displayed.
The entire song does not focus on black men in the LGBTQ community but
there’s a very significant portion shown through Chapters 1-12 displaying how
black men will display a heterosexual lifestyle to the public while having a
male partner on the down low. In this
blog post I will analyze R. Kelly’s video to demonstrate how black men don’t
always reveal their true sexuality and how they are low in the social
hierarchy, which causes more discrimination in their lives.
In quoting the song, it says, “I started inchin out, he says
no I want you to see this, said I gotta get out this house, he said not til I
reveal my secret.” The secret he is
referring to is that he has had a man that he was receiving sexual pleasures
from without anyone knowing. To the
public eye he was thought to have been dating a women. “…Black men reported engaging in same-sex
activity, but identified as heterosexual.
The reasons for this behavior included financial gain from commercial
sex work with other men, habitual same-sex behavior about by incarceration, and
the desire to reject a homosexual identity and maintain a façade of
heterosexuality within Black culture, where homosexuality is highly stigmatized.”
(Barnshaw & Letukas 82.)
The character portrayed in this video fell into the third
category of reasoning; he wanted to maintain a façade of heterosexuality. As the video goes on, it is revealed that he
is a pastor. This is another reason he
has trouble revealing his true identity to the world. There is that clash with homosexuality and
religion. “Sex laws derived from
Biblical pronouncements were aimed at preventing the acquisition of the wrong
kinds of affinal partners: consanguineous kin (incest), the same gender
(homosexuality), or the wrong species (bestiality). (Rubin 6). Further into the
video he decides to expose his secret identity.
But this was not by self-motivation; it was because he found out his
girlfriend cheated on him and proceeds to say, “well since we’re all comin out the closet, I’m not about to be the
only one that’s broken hearted.” This
lyric shows us that the only reason he decided to disclose this information was
because his girlfriend’s disloyal actions and he saw it as an opportunity to
come out.
Another subject
discussed in Barnshaw’s and Letukas’ article was the risk that this behavior
puts on Black women. “The down low
offered a plausible explanation for how the HIV epidemic was changing from a
‘White gay male disease’ to a ‘Black heterosexual female disease.’” (Barnshaw & Letukas 80.)
In the video, it is not said that the Black women received a disease
from her partner or not. However, in
reference to the quote, I wanted to point out the higher risk she is at now
since her partner was engaging in same sex practice.
“Sex is a vector of oppression. The system of sexual oppression cuts across
other modes of social inequality, sorting out individuals and groups according
to its own intrinsic dynamics.” (Rubin 11).
Blacks are already aware of the social inequalities the face but being
black and a part of the LGBTQ community just puts them even lower on the social
hierarchy. This is also demonstrated
in the video. After the woman is caught
cheating, she says,”Ok you busted me, and that much I agree, you caught me
cheating, but this is a little extreme…” In this line she implies how even
though she cheated it isn’t nearly as bad as him cheating because she was with
a person of the opposite sex. The song
continues to say how extreme the cheating was when it was of the same sex but
is laughed off with the couple of opposite sexes further showing the refusal of
acceptance towards those that are a part of the LGBTQ community.
R. Kelly’s Trapped in the Closet video is
an example of how people of color, specifically black men, deal with issues of
being on the low down. The portrayal of
these homosexual men show us how some are still afraid to be outspoken about
their sexuality because of the way society would view them. This causes them to live these closeted
life’s consisting on keeping secrets versus being open to the public with their
choice of life and being much happier.
Works Cited
Bradshaw,
John and Letulas, Lynn. “The Low Down on the Down Low: Origins, Risks
and Identifications” in Health Sociology Review
Vol. 19, Issue 4 December 2010.
Rubin,
Gayle. “Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality”
from Social Perspectives in Gay and Lesbian
Studies ed. Peter M Nardi and Beth
Schneider.
I agree with this blog post in its saying that non-White homosexuals are often faced with more discrimination, which makes them more reluctant to reveal their sexual orientation. In Barbara Smith’s article “Homophobia: Why Bring It Up?” she writes that a common misconception is that “‘gay’ means gay white men with large discretionary incomes, period” (Smith 101). This stereotype encourages discrimination against everyone else in the LGBTQ community who is not a white male. She continues to describe other stereotypes such as, “homosexuality is a white problem” (Smith 101), which alludes to the meaning that homosexuality is considered lower than low in every other culture.
