Preview

Sociological Analysis Of The Movie 'The Help'

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1316 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Sociological Analysis Of The Movie 'The Help'
This paper is going to analyze the sociological perspectives put on women during the civil rights era, by using the movie The Help to give examples. There are many themes evident in this movie, such as, gender socialization, counter framing/ social deviance and sexualization.

During the civil rights era, when this movie took place, white women were seen as the homemakers. They were expected to get married, have babies, be involved in social events and supervise “the help”. In no means were they to work, in or out of the home. This would be an example of gender socialization. In the movie white women were oppressed in this way. Many of the white women played into this role and when a woman did not play into this role they criticized them. One …show more content…
Very rarely are black men apart of this film, this not only reflects todays society but also the society back during this day. The movie The Help shows an accurate representation of how black men are viewed on a daily basis. This socialization of black men has become an increasing problem in 2015 but the stereotype had to come from somewhere. As the movie depicts that this was even a stereotype happening back during the 1960s. Research shows that during the 1960s 19.9% of black children lived without the presence of their biological father (U.S. Census Bureau 2012). Looking at these statistics the gender socialization is wrong, many fathers were present during this time. The movie The Help was produced in 2011 and absentee black fathers has become a very well known socialization. The producers own stereotypes played into the making of the movie and were very inaccurate in this aspect of the …show more content…
Somehow the film ended up being focused more on the white women. This could be because the people who wrote this book/movie did not have any variation of gender or race.

In conclusion, the movie The Help had many different sociological aspects that could have been looked at and even some underlying concepts that one would have to dig deep to see. Overall the sociological aspects of the movie that really stood out were gender socialization, counter framing/social deviance, and femininity. As (Lewis and Altamit 2015:94) said in their review of the article “The Help not only shows us how far we have come regarding race relations, it also illustrates the strides that have been made in redefining female gender
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Angry Eye- Essay
    • 560 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Angry Eye- Essay

    Jane asserts that whites make laws to support and reinforce white supremacy and that those laws are changed only when nonwhites become aware of their effects. Tension fills the air. Then Elliot talks about the poor treatment of people who are…

    • 560 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Law study compared to The Ghost of Mississippi
    • 697 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Law study compared to The Ghost of Mississippi

    Back in the 1960s, was when the movie was taking place. Durring that time era, it is known to us that there was lots of racism and discrminination against "coloured" people. This true story speaks to us about how an elderly black woman fights versus the white lawyers and judges to serve justice to the man who killed her husband. In class we studied how the law is blind to some in the legal system, one of the lessons that we studied that includes blindness in the law was the "whites vs. blacks", where the whites would stand a higher ground than the blacks and could get away with something terrible such as murder. This is what happens in the movie and even though fighting for it took 27 years Miss.Evers finally got some peace at mind knowning she put the bad man in jail. Without this blindness, there shouldnt have been 27 years of fighting an countless amounts of hours could have been placed in other cases much needed help. To conclude, the "white vs. blacks" issue was a key concept in unit 1 that was represented durring the movie.…

    • 697 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Examples Of Prejudice In The Help
    • 866 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Examples Of Prejudice In The Help

    Prejudice was commonplace in Jackson Mississippi, America during the 1960’s. African Americans in particular were discriminated against with the racist Jim Crow laws that saw them oppressed as ‘separate but equal’. This idea of prejudice towards African Americans was thoroughly explored throughout the course of director Tate Taylor’s filmic text The Help. However, racial prejudice is not the only form of discrimination in the text; gender inequality is also highlighted through filmic techniques such as camera angle, costume design, lighting, and music.…

    • 866 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
    • 854 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

