This is the conclusion to a 3-part series on The Green Hornet (2011). This part focuses on the film's play with masculinity and heteronormativity. You can find part 1 here. And part 2, here.
3.
My previous exploration, survey, and playful theorization on the cultural politics that surround the figure of Kato and Britt Reid in the The Green Hornet (2011) suggest that we cannot reduce the epistemology (the film’s “meanings” and our desire for a particular meaning) to the level of visual representation – the “finished” product given-to-be-seen on the screen. While certainly perceptible that The Green Hornet (2011) engenders positive screen representations of Asian American men, this “reclamation” of representation – to be more specific, a reclamation of a viable and virile yellow masculinity – the film also forces us to consider how the global and transnational connections that pervade both the films narrative, production, and source material necessitates a reconsideration of yellow and white masculinity.
My previous exploration, survey, and playful theorization on the cultural politics that surround the figure of Kato and Britt Reid in the The Green Hornet (2011) suggest that we cannot reduce the epistemology (the film’s “meanings” and our desire for a particular meaning) to the level of visual representation – the “finished” product given-to-be-seen on the screen. While certainly perceptible that The Green Hornet (2011) engenders positive screen representations of Asian American men, this “reclamation” of representation – to be more specific, a reclamation of a viable and virile yellow masculinity – the film also forces us to consider how the global and transnational connections that pervade both the films narrative, production, and source material necessitates a reconsideration of yellow and white masculinity.
