Examining the scenes and characters with negative charge offers an alternative way of understanding the film’s world.
What to do when negative affect, like violence, bullying, and the torment they cause, is so present in a film that has been heralded as a welcome portrayal of the lives of Black gay men? 6 I argue that the ubiquity of negative affect in the film is a key for making sense of Moonlight. 5 In other words, we never hear Chiron name his sexual identity, we must take the bullies’ word for it. 4 The bullying is constitutive of Little’s understanding of himself-he asks Juan and Teresa, the surrogate parents who look after him when his drug-addicted mother cannot, whether he was a “faggot.” Juan tells him that he may discover that he is gay, understood here to be a sexual identity, but not to let others call him a “faggot,” understood to be a slur referring to a debased masculinity and a debased sexuality. 3 Little falls in the middle of the gender presentation spectrum of boys who grow up to have a same-sex identity: neither effeminate nor hegemonically masculine, merely odd for a boy-a loner who is uninterested in sports. The film does not give Little stereotypically effeminate mannerisms as a shorthand to signal that he is gay, nor does Little show sexual desire for boys other than Kevin.
The first scene of the movie features a group of boys chasing Little (Chiron’s nickname when he was a child) into a crack house, throwing objects at him, and calling him a “faggot.” It is through bullying that we know that society sees Little as gay. 2 However, Chiron’s bullying plays a key role in establishing him as queer, that is, a character with same-sex attractions. Īnalyses of Moonlight do not dwell on Chiron’s bullying, finding it trite or otherwise irrelevant to the broader story of his life. The beating also showed Chiron’s mettle he did not turn away from his friend’s betrayal or from the cruelty of the boys who goaded him. The beating showed Kevin, who had a confident social ease throughout the movie, to be a creature of social approval, turning on his friend when his peers demanded it. Instead, Chiron jutted his chin out and held Kevin’s gaze, as though he wanted to sear the scene into his mind: his beloved friend’s punches and the jeering faces of the bullies urging him on. Kevin urged Chiron to “stay down,” his eyes pleading forgiveness for what bullies had pressured him to do. Thus, every punch that Kevin landed on Chiron’s jaw resounded with betrayal and remorse, not just physical pain. Chiron and Kevin had always created space for each other, finding ways to be alone and talk even in a larger group of neighborhood boys. These vulnerable emotions created a space to risk touching, leading to a kiss that melted into Kevin slowly masturbating Chiron to orgasm. 1 They shared another type of intimacy the night before when they confessed feelings of despair and loneliness to each other on a beach. So it was when Kevin hit his lifelong friend Chiron in a Miami schoolyard in the second act of Moonlight.
People reveal much about themselves when they give or receive a beating.