His character also plays upon the racist stereotype of the black male as being sexually more powerful, threatening or dominant than a white male (this is emphasized by the fact that Xerxes is portrayed as a giant who towers over Leonidas). These statements are internalized homophobic values that associate feminine and gay qualities with being undesirable and straight masculinity as attractive and valuable.) In gay personal ads, for example, there are sometimes statements such as "I'm straight-acting" or "no fems". (Queens and feminine guys are even put down in the gay community sometimes. In other words, Xerxes is portrayed as a queen, not a king, in a negative way. However, his attractiveness is undermined by the fact that:ġ) he is associated with feminine traits: he wears makeup and jewelry that serve as a direct contrast to the almost naked Greek soliders, who are portrayed as hyper-masculine Ģ) he is associated with negative qualities: manipulative, dictatorlike, power hungry ģ) his interactions with Leonidas are laced with subtextual homoerotic seduction, such as his insistence on getting Leonidas on his knees before him, or approaching him from behind and wrapping his hands around his shoulders. The exception is Xerxes, who has a built physique that rivals the Greeks. In contrast, most of their bodies are covered up in armour and helmets, so we can’t really see their physiques like the Greeks. Their leader Xerxes, his generals, and messengers are played by actors of African descent. They also possess hyper-masculine traits: stalwart, fearless, powerful, gritty, blah blah blah.
Why would warriors go nude instead of wearing armour? So we can see their infamous abs, beefy chests, brawny biceps, and sculpted legs-basically sexually attractive.
They are scantily clad in nothing more than a cape and crotch-clinging leather bikinis. The good guys are Greek soliders, played by white actors, some with British accents. I’ve witnessed it, and experienced it myself. I wrote about some activists trying to raise awareness of sexual racism in last year’s Pride issue. With all of them combined, it actually adds up to a subtext of sexual racism. There are debates about those things raging across the internet. I missed it when it first came out (haw haw, get it?) because there was very little about the movie 300 content-wise that I was interested in (I’m really not into violence and gore).Ģ) the racism and homophobia I’d also heard so much about And it seems like a conservative closet case’s wet daydream. 300 is quite a classic case in Hollywood propaganda disguised as entertainment.