Chasing Amy is the third installment in writer/director Kevin Smith's New Jersey trilogy, which began with the Sundance and Cannes Film Festival award winning comedy "Clerks" and with the teen comedy “Mallrats". Produced independently by Smith and producer Scott Mosier's View Askew Productions for $250,000, Chasing Amy marks a departure for the writer/director. While rich with Smith's patented humorous a

The representations of the characters are used to portray the stereotypically viewed male and female as well as the exceptions. Some characters show a combination of both views, while others are the epitome of a sexually comfortable, confident person. The combination of different experiences, views, and beliefs in the characters allows for many confrontational debates on what sex should mean in today’s society and in our lives. The first character we meet represents a stereotypical male of today’s society, Banky, played by Jason Lee. He is portrayed as an ignorant homophobe who is quick to make a joke of sexual comment. Banky takes part in all the typical male fetish behaviors such as enjoying a collection of “stroke” magazines, fantasizing about Catholic School girls, watching lesbians together, and making derogatory statements about others’ sexual orientation. Banky comments to Alyssa, played by Joey Lauren Adams, that, everyone needs a man sexually. This statement could have the typical meaning of male dominance and female submission to them in every way. It also could be a subconscious truth that Banky needs the same, because he is homosexual and uses this behavior as a front in order to over it up. This position, that he is in love with Holden, is supported throughout the movie but Banky is too uncomfortable with his sexuality to admit the truth. Banky’s behavior masking his homosexuality is proof of what we repeated many times in class that we question and criticize others because it cause us to question our own reality. He was homophobic because he was uncomfortable with not fitting society’s heterosexual category.

Chasing Amy is, above all, an examination of modern sexual politics. "Why can't we love whomever we want?" is the question most often raised. Once upon a time, we Americans were forced to adhere to antiquated notions of gender and sexual preference. Homosexuality was just plain wrong. Now we seem to be caught in an even more complex trap. Not only does this movie raise these issues; it confronts them, hands them out and makes us realize that we need to deal with them. This is not your typical chick-flick or gushy romance novel, the guy doesn’t always end up with the girl, and that is why it breaks more than one barrier in the film world as well as in our culture.

Hooper, played by Dwight Ewell, is an interesting mediating character as he is homosexual but acts heterosexual for his public image as a strong Black social figure. The stereotypical view of a homosexual would not be good role model because he would be viewed as weak and perhaps not masculine. Hooper would not be viewed as a true man if he were viewed as a homosexual. It would be better for him to accept his homosexuality and present it to society, but as we have learned, Hooper will not be accepted in our culture and his career will suffer. In collective, historical experiences black men have adopted certain patriarchal values such as physical strength, sexual prowess and being in control as a means survival against the repressive and violent system of subordination to which they were subjected. The incorporation of a code of ‘macho’ behavior is thus intelligible as a means of recuperating some degree of power over the condition of powerlessness and dependency in relation to the sub

Some topics in this essay:
Dwight Ewell, Chasing Amy, Affleck Banky’s, Lauren Adams, Bob Amy, Bob Smith's, Kevin Smith, Silent Bob, Jason Lee, Alyssa’s Holden, chasing amy, silent bob, love sex, kevin smith, sexual identity, joey lauren adams, relationship alyssa, jason lee, today’s society, alyssa love, joey lauren,