ABSTRACT
The play on the word boy in the main title, Boys, Boyz, Bois, has various functions: First, as a point of reference, the use of boy signifies that this is part of an ongoing project in contemporary discussions and debates about gender and masculinity. Second, the use of the plural forms (-s, -z, -is) refers to the desire to discuss multiples in reference to a singular idea-if not monolithic category. Third, a second point about multiples, the multiple spellings signify not only more than one of the same (more than one boy or plurality), but also more than one, which is different from the same (more than one kind of boy or variety). In other words, the multiples of the same refer to an exchange between sameness and difference in signification. Fourth, the use of the standard plural boys, with the -s, specifically refers to an ideal form of boy, an idealization of masculinity which is fixed, traditionally positing gender as natural and biological. Furthermore, in a racially and ethnically stratified society, this idealized boy is simultaneously a racial and ethnic idealization of whiteness (and masculinity) and a racist denigration, an infantilization of blackness (and racialized masculinity). Fifth, in opposition to boys, boyz refers to the currently popular spelling of, and popular contemporary figure of, the black masculine in hip-hop and popular culture. Boyz is, on the one hand, are-articulation of boys within the discourse of racialized masculinity, in which the notion of black masculinity is given privilege as a signifier of masculinity; on the other hand, as a contemporary signifier of the black masculine, boyz is a signifier of youth and an age/ethos of urban blackness. And sixth, an opposition to boys and boyz, the use of bois signifies an other form of masculinity. Bois, a heuristic boy, is a construct which functions as a variation or that poses itself as an alternative. It is these three "boys" that I have put in conversation in order to develop the project, The ethics of black masculinity in film and popular media.
