Moonlight: On Prejudice, Humanity and Masculinity

Christian Prejudices

I admit that I avoided Moonlight for a very long time. I didn't see it until early this month. A large part of that was because of my own prejudices toward homosexual men. Specifically homosexual men engaging in intimacy; it makes me extremely uncomfortable. It follows then, that I wasn't really interested in seeing a movie where this type of intimacy would probably be shown.

Let me be even more candid. When I say sexual intimacy between men makes me uncomfortable I mean it grosses me out. I can't tell you why, though I can speculate it's because that message is hammered in our heads. We hear it at home, with family and friends, in the media and definitely at church. Homosexuality is gross, wrong, immoral.

As a Christian I have a few qualms with this:

The bible calls homosexuality an abomination which means, "a thing that causes disgust or hatred." However, the bible calls a lot of things abominations:

(The KJV uses the words abomination/abominable in the scriptures below)

• Unclean things (Lev. 7:21)
• Customs of pagans (Lev. 18:30)
• Idols (2 Chr. 15:8; 1 Pet. 4:3)
• Sins of men (Ps. 14:1; 53:1)
• Cheating (Mic. 6:10)
• Lost souls (Rev. 21:8)
• A froward man (perverse; one who turns aside) (Pro. 3:32; 11:20)
• A proud look (Pro. 6:16-17)
• A lying tongue (Pro. 6:17; 12:22)
• Hands that shed innocent blood ((Pro. 6:17)
• A wicked scheming heart (Pro. 6:18)
• Feet that are quick to sin (Pro. 6:18)
• A false witness that speaks lies (Pro. 6:19)
• A sower of discord (Pro. 6:19)
• Wickedness (Pro. 8:7)
• A false balance or scale (Pro. 11:1)
• Sacrifices of the wicked (Pro. 15:8; 21:27)
• The way of the wicked (Pro. 15:9)
• The thoughts of the wicked (Pro. 15:26)
• The proud of heart (Pro. 16:5)
• And it goes on and on and on.....

Really all sins are abominations to God so Christians should be disgusted by all sin. Are we? Nah. Do we persecute all sins the same way we persecute homosexuality? Nawl. Christians have been manipulated and misinformed by their leaders (through the use of the bible) to feel "less than love" (read: hatred) toward homosexuality. Well meaning pastors and preachers tend to teach more damnation and condemnation than love and mercy. I feel convicted to wrestle with this tendency to shout shame to the LGBTQ community.

It baffles my mind how Christians are so quick to throw the law at other people when our Savior frees us from that very law. We aren't held by those impossible standards. We are redeemed and saved by the grace and mercy of God through Jesus Christ. How are you as a Christian going to shame someone for not following the law when 1). You can't follow it either. 2). You aren't even held to the law you trying to hold everyone else to.

How can we call ourselves followers of Christ if we don't give back the grace and mercy given to us?

As Christians, what do we do with this knowledge? Stop the foolery. Instead of trying to uphold the moral fiber of the world (which no one asked you to do) give love, grace and mercy to your neighbor (which you were called to do).

Oh the Humanity!

I didn't see a ton of trailers for Moonlight but from word of mouth it was referred to as a movie about a gay guy. It's so much more than that. Moonlight is about humanity. God, does it show the humanity of Chiron well. This is the most important part of this film. We live in a world that is oftentimes apathetic to the humanity of oppressed people. That's what makes it so easy to degrade and dismiss whole communities of folk. It's easy for me to denounce the LGBTQ community if I don't see them as people in the first place or if I fail to see how their stories relate to my own. I can't empathize with their plight otherwise. Once you become connected to the queer community, whether through films, stories, family or friends, it becomes a lot harder to condemn or shame them.

Let's just take a second to acknowledge how it's complete bullshit that we have to be convinced that certain people are human. The humanity of any group should never be under question. Moving on.....

You look at Chiron and you see a boy, a teenager, a man pummeled throughout his life. He doesn't receive love from his mom or from his peers. He's dejected, rejected, isolated and suffocated by the world as a result of poverty, his mother's drug addiction and an extremely narrow definition of masculinity. You watch Chiron go through some traumatizing experiences and you wonder: How might his life been different if he was allowed the space to breathe. The whole film feels like you're holding your breath, waiting for release, waiting for comfort, waiting for joy. It seldom comes. The only places Chiron has the opportunity to catch his breath is with his mentors/role models Juan and Teresa, and his childhood friend Kevin, with whom he is in love. These are the only good things he has in his life, flawed as they all are.

