Notoriously Masculine

Over this last weekend I saw "Notorious," a movie detailing the life and times of the famous rapper Christopher Wallace (a.k.a. "Biggie Smalls.") The film creates a complex and dynamic view of what it really means to be masculine as we watch Christopher grow up and learn what it really takes to be a man.

At the beginning of the movie the audience is provided with an impoverished young man's perspective of what it means to be masculine as we watch the little Chris Wallace grow up in Brooklyn. Biggie's father left him and his mother when he was only a baby and his mother never remarried. As a result of never having any father figures around as a child Biggie had to learn how to become a real man on his own by watching and learning from other men around him, but all he saw on the streets of Brooklyn was drugs and money. Therefore, Biggie thought that having a lot of cash would make him a real man, and that belief became clearly evident to me as I watched the young little Biggie Smalls make money by selling crack of the streets.

After the (not yet) Notorious B.I.G. found out that he was going to have a baby his view of masculinity changed slightly. At this point in his life he was still selling crack to economically prepare for the birth of his first child. However, before his daughter could even be born, he was arrested for possessing a firearm, which his best friend, "D-Rock," took the fall for. After that event Biggie realized that being a real man meant taking care of his daughter, which he couldn't do from a jail cell, so he stopped selling crack and started rapping professionally under the guidance of Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs.

Once Biggie released his first album and got rich his view of masculinity changed yet again. As Biggie's fortune and fame grew he became an idol. Therefore he was viewed as an ideal portrait of masculinity by many young males who were trying to learn how to become real men. The now rich and famous Biggie Smalls began living out his dream. He lived how he always thought that a real man would live. He did whatever he wanted, he bought whatever he wanted, and he got all the women he ever wanted.

At the end of the movie, after his divorce with Faith Evans and after the death of his long-time friend Tupac, Biggie had an epiphany while sitting in a club in Los Angeles. He realized that being a real man meant taking care of your own responsibilities. He realized that being masculine meant spending time with your kids, taking care of your mother, and always treating women with respect. Sadly however, Biggie Smalls was gunned down and killed later that night after leaving the club. Christopher Wallace died young, at the age of 25, but not before he learned how to be a real man.