Popular Film Stereotypes
Tania Modleski's "Cinema and the Dark Continent: Race and Gender in Popular Film," discusses how popular film perpetuates stereotypes of black women. Some controlling images of black women include: the mammy, the jezebel, and the sapphire. While Modelski doesn't analyze the sapphire stereotype, she does use Whoppi Goldberg's past film roles as examples of the nurturing and maternal mammy and the over- sexualized jezebel. While I could clearly see Modelski's comparison of Goldberg's roles and black women's stereotypes,
I could not as easily accept her theories on "Gorillas in the
Mist" and "King Kong."
Modelski says the gorillas in "Gorillas in the Mist" and "King Kong" represent issues surrounding the stereotype
of a violently sex-crazed black man and of miscegenation. I don't feel when bringing Dian Fossey's life to the film the screenwriters intended to allude to a sexual relationship between Fossey and Digit. While I can see how sexual overtones can be inferred from over-analyzation, I just don't find it highly probable. It is more probable to see an analogous relationship between King Kong and the stereotype of the black male rapist.
When looking at the films deeper than their face value it is easy to say they reflect white fears and stereotypes of black men and women. I would be interested to hear Modeleski's views on the recent "sista" films like "Waiting to Exhale" and "How Stella Got her Groove back, films marketed towards black women; these films also depict the sapphire or black woman who is sarcastic and emasculating. I think she would not find these so- called "for women, by women" films beneficial towards the ending stereotypes.
I could not as easily accept her theories on "Gorillas in the
Mist" and "King Kong."
Modelski says the gorillas in "Gorillas in the Mist" and "King Kong" represent issues surrounding the stereotype
of a violently sex-crazed black man and of miscegenation. I don't feel when bringing Dian Fossey's life to the film the screenwriters intended to allude to a sexual relationship between Fossey and Digit. While I can see how sexual overtones can be inferred from over-analyzation, I just don't find it highly probable. It is more probable to see an analogous relationship between King Kong and the stereotype of the black male rapist.
When looking at the films deeper than their face value it is easy to say they reflect white fears and stereotypes of black men and women. I would be interested to hear Modeleski's views on the recent "sista" films like "Waiting to Exhale" and "How Stella Got her Groove back, films marketed towards black women; these films also depict the sapphire or black woman who is sarcastic and emasculating. I think she would not find these so- called "for women, by women" films beneficial towards the ending stereotypes.