Black Women's Sexual Identity In Film

Have you ever wondered the extent to how historical events impact film production? History informed the ways in which black women’s sexual identity is presented in films after and during the slavery era. Slavery and emancipation are all historical moments that influenced the way films are developed. Black women’s sexualities are not accurately represented and there are no explicit connection between their body and sexuality if portrayed Anat Pick claims that queer cinema did not portray “gender-neutral queer” to acknowledge the lesbian presence (p. 105). What she means by this is that the black female body was void of sexual desire. Related issues were raised in Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple (1985) and Cheryl Dunye’s (1997) The Watermelon
Women as both producers truly recognise lesbianism and challenge the concept that black women’s body is inevitable objects of undesirability. The characters seem to be coded in the history of slavery as Celie feel undesirable due to living in an oppressed society, while Dunye eradicates this stereotype and re-envisions the black mammy figure of the 1930s as a desirable figure. In particular, the homosexual relationship between Shug and Celie unsettles the rigid ways of how slavery affects black women’s sexuality, while The Watermelon Woman openly addresses Cheryl’s lesbian desire for the “mammy” character of the 1930s, repositioning black female lesbians forgotten stories that have been suppressed by Hollywood’s racial and sexual norms. During the twentieth century, filmmakers embraced the Hays Code of the 1930s in order to appease to a group of conservative people and to create films that were appropriate for everyone.
The code censored and prohibited sexual perversity and nudity in films, but the code also condemns “sinful" behaviour such as homosexuality (Gilbert, 2013, p. 9). As a result, filmmakers used subtle hints of homosexuality, notably in portraying lesbians as femme, butch or by simply writing movie dialogue between the lines (The Celluloid Closet, 1995). Patricia White (1999) laments that even though queer desire was not explicit, codes were established that associated a person’s sexual identity and desire with either masculinity or femininity (ie. cross-dressing) (p. 3). She emphasises two key concepts in her book: inference and representability. "Inference" is the ability to read into a film while representability is the act of representing a particular group (p. 101). In this case, the creation of The Color Purple acted as a medium to represent the gay community, especially black female lesbians. Lesbian identities were not straightforward in queer cinema, but rather it was suggested. Although Celie has a sexual desire for Snug, the film director almost made it not immediately recognisable, only giving a sense of "queer appeal” (p. 110 ). Their queer relationship is hinted then denied when the topic of Mr.__arises. This was done to appeal to the queer market by modifying the character's
dialogues and behaviour, making it seem as if Shug is attracted to her husband. It's as if the film director wanted to deny their lesbian desire for each other.