Masculinity and Femininity in Bra Boys

Masculinity and Femininity

Undertaking: Discourse the ways in which different facets of maleness and/or muliebrity are represented in Bra Boys. How make these facets of gender inform the portraiture of the ‘battler’ ?

We Will Write a Custom Essay Specifically
For You For Only $13.90/page!


order now

Bra Boys paperss the cultural development of the inner-Sydney beach-side suburb of Maroubra and the societal battle of its young person, chiefly the tattooed and much criticized breaker community known as the Bra Boys. It explores their success in professional large moving ridge surfboarding, their international repute for difficult partying and unsmooth justness, and touches on their running conflict with governments. It is an affecting history of the lives they had led and what has landed them at this point. The movie shows their absolute trust on one another to suit into a society in which they are displaced. It is really much a masculine society, where immature work forces fight against the odds to do good, and where adult females play a really minor function ( Evers 1 ) . However it is a colored effort to seek to warrant all the wrongs attributed to the Bra Boys. This masculine image will be discussed by the usage of symbols found within the docudrama, such as localism/tribal, force, stigmatization, mateship and the continued usage of the ‘battler’ narration.

Maroubra, a tough topographic point to turn up in, ringed by a jail, sewage plants, a rifle scope and a lodging committee estate, where the streets of Sydney met the beach and where problem easy finds you ( De Souza 1 ) . However, it is here that the Bra Boys control Maroubra Beach and enforce their cultural Torahs on others. They are a multiethnic ‘tribe’ of troubled teens/twenty something who are joined by a love of surfboarding, tribe spirit and the fact that they all live and surf at Maroubra ( Evers 1 ) . Violence is depicted as non merely a trial of maleness but as another connexion to landscape and the credence of localism.

The physical exhibitions of Bra Boys maleness ( scarred, tattooed and shirtless ) are linked to the belief of the ‘tribe’ . These cicatrixs and tattoos are viewed as symbols of honor, the male childs are seen as surf warriors and the public violences are classified as tribal warfare ( Collins-Gearing and Huijser 29 ) . The Bra Boys ‘ tattoos become a trade name, ( Evers 2 ) . They create a sense of belonging to, and ownership of, the landscape/beach ( Collins-Gearing and Huijser 29 ) . This brotherhood fights together, surfs together and supports each other. Their word picture in, every bit good as the exclusion of females wholly across the board enhances their maleness, and hence the strength of their brotherlike bonds ( Butler 400 ) .

The four Abberton brothers – writer/director/producer Sunny, Koby, Jai, Dakota, and their breaker folk, a group of multiethnic males, by giving an insider’s history of their societal and cultural events. Throughout the movie, the interviewed work forces use linguistic communication that excludes adult females, links landscape to maleness and supports an history of multiculturalism ( Collins-Gearing and Huijser 28 ) . This manner of shooting does non objectively look at the films contents ; it has a instead nonreversible position of the Maroubra Boys. These contrasting elements of trueness and protectionism, raised by a strong empathy with people and topographic point, are illustrated through the ever-changing ambiance built into this movie. This is achieved with an redolent soundtrack underneath the first individual remembrances of those interviewed, every bit good as a series of cartridge holders which ends in a bash ( De Souza 1 ) .

Bra Boys possess traditional qualities of mateship which is besides portion of the ‘battler’ narration, the victory of the members of the folk, and more specifically the Abberton brothers, over battle and “survival despite being sidelined” ( Butler 391 ) . Although the male childs grew up in broken places in the drug-ridden and violent vicinity of Maroubra, their connexion with and dependence upon surfing and the stringency of the Bra Boys brotherhood show them as “good-natured” supporters ( Butler 392 ) . Theirs is a brotherhood forged through the experience of violent disregard. Life could be difficult, but as Koby argues: ‘it was good ; it turned us into what we are’ . This experience of disadvantage non merely cements the strength of brotherlike bonds, but solidifies household connexions. This reinforces the strength of the group’s bond, as the wellbeing of their fellow couples ever takes the highest precedence ( Butler 400 ) . The surfboarder has changed into the unsloped combatant by an accent on hard-work and mateship. While surfing is so a leisure activity, the past-time of pick for ‘bludgers’ , professional surfboarding has been the agencies by which the Boys have escaped the poorness and disregard of their childhoods ( Butler 397 ) .

The film is non what one would see a typical breaker docudrama as it crosses many societal issues, such as eviction, localism, belonging and force, but merely shown from one position, that is, their ain. Anyone who expected otherwise is merely naive. No attempt was made to acquire the feelings of adult females and how they were lasting in Maroubra. The film states they formed to protect the community, in world they care merely approximately one thing, themselves. However if they were genuinely couples, they would non direct the younger members through unsafe rites of transition or let them to contend amongst themselves. The beach, they province, belongs to everyone ; nevertheless, when people go to the beach they need to gain that there may be a whole history and civilization at that place crossing the coevalss and this should be respected ( Gasperini 1 ) . Top surfboarder Kelly Slater negotiations about how tough Maroubra is, non merely because of the large breaker, but largely because of the local scene: If you’re non on the interior, you get the crap beat out of you at surfing this interruption ( Gasperini 1 ) . Adhering plants so that everyone else belongs outside ; unless the Bra Boys say you ‘re All right ( Evers 2 ) .

The Bra Boys of Maroubra believe that they have the community’s best involvements in head. However they have made their ‘locale’ an country of force and revenge. Their manfulness in the surfboarding scenes, are negatively demonstrated on land when they are contending rival packs or the constabulary ( Taylor 1 ) . The ‘battler’ scenario, ( within the definition of mateship ) is in uncertainty due to the danger they put non merely themselves but others every bit good. Manliness depends on the picks one makes, the opportunities one takes and the bravery one is willing to demo. It is the picks that they make, that deny them this full right of manfulness.

Cited Plants

Butler, Kelly Jean. “Their civilization has survived: witnessing to ( Dis ) posession in Bra Boys.”Journal of Australasian Surveies( 2007 ) : Vol. 33 ( 4 ) , 2009. 391-404. CR:27-40. Journal.

Collins-Gearing, Brooke and Henk Huijser. “Blood is Thicker than Water: Stains on the Land in BraA Boys.” Bennett, James E: Beirne.Makin Film and Television Histories. Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. Book.

De Souza, Poppy.Australian Screen – Bra Boys. N.D. N.D. 2014. Document. 20 August 2014.

Evers, Cifton. “False Prophets of surfing bastardize our beached.” 13 March 2007. Newspaper Article. 29 August 2014.

Gasperini, Kathleen. N.D. N.D. 2000. Web site. 31 August 2014.

Murrie, Linzi. “Changing Malenesss: Break and Anxiety in Contemporary Australian Writing.”Journal of Austrlian Surveies( 200+ ) . Journal papers.

Taylor, Darlene. “Bra Boys: /.” 21 August 2007.Larvatus Prodeo.Document. 9 August 2014.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *