Scenes involving food and male characters from Dee Rees' Pariah (2011) and Brokeback Mountain (2005) d 'Ang Lee helps elaborate and explain the relationships Arthur (Charles Parnell) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) have with other characters as well as their own masculinity in the films. Using cinematic cues, types of food, and who prepares the meals, the films invite their audiences to understand how masculine ideals are used through food to dictate power. To illustrate this, we can use the scene from Pariah where Arthur sits down for a Sunday meal after work in the middle of a family argument, and the scene from Brokeback Mountain where Jack Twist competes with the father of his wife Lureen Newsome ( Anne Hathaway), LD Newsome (Graham Beckel) on the Thanksgiving broadcast. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay In Pariah, the unequal relationship between Arthur and Audrey (Kim Wayans) is solidified through food. This relationship is particularly defined by assumptions of power and gender norms. This begins to show at the beginning of the film, in the scene where Audrey argues with Alike (Adepero Oduye) about what she should and should not wear to church. A short scene, it can be assumed that little is offered regarding Arthur and Audrey's relationship during the roughly minute-long exchange. However, the first clue to how much work this scene does in establishing the ill-fated marital bond lies in the way the scene is composed. Focusing on the part of the scene where Arthur is shown, there is a clear power differential between him and the other characters shown. When he arrives home, the camera is not focused on his figure until Audrey and Alike rush towards him. When it becomes clear and in frame, it is the center of the shot. This forces the viewer to view him as the subject of the shot, despite the various other characters. Juxtaposed with this, Alike is aligned to the left of the shot as he is shown speaking and similarly, Audrey is pushed to the right side of the frame, allowing the viewer to focus on everything else in the frame. frame. Audrey is only shown in the center of the frame before serving Audrey a plate, and immediately after that the rest of the shots feature her off to the side. To further this point, when Arthur appears on screen, he is the only face visible. As she eats, Audrey stands to her left but her entire body, from her shoulders down, is cut off from view. His stance is passive, with his arms hanging limply and his body tilted towards Arthur. These choices encourage the viewer to see Arthur as the center of the scene and therefore more visible than the other characters, which establishes that he holds power over them. The presented scene of power struggles over food in Brokeback Mountain differs slightly in that Jack Twist is not presented as having pre-established power over the other characters in the scene, but rather shows the struggle he goes through to obtain such power. The scene is particularly interesting to analyze for indications of a struggle for male dominance, as it is a confrontation between two men rather than a patriarchal figure over the female members of his family. The scene begins by placing Jack and LD, Lureen's father, at the same height and visible on the same plane. As LD takes charge of carving the turkey, Jack is shown sitting submissively. This change in height is accentuated by the fact that LD's body is stillvisible when Jack sits down, and the close-up of Jack's reaction forces the audience to recognize that this challenged him. This plan serves as a sort of power transfer, in which the "stud", LD assumes the masculine role of powerful patriarch, and Jack is forced to submit to his authority. As the scene progresses, Jack goes to turn off the TV to prevent his son Bobby from being speared, he regains his height and stands up and momentarily finds himself at the same power level as LD. This provokes a response from LD, who uses his size and power to override Jack's decision as well as his attempt to act on male authority. Jack's standing up is emphasized by the production team as a direct empowerment by the choice to focus LD's disapproving gaze not on Jack as he begins to stand in his chair, but rather on the space in which Jack is standing. There is also a longer shot as Jack returns to the table where he walks across where LD is and they match each other at the same height, symbolizing that he has directly challenged his father-in-law's power. Along with this, Jack continues to sit even though he saw LD walking towards the TV the first and second time he stood up. As if the symbolism of height and standing rather than sitting was not yet completely solidified by the scene, Jack tells LD to literally "sit down" in the process of reclaiming his own masculine power . He rocks back and forth in his chair in an apparent reach, but this also indicates that he is struggling with the ability to stand up, which would allow him to regain his power. LD is shown seated before Jack stands up to carve the turkey, proving that the "stud" position had to be abandoned before another could take his place and signifying this change