ReplyDeleteIn Shavonne’s article, she points out that a female character in the “Trapped in the Closet” video series claims that her affair was not as severe as her partner’s because she cheated with a person of the opposite sex while her partner had an affair with another man. This can be explained by Smith’s article when she explains why people act in homophobic ways. She writes, “One way to protect one’s heterosexual credentials and privilege is to put down lesbians and gay men at every turn, to make as large a gulf as possible between ‘we’ and ‘they’” (Smith 100). Though I used this example specifically in the context of this article, it can be applied to many more, broader situations.
Smith, Barbara. “Homophobia: Why Bring it Up?” from The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. ed Henry Ablelove et al New York & London: Routledge, 1993.
When discussing media’s portrayal of the LGBTQ community, it is hard to assess what type of LGBTQ representation this media is trying to show. In this article, we see a topic that is not represented or talked about widely by any communities other than the black LGBTQ community. These R. Kelly videos portray a side of black men that many people either try to hide or don’t mention. I agree with her points in the article. She states the various identities that the character in the song defines with and how each identity causes him to feel a sense of wrongdoing when it comes to his sexuality. The fact that he is an African-American pastor allows introduces two identities that are not very tolerable with the idea of homosexuality especially when it is done while one is married.
ReplyDeleteThe identities touched on in this blog post are major identities in the black community. Religious affiliation, marriage, and being a black male are all identities that are extremely stereotyped not only in American society but also within the black community itself. All of these identities are usually looked at as positive in the black community. This helps to point out that although the male in the video might identify with all three of these characteristics, the fact that he is gay causes him to be judged negatively. This negative stereotype on gay black males who are on the down low is possibly being magnified due to the increasing risk of HIV among people who are on the down low. These men partake in male-on-male sexual intercourse and don’t use protection because they believe they are at no risk for STD’s (Barnshaw and Letukas 79). This aspect of being on the down low does not help the controversies that black males in this situation face.
The fact that these men face many hardships just to keep up with this lifestyle should make these men want to reconsider if this situation is ideal and/or comfortable. Either way, the problem that these men need to address does not have to explain why they might enjoy these sexual acts. The actual fact that they need to understand and address is that their actions and choices don’t only affect themselves but they sometimes affect the people around them in a negative way.
Bradshaw, John and Letulas, Lynn. “The Low Down on the Down Low”: Origins, Risks
I agree with you that the portrayal of the homosexual men at the beginning of the music video shows us how some are still afraid to be outspoken about their sexuality because of the way society would view them. The pastor, who is on the down low, claims that he decided to come forward with this homosexual relationship because he found his wife cheating. Rather than seeing the deceitful situation as truly heartbreaking, the pastor sees the infidelity of his wife as an opportunity for him to finally come out. This reveals that the pastor does not love his wife because he was not sad or heartbroken from the situation, and it also reveals that the pastor has been with his same-sex partner for a while. And, thusly, has been maintaining a false heterosexual façade for quite some time. This makes one wonder how many people are still out there who are actually in committed homosexual relationships but continue to uphold their heterosexual façade at the expense and deception of their heterosexual partner.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the infidelity of the pastor is wrong, the response from his wife once the truth is out reveals to us a reason as to why the pastor choose to remain on the down low for so long. Upon revealing his same-sex relationship, his wife labels his cheating as more extreme than hers because hers was with the opposite-sex. This response reminds us of that there exists a sexual hierarchy which places homosexuality and any form of queerness at the condemned "outer limits" of the sexual value system (Rubin 6). Within this sexual value system, good, normal, and natural sexuality is ideally heterosexual, marital, monogamous, and non-commercial" (Rubin 6). Because of this sexual hierarchy and the condemnation of homosexuality it imposes, it is not completely unreasonable for men, such as the pastor, to choose to stay closeted and appear heterosexual out of fear of isolation. However, I personally believe that his desire to put on a heterosexual façade should not have been at the expense of his wife or opposite-sex partner.
Rubin, Gayle. "Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality"
from Social Perspectives in Gay and Lesbian Studies ed. Peter M Nardi and Beth
Schneider. 1993.