Scenes involving food and male characters in both Dee Rees' Pariah (2011) and Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain (2005) they help elaborate and explain relationships that both Arthur (Charles Parnell) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) have with other characters, as well as their own masculinity within the films. Using cinematic cues, types of food, and who prepares the meals, the films invite audiences to understand how masculine ideals are used through food to dictate power. To illustrate this, one can use the scene from Pariah in which Arthur sits down for a Sunday meal after work in the midst of a family argument, and the scene from Brokeback Mountain in which Jack Twist competes with his wife Lureen Newsome's (Anne Hathaway), LD Newsome (Graham Beckel) on the Thanksgiving spread. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Within Pariah, the unequal relationship between Arthur and Audrey (Kim Wayans) is cemented through food. This relationship is defined above all by assumptions of power and gender norms. This begins to appear early in the film, in the scene where Audrey argues with Alike (Adepero Oduye) about what she should and shouldn't wear to church. A short scene, one can assume that not much is offered regarding Arthur and Audrey's relationship in the minute-or-so exchange. However, the first clue to how much work this scene puts into establishing the unhappy marital bond is the way the scene is composed. Focusing on the part of the scene where Arthur is shown, there is a clear power difference between him and the other characters present. When he arrives home, the camera is not focused on his figure until both Audrey and Alike rush towards him. When it becomes clear and it's inside the frame, it's in the center of the frame. This forces the viewer to see him as the subject of the shot, despite the various other characters. Juxtaposed against this, Alike is aligned to the left of the frame as he is shown speaking and Audrey is similarly pushed to the right side of the frame, allowing the viewer to focus on the entire rest of the frame. Audrey is only shown in the center of the frame before serving her a dish, and immediately afterwards the rest of the shots show her from the side. In this regard, when Arthur appears on screen, he is the only face visible. While eating, Audrey stands to his left but her entire body from the shoulders up is cut off from view. His position is passive, with his arms dangling and his body leaning towards Arthur. These choices encourage the viewer to see Arthur as center stage and therefore more visible than the other characters, which establishes that he has power over them. The presented scene of power struggles over food in Brokeback Mountain differs slightly in that Jack Twist is not presented as having a pre-established power over the other characters in the scene, but instead shows the struggle he goes through to gain such power. The scene is particularly interesting to analyze for hints of a struggle for male dominance, as it is a clash between two men rather than a patriarchal figure over the female members of his family. The scene begins by placing Jack and LD, Lureen's father, at the same height and visible in the same frame. As LD begins carving the turkey, Jack is shown sitting submissively. This change in height is emphasized by the fact that LD's body is still visible as Jack sits down, and the close-up shot of Jack's reaction forces the audience torecognize that this challenged him. This shot serves as a kind of transfer of power, in which the “duck student,” LD, takes on the male role of the powerful patriarch, and Jack is forced to submit to his authority. As the scene progresses, Jack goes to turn off the TV to prevent his son Bobby from being paralyzed, regains his height, stands up, and is momentarily at the same power level as LD again. This provokes a response from LD, who uses his height and power to reverse Jack's decision and his attempt to act on male authority. Jack's standing up is emphasized by the production team as a direct grab for power through the choice to focus LD's disapproving gaze on Jack not as he begins to stand up in the chair, but instead on the space in which Jack stands up. There is also a longer shot where Jack walks back to the table where he crosses where LD is standing and they are at the same height, symbolizing that he has directly challenged his father-in-law's power. Along with this, Jack continues to sit despite seeing LD walk towards the TV both the first and second time he stood up. As if the symbolism of being tall and standing versus sitting isn't yet fully cemented by the scene, Jack tells LD to literally "sit down" in the process of reclaiming his masculine power. He rocks back and forth in his chair at an apparent distance, but this also signals that he is struggling with the ability to stand up, which would restore his power. LD is shown sitting before Jack gets up to carve the turkey, demonstrating that the "study" position had to be abandoned before another could take its place and indicating this shift through the change in heights within the frame . In these ways, the cinematic composition of this scene from Brokeback Mountain discusses