    The first example of discrimination which causes a huge problem is the discussion of race. Even though the book is written based in the nineties, it was still looked at as frowned upon to be in an interracial relationship. One day while the author was jogging through the park he noticed a very dark black man and a blonde woman jogging with a little terrier. He noticed that when the man turned the corner the first the day he peered behind him at the woman. The next day however he noticed the woman running in front of him and the man, already had passed the turn, again looked back at the woman. He sees these two people everywhere and wonders why they just cannot be together. He discusses it with his friend Joe Odem who tells him, “We don’t do black-on-white in Savannah…especially black male on white female,” (Berendt 55). Joe goes on to tell him that “A lot of things have changed over the past 20 years, but not that”( Berendt 55). However this is not the first time the author faces the harsh discrimination against African Americans in Savannah. Throughout the novel, the author attends these parties where the whole help staff is African American, from the caterer to the waiters and waitresses. There was one woman in particular, Lucille Wright. She was a light-skinned black woman who was known as one of Savannah’s leading hostesses who had catered several events for the rich people of…

    • 854 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    A 1 page Analysis of Gender Stereotyping in the Movie 'Antz'
    • 469 Words
    • 2 Pages

    A 1 page Analysis of Gender Stereotyping in the Movie 'Antz'

    The movie showed instances of gender stereotyping most strongly. Starting with the women characters, there is a laundry list of notable instances, but I will only name a few. We can start with Azteca, Z's friend and fellow "worker". While Z is a typical male who is competitive and wants to move up in the world, Azteca maintains a somewhat "typical" female response. Instead of encouraging him, she tells Z to just smile, and happily accept his place, even if it is an awful life where he is to literally digging ditches his whole life. This example simply highlight the stereotype that women can, in effect, be "yes men", the phrase further illustrating the perception of weakness in females. Another time when this theme appeared was when the Queen was talking to her daughter, who was, in an old-school sort of way, betrothed to a man not of her choosing, the general. While the daughter complained, the Queen simply urged her to be complacent, and accept her fate, because it is "the best thing for everyone". Another instance, and one which I found particularly hilarious, was the woman wasp(no coincidence there, of course). When Z and the princess were in trouble, she insisted to her husband that he help them, because it was the humanitarian thing to do. It was presented in such a way that harkened to the proverbial housewife image, whereby the…

    • 469 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Waiting to Exhale
    • 945 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Waiting to Exhale

    Many times throughout the book, the women begin to do something right with their lives. However, they end up being greedy with what they have and try to live as if they had no problems. For instance, in McMillan’s novel, after Bernie wins the case against her ex-husband and wins a large sum of money, she writes checks to the United Negro College Fund and other charities. In the movie, however, there is no…

    • 945 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Key Ideas Revealed In The Film 'The Help'
    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Key Ideas Revealed In The Film 'The Help'

    The film trailer explores key ideas that are shown in the movie The Help. The main key ideas portrayed in the trailer include: Women’s rights/Sexism, Racism, Courage and Friendship. The theme of Women’s rights and sexism is shown at the very beginning of the trailer. We start to see the difference of opinions between the other women in Jackson and Skeeter. A conversation between Skeeter and her mother reveals Skeeters battle for equality. Skeeter says, ‘I got a job today, writing for the Jackson Journal’, her mother replies, ‘Great, you can write my obituary. Charlotte Phelan, dead, her daughter still single’ When Skeeter’s mother responds to Skeeter like that, there is an over the shoulder shot that focuses on Skeeters face which depicts her obvious distaste for what her mother has just said. Through this conversation and the added emphasise of Skeeters obvious conflicting feelings the audience can gather an insight into the lives of the women in Jackson and be able to understand that sexism is a large part of The Help.…

    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Feminism In The Help
    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Feminism In The Help

    She is gathering black women in secret to share and record their stories of oppression as black help in the South. The reader might argue that change and commotion on the subject only arose because a white woman brought it up, or started the dialogue, but the same can be said about women's suffrage 40 years prior. That women were only granted rights because of men...but in reality if it weren't for those men, women's equality wouldn’t have been an issue in the first place. The same goes for the white people in The Help. If the white folk hadn’t built racist social constructs against them, black folk would already have been equal in the community. Skeeter using her voice as a white female was just another way for the black help to preach through her.“Wasn't that the point of the book? For women to realize, We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I'd thought.” The author was using the main white character, an equalist, as a way to strengthen the voices of the oppressed and convey her message to the reader. Social constructs built around minorities, can be demolished from the inside out, the other way around would have been ignorant hypocrisy on the authors, and histories…

    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Arn't I a Woman?
    • 1674 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Arn't I a Woman?