through the change in height in the frame. In this way, the cinematic composition of this scene from Brokeback Mountain addresses deeper themes of power and masculinity through food rituals. Another powerful negotiator of power struggles and gender norms within the same Pariah scene is the type of food Arthur eats. Audrey serves him spaghetti, and although it isn't wrapped in foil, the audience safely assumes that it's leftovers that she took the time to save for him. This establishes Arthur's power, as he is not responsible for preparing his own meals. Audrey fulfills the expectation of wives to cook for their husbands, and Arthur cooperates in this power negotiation. Although it is not necessarily humiliating to cook for one's spouse, Arthur exhibits a certain level of expectation that leads the audience to believe that Audrey is not simply doing a good thing for her husband out of love, but because the differential of established power. they have husband and wife. Although Audrey offers to reheat the meal, Arthur refuses and chooses to eat it cold. For an audience accustomed to understanding that women and men view food differently, this choice reinforces Arthur as a robust image of masculinity. By not reheating his meal, by not seeming to want to fully enjoy his food, Arthur is fulfilling a cultural expectation among men that food is strictly filling or nutritious, as opposed to women who view food as comforting and ritualistic. As Nickie Charles and Marion Kerr put it in “Food for Feminist Thought,” women grapple with a contradictory relationship with food in which they are simultaneously expected to deprive themselves of food, while being “led to resort to food as comfort” (558). This relationship betweenwomen and food means that by not denying himself food or seeking comfort in his meal, he rejects a feminine relationship with food and reinforces a masculine identity. Similarly, Arthur enjoys a messy dish that women are taught never to order on a first date. Continuing this idea, assuming that spaghetti is prepared with meat sauce, Arthur adopts and encourages yet another masculine expectation of men and food. As Luanne Roth observes in “Beyond Communitas: Cinematic Culinary Events and the Negotiation of Power, Belonging, and Exclusion,” “meat manifests itself as a symbol of male domination in this cinematic scene, a celebration of patriarchy itself” (171). By incorporating meat into his meal, Arthur adds yet another layer of masculinity to his lunch. Through these specifics of the meal, Arthur's masculinity continues to be constructed through his food choices. In Brokeback Mountain, the symbolism of the Thanksgiving spread is manifold for Jack's power and masculinity. The most important part of the scene and the meal is the large turkey brought to the table by Jack. The turkey conveys powerful imagery to the audience, which associates the hearty dish with a householder capable of providing for his family. The process of carving the turkey has long established itself as an important task for the patriarch of the family. As Luanne Roth explains in “Sexing the Turkey: Gender Politics and the Construction of Turkey Sexuality,” “in the matrix of American culture, carving the turkey is the patriarchal prerogative of (heterosexual) men” (136). This may be due, in part, to antiquated traditions in which large game was served to members of the community by the hunter to kill the animal. While the message may not be the same for modern viewers who hunt less and stop at grocery stores more, the connotation of power behind the ability to feed a large family remains. The importance of the turkey is reinforced by how often Jack appears in the frame with only the bird. When sitting, the bird is often slightly forward and to the right of Jack's gaze. The heartiest part of the Thanksgiving meal, Jack is obviously focused on the bird, which becomes, as Roth explains, “an object on which masculinity is negotiated” (137). The fact that the central dish is turkey, as opposed to mashed potatoes or cranberry sauce, reaffirms that the scene is about men and masculinity. Even though he is not supposed to cook any of the dishes, Jack's symbolic work is materialized by the presentation of the bird at the table and by the person who carves it. Because of all the subversive connotations of the carving rituals, the ensuing argument between Jack and LD begins to become clearer as a battle for patriarchal power. The significance of their dispute over televised football, a sport marked by violence, is a discussion beyond the scope of this article. Another important aspect that contributes to the manifestation of Arthur's masculine position in the Pariah scene is the inferences behind Audrey preparing for the match. flat. Throughout the film, the audience discovers that Audrey regularly reserves meals for Arthur, who is often away from home. Only twice in the film is he shown having a meal with the entire family, and both scenes are marked by family conflict and tension. The fact that Audrey cooks all of Arthur's meals for him has normative gender implications. As explained previously, women are expected, in a Westernized conception of.