Creating Racial Identities Through Film: A Queer and Gendered Analysis of Blaxploitation Films

This paper examines how racialized knowledge is reproduced through film. Through an analysis of twenty blaxploitation films, this paper examines how gendered and sexualized discourses are used to shape Black identity. Discussed are the two typologies of queer images found within these films, the jester and the scoundrel, and how these images are used to frame Black identities. Consequently, we argue that queer images in blaxploitation films contribute to how racialized knowledge is produced