deeper themes of power and masculinity through food rituals. Another strong negotiator of power struggles and gender norms within the Pariah scene itself is the type of food Arthur is eating. Audrey serves him spaghetti, and although it's not wrapped in foil, the audience safely assumes that it's the leftovers she took the time to save for him. This gives Arthur power, as he is not responsible for preparing his own meals. Audrey is enacting the expectation that wives cook for their husbands, and Arthur is cooperating with that negotiation of power. While it is not necessarily humiliating to cook for your spouse, there is a certain level of expectation displayed by Arthur that leads the audience to believe that Audrey is not simply doing a nice thing for her husband out of love, but because the established power differential they have as husband and wife. Although Audrey offers to reheat the meal, Arthur refuses and instead chooses to eat it cold. For an educated audience who understands that women and men view food differently, this choice reinforces Arthur as a tough image of masculinity. By not reheating his meal, not appearing to want to fully enjoy his food, Arthur enacts a cultural expectation of men to see food as strictly satiating or nourishing, as opposed to women who view food as comforting and ritualistic. As expressed in “Food for Feminist Thought” by Nickie Charles and Marion Kerr, women struggle with an adversarial relationship with food in which they are simultaneously supposed to deny themselves food, but are also “[led] to resort to food as comfort” (558). This relationship between women and food means that, by neither denying himself food nor seeking comfort in his meal, Arthur rejects a feminine relationship with food and reinforces an identitymale. In a similar way of accepting gender expectations, Arthur is enjoying a messy dish that women are famously taught to never order on a first date. By furthering this idea, if one assumes that spaghetti is made with a meat sauce, Arthur embraces and encourages another male expectation of men and food. As noted by Luanne Roth in “Beyond Communitas: Cinematic Food Events and the Negotiation of Power, Belonging, and Exclusion,” “Meat manifests as a symbol of male dominance in this cinematic scene, a celebration of patriarchy itself” (171) . By embracing meat in his meal, Arthur adds yet another layer of masculinity to his lunch. Through these meal specifics, Arthur's masculinity continues to be reinforced by his food choices. In Brokeback Mountain, the symbolism of the Thanksgiving spread is multifaceted to Jack's power and masculinity. The most important part of the scene and the meal is the large turkey, which is brought to the table by Jack. The turkey holds powerful images for the public, who associate the stuffed dish with a breadwinner capable of providing for his family. The turkey carving process has long been established as an important task for the patriarch of the family. As explained by Luanne Roth in “Sexing the Turkey: Gender Politics and the Construction of Turkey Sexuality,” “within the matrix of American culture, turkey carving is a patriarchal prerogative of (heterosexual) males” (136). This probably arose, in part, from old-fashioned traditions where large game was served to community members by the hunter to bring down the animal. While the message isn't the same for modern viewers who hunt less and stop to shop more, the connotation of power behind being able to feed a large family remains. The importance of the turkey is reinforced by how often Jack appears in the frame with just the bird. When sitting, the bird is often slightly in front and to the right of Jack's gaze. The largest part of Jack's Thanksgiving meal obviously centers on the bird, which becomes, as Roth explains, "an object over which masculinity is negotiated" (137). The fact that the main course is turkey, as opposed to mashed potatoes or cranberry sauce, reaffirms that the scene is about men and masculinity. Although he presumably does not cook any of the dishes, Jack's symbolic work materializes through the presentation of the bird at the table and through who carves it. Because of all the subversive connotations of the carving rituals, the ensuing discussion between Jack and LD begins to clear up as a battle for patriarchal power. The relevance of their discussion of televised football, a violent sport, is a discussion beyond the scope of this article. Another important aspect that contributes to the manifestation of Arthur's masculine position within the Pariah scene is the inferences behind Audrey preparing the dish. Over the course of the film, the audience is introduced to the fact that Audrey routinely saves meals for Arthur, who is often away from home. Only twice in the film is he shown eating a meal with the entire family, and both scenes are filled with family conflict and tension. The fact that Audrey cooks all of Arthur's meals for him is imbued with gender normative implications. As explained above, women are expected, according to a Westernized conception of married life, to provide meals for their husbands. The fact that Audrey did this signals to the audience that she prescribed it, thus enacting an understanding of the.