The Color Purple

The Color Purple, released in 1985, created a mix of emotions among the black community, for the ways in which it both varied and stayed true to the original novel.  

Significantly, Spielberg’s movie does not discuss the themes of nationalism that was raised in Waker’s novel. She writes, "White people busy celebrating they independence from England July 4^th, say Harpo, so most black folks don’t have to work. Us spend day celebrating each other, and, “the way you know who discover America, Nettie say, is think bout cucumbers.” The original text uses these lines to depict the ways that African American women do not feel like a true part of America because of their exploitation, discrimination, and history of violence and slavery from the dominating whites. This theme is starkly absent from the Hollywood adaptation.This echoes the usual whitewashing of film; it does not want to create guilt for the white American audience, and it also shows that Spielberg himself is not willing to fully acknowledge white privilege and its deleterious effects on the African American community. The film goes on to fully emphasize the role of sisterhood and bonding, but neglects Shug and Celie’s sexual relationship; the film must only portray socially acceptable relationships, especially within the already controversial context of the story.

Johnny Depp as Tonto

"Redface": Redface refers to the creation and propagation of racist American Indian stereotypes and caricatures. It also describes the systematic bias against hiring real Native Americans to play Native American roles shown by white producers, directors, and others who control the depiction of Native Americans in popular culture through casting decisions. (Definition by this website on offensive minority portrayals.)

So, is Johnny Depp (pictured above) being cast as Tonto in the upcoming film The Lone Ranger a prime example of redface? Much like blackface, redface has a sordid history of being a method for exploiting and ridiculing a subjugated minority. Johnny Depp is not a person of color, but mentions, "I guess I have some Native American somewhere down the line. My great grandmother was quite a bit of Native American, she grew up Cherokee or maybe Creek Indian." Does this 'count'? If he did not grow up with Native features, participate in the Native community, and has little to no knowledge of his possible ancestry, is Johnny Depp still Native American enough to play a member of the Comanche tribe? 

Tonto himself is a paradigm of racial stereotyping, with his ceremonial garb and offensive name ("tonto" is Spanish slang for stupid). But as such a huge Native American role, why did revenue for a well-known white actor supersede casting a Native American man? Rumors are that this movie aims to "reinvent" Tonto as something greater, but good intentions do not mitigate the real effects. Tonto may seem small, but his representation is inherently political.

Dana Ammann

Problematics Behind "The Help"

"Despite efforts to market the book and the film as a progressive story of triumph over racial injustice, The Help distorts, ignores, and trivializes the experiences of black domestic workers."
- Association of Black Women Historians

What? When The Help premiered in 2011, it was endorsed by Oprah Winfrey and became one of the most popular feel-good stories in America. Emma Stone plays a charming, white, proto-feminist writer fresh out of college. She dares to document the struggles of black maids in the face of the her racist Southern community. But how does the film industry fail to structure the real stories of these women? The film is starkly devoid of the ongoing and brutal sexual harassment and assault of female domestics, and depicts black men as violent, cruel, or absent. Not to mention "Skeeter" Phelan's role as the white savior to these oppressed women. The film vaguely takes place in 1963 (indicated by the assassination of Medgar Evers), a harrowing time in African-American history; in the film, this is transformed into an enlightening and happy experience for white people.

 Additionally, there is no historical basis for "Skeeter" Phelan's project or book that becomes published. It is a way for a white woman to rewrite the history of Civil Rights, effectively whitewashing the 1960s.

Dana Ammann

Where Are the Black Girls in "Girls"?

Lena Dunham's "Girls" has been subject to scrutiny over its all-white cast; the reasons for this are clear, as the hit drama is set in Brooklyn, NY where only one-third of the population is white.

Dunham plays the main character of Hannah, a struggling twentysomething writer in New York City. In the show's pilot, Hannah earnestly tells her parents of her hope to become the "voice of [her] generation." Response to criticism from Dunham and the show's writers can be summarized as Dunham not feeling she could adequately portray the experiences of women of color. However, this claim does not coincide with the show's intent to focus on the realities of young women in New York trying to find themselves; the city is not a lily-white and the characters only seem to encounter people of color as nannies or bartenders with one-liner roles.

This pictures the casting call for Girls.
The characters in the show, echoing Lena Dunham's own experiences, are cossetted by their own self-segregation. While Girls presents educated young women feeling their way around independence in progressive messaging, the white privilege of not having to include others because of their difference is still present.

Dana Ammann

"Hunger Games" Fans and Racism

The Hunger Games is one of the most popular YA book series of 2011 and 2012.The film version was lauded for its multiracial cast and strong female lead; however, backlash at three major characters cast as black actors rocked the fan base after the release of the movie and its previews. Suzanne Collins' original description of Rue, a young girl entered in a fight to the death, reads, "She has bright, dark, eyes and satiny brown skin and stands tilted up on her toes with her arms slightly extended to her sides, as if ready to take wing at the slightest sound. It's impossible not to think of a bird." This bubbling rage of fans -- often from young teenagers -- reeks of overt prejudice and racism.