Still, Chiron had so little I can't imagine his life without Kevin. I don't want to imagine if Teresa was super conservative and constantly screaming damnation in his ear. Or if Juan wasn't as gentle or understanding with Chiron. I'm not sure that we'd get to the third act of the movie. I'm not sure we would have experienced "Chiron the man" AKA Black. Maybe Chiron the teenager would have found a permanent solution to end his pain. Who knows? It's definitely a possibility and a real life occurrence. That's the real tragedy. That we condemn people to a life of hopelessness, self-hate and fear. We use shame and intimidation as tools to change people. How ironic that these methods of "correction" and "healing" lead to death. We must acknowledge the humanity in all people and be empathetic to their trials and struggles. It's a matter of life and death.

Masculinity as a Spectrum

Director Barry Jenkins is a genius at portraying masculinity in Moonlight. The representation of masculinity in this film is the most refreshing I've experienced in a while. Chiron has some wonderful characteristics that both help to define him as a man and expound upon archaic notions of manhood. He has the capacity to be soft and hard, sensitive and aggressive, caring and violent, emotive and numb. He is also incredibly strong, wise, and self-reliant.

Chiron's masculinity sits on a spectrum, as should every man's. He is all things at the same time. This representation is crucial because it gives other men permission to do the same. Moreover, it's a treasure to witness. I can probably count on my hands how many times I've seen a black man cry on screen. And I'm pretty sure I've never seen a black teen-aged boy 1) admit he cries 2) discuss feelings of sadness with another male. Chiron does it all and it's beautiful. It's heartbreaking that some men go through life believing that all they can be is hard. Masculinity is much more fluid than that. It's that fluidity and variation in how we express our gender and gender identities that makes us human.

That also makes Chiron sexy as hell. I mean can we talk about Black for a minute. I mean damn! He fine but also has this quiet, smooth swagger about him that's to die for. He doesn't have to be loud or overly aggressive to express his manhood, and it's completely believable. He's not performing; you know the type of men who do. They're super loud and aggressive and always got something to prove. Lawd, that is so tired. I am parched for something different.

Chiron talks about rebuilding himself from the ground up and I think he does so in an authentic way; most of us do. When we find that our truest self isn't strong enough to face the world we build muscle. Some of the old self is lost out of necessity to survive but we never truly eradicate those softer parts. We just put them behind a few more layers, a few more doors that are only opened to a privileged few (see Chiron and Kevin's relationship).

Black's not the man he would have been sans the external pressures of the world; that's for certain. With every card dealt his transformation is not only authentic but understandable. He was raised by a drugged addicted parent, in a drug infested neighborhood, his mentor and savior was a drug dealer. It's not hard to believe he'd fall into the same cycle. It's unfortunate but that's life; that's reality for a lot of people.

Even with all his flaws Chiron still becomes a man you can root for and be proud of. Were we not all here for him breaking the chair of lil homie back or nawl? Even though he ends up trappin, I'm still happy he's no longer living in poverty and squalor. He's not being physically or mentally tormented on a daily basis. And let's not forget that crucial and tender moment at the end of the movie when Black and Kevin are intimate. I balled ya'll! It wasn't a super loud, ugly cry because I was in the theater and I didn't want to be judged but it was a worthy ball. By the end of the movie you're just like "Give him all the happiness. Give him all the love, ALL OF IT RIGHT NOW!"

True he doesn't become an "upstanding citizen" but in his transformation he doesn't lose himself either. After becoming "harder" he doesn't reject his sexuality or repress his feelings for Kevin when he comes calling. When he's with Kevin he turns right back into Chiron. Again we see him occupying various places on the spectrum of masculinity. It makes him multidimensional, we see a fuller representation of who he is as a person. He's not a caricature or a stereotype. He's real and he's relatable.

Baby Steps

I've seen this movie twice, and I'll probably watch it again in the future. My desire to do so speaks to the great work that Moonlight has accomplished. It made a person with her own prejudices more willing to engage with LGBTQ stories anyway. The characters in these stories are so much more interesting and have so much more to offer us than their sexual relationships. They have rich stories to tell. We can learn a lot from these stories, and become better people for it, if we do the work to put our own issues aside.

If we don't it's truly our loss.