These tweets send a message: that a character with such sweet and lovable qualities such as Rue can't possibly be black. Another Twitter commenter expressed, "Awkward moment when Rue is some black girl and not the innocent blonde girl you pictured." Black means bad, or evil, and certainly not naive and innocent. Those traits for reserved for little white girls, and specifically, little white blonde girls. While The Hunger Games seemingly takes place in a post-racial world where wealthy citizens dye their skin tones of green and orange, these slurs against black actors in the film (particularly against a child) indicate that racism is not gone from today's world, but has only gone into hiding.
- Dana Ammann

ParaNorman: First Gay Character In An Animated Children's Movie

For a very long time, the television and movie industry has been adamant about placing homosexual characters in TV shows and films with either a teenaged demographic, or an adult demographic. Never has there ever been a children's movie where a gay character was mentioned-- until the release of ParaNorman, that is. During one of the scenes of this animated Tim Burton movie, you find out that one of the main characters is gay. The clear demographic for this movie is children, and the fact that a gay character has been mentioned for the first time in an animated movie is a big step forward. Most people in the industry, or even regular members of society, would state that they believed that including a gay character in a children's movie or television show was "inappropriate" or "unsuitable" for kids of a young age. However, the makers of ParaNorman certainly didn't think so, and I think that if we give it a couple of years, society might start to agree with them.

-Alyssa DiSabito

Gender Roles in Disney Princess Films

Disney Princesses

Disney is known as a corporation that makes movies to please the whole family. One of their most notable series is the Disney Princess films. All little girls fall in love with the idea of being a princess and living happily ever after, which makes these films very popular among young girls. However, Disney has received criticism for their gender representations In the six Disney films that have quintessential Disney princesses (Snow White, Aladdin, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid) there are clear messages and through lines regarding the role of women and men. Women are supposed to be beautiful, skinny, willing, helpless, and able to perform the duties of a housewife. Each of their movies has a central prince/princess pairing, and the women are “saved” in some way by the macho, strong, independent prince. There is a strong focus on the princesses being beautiful, and how their beauty affects them, and is the reason they are “rescued”. For example, Ariel from The Little Mermaid longs so much for a man’s love that she is willing to give up her identity as a mermaid to become a human with legs. Cinderella is saved from terrible living conditions because she met the prince for two hours, and he looked throughout the land for her, simply because he thought she was beautiful. All in all, the messages that these classic films send to young, impressionable girls and boys are very detrimental to their upbringing.

-- Breana Swain

The L Word Promotion: Offensive, or Not?

The picture above is a poster promoting the DVD release of season two of the hit TV show, The L Word. The L Word is a show following the love lives of a number of different lesbian women. It is a show that includes a lot of cursing, nudity, and sexual activity. Therefore, the appearance of the women on the poster-- each woman posing in a sexual manner, and dressed in revealing, suggestive clothing-- would not surprise anyone who follows the show. However, some could argue that the sexual way in which these women are presenting themselves could be offensive to women-- to lesbian women, especially. Some might argue that the sexual availability that is being portrayed in the poster gives lesbian women a bad image, and that it might cause the show's audience to gain a false knowledge of what lesbian women are really like in real life. However, some could also argue that heterosexual women are also portrayed in the same sexual manner in television and movie ads, and that the poster is not giving lesbians a bad image at all. Instead, it is over-sexualizing women in general. In short, whether or not someone finds this image offensive all depends on whether or not a person believes that over-sexualizing women in the media-- whether they be heterosexual or homosexual-- is an okay thing to do.

-Alyssa DiSabito

How Audiences Perceive Homosexuality

When a new television show comes out, it is always difficult to tell what the audience's reaction will be to what goes on in the show. The writers of any television show are very careful about the story lines they create, the characters they develop, and the ways in which they choose to portray each character. They are also careful about any topics that might be controversial-- one of these topics being sexuality. Degrassi is a popular Canadian television show that has featured many gay couples on it. At first, writers were worried about what the audience's reaction would be to seeing a gay couple on TV. However, the show's audience, consisting mainly of teenagers, embraced the homosexual relationships. There are thousands of fan videos online (on Youtube especially) dedicated to convincing the writers to keep these relationships going. The same is true for the audiences of shows like South of Nowhere, Skins:UK, Pretty Little Liars, Lost Girl, Gossip Girl, and many more.

-Alyssa DiSabito

How Sexuality Affects Spencer Carlin

In the television show South of Nowhere, a girl named Spencer Carlin moves from her small town in Ohio to Los Angeles, California, where over time, she meets another girl named Ashley. She eventually falls in love with Ashley, and realizes that she is gay. Spencer's sexuality affects her in many different ways, but the main way Spencer's sexuality affects her is through her relationships with different members of her family. When Spencer's mother found out that she was gay, she was very angry, and Spencer thought that it would destroy their relationship forever. The same thing happened with her brother Glen, who is in the video clip above. However, Spencer's mom soon realizes that Spencer is still the same person, and that she is happy, and the two of them have a better relationship afterward. In the clip above, Spencer is filming a video diary about coming out to her grandmother, and how it has affected their relationship. Coming out is a very big deal and a very hard thing to do, and I think that South of Nowhere portrays this difficulty very well, especially through Spencer and her storyline.

-Alyssa DiSabito

Sexuality in Television: From Past to Present

Will & Grace premiered in 1998, and ended in 2005. Will & Grace is one of the only shows on television that has had a gay main character. There have been other shows with gay main characters, such as South of Nowhere or Skins:UK. However, there is a difference between the use of sexuality in each of these shows. In the show Will & Grace, Will's story line is not completely based on the fact that he is gay. As you can see from this video clip, the fact that Will is gay comes up from time to time, as this fact if part of what makes the show interesting and different. However, the writers of Will & Grace are not primarily focused on Will's sexuality, or the sexuality of any of the other characters. In shows like South of Nowhere or Skins:UK, the plot of each episode is based on the fact that the main characters are gay or lesbian. That is the main difference between the use of sexuality in shows like Will & Grace, a show from the past, and South of Nowhere or Skins:UK, which are both shows from the later 2000's.

-Alyssa DiSabito