    In the novel, the author proposes that the African American female slave’s need to overcome three obstacles was what unavoidably separated her from the rest of society; she was black, female, and a slave, in a white male dominating society. The novel “locates black women at the intersection of racial and sexual ideologies and politics (12).” White begins by illustrating the Europeans’ two major stereotypes of African American females, Jezebel and Mammy, which would inevitably serve as slave holders’ excuse for the sexual exploitation of female slaves. The term Jezebel, a seductive female slave concerned only with matters of the flesh, was…

    • 1674 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Similarities Between Alice Walker And Frederick Douglass
    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Similarities Between Alice Walker And Frederick Douglass

    Moreover, the works of Alice walker and Frederick Douglass did not only explore the theme of gender roles, but also the theme of race. In fact, slavery and racism are practiced on the basis of one’s own race. As a matter of fact, that’s what Alice Walker tries to reflect in her novel. She sheds the light upon this theme in many scenes. For example, when the mayor’s wife asks Sofia to work for her as a maid and Sofia rejects this racist and humiliating offer she is slapped for daring to refuse, and eventually imprisoned for defending herself. As a black woman, she is expected to be honored and pleased with being a white lady’s housemaid. Hence, Sofia’s skin color was the reason for her oppression, and will continue to be as such as long as her skin color remains black. Furthermore, Celia’s real father was lynched by a white man for being a successful store owner. Moreover, it’s important to note that although Walker did not focus on racism as much as sexism, but she was still able to reflect the fact that what black women went through was, without any doubt, the result of the systematic slavery system created by the white man. In fact, “the text’s ability to expose sexual oppression seems to come at the…

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Movie Review: the Help
    • 635 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Movie Review: the Help

    An emotionally stirring movie taking place in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s, “The Help” stars Emma Stone, Viola Davis, and Octavia Spencer as three women who share a common motive. This racially tense setting creates the perfect foundation for a drama film such as this. The characters’ personalities in combination with the emotion of the plot develop a socially accurate depiction of the struggles faced by the people of the time. While the racial aspect of the movie is dominant, viewers may also find compassion and friendship within the conversations and encounters of its characters.…

    • 635 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    The Help Movie Analysis
    • 1152 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Help Movie Analysis

    These women are portrayed as loyal servants who take care of the white families and their children (Harvard University Press). By the 1960s, the image of black women as Mammies had diminished, but the movie characterized all of the maids in this somewhat antiquated fashion. Elizabeth’s daughter, Mae Mobley, was almost completely raised by Aibileen and was far more emotionally attached to Aibileen than her mother. There was an extremely loving connection between Aibileen and Mae Mobley, as well as with other children that Aibileen cared for during her lifetime. These relationships were more typical in earlier decades rather than in the 1960s. Citing another example, Aibileen shared with Eugenia her perception that ever since she was a child she was destined to become a maid because that is what the women in her family had always done. Despite her longing for greater opportunities, she ultimately settled for something less than she…

    • 1152 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    To Kill A Mockingbird Bar Scene Analysis
    • 550 Words
    • 3 Pages

    To Kill A Mockingbird Bar Scene Analysis

    However the differences between the film and novel come down to the improvements different generations have made to overcome racism and sexism, from the 1930’s to the 1970’s. Women are more accepted in the 70’s and the government under Kennedy’s policy is working hard to cooperating coloured men and women into the workforce, which is now called positive discrimination, which basically means that the government was choosing the black people because yes they were qualified, but mainly because they were…

    • 550 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    White Women Discrimination
    • 872 Words
    • 4 Pages

    White Women Discrimination

    While white woman have been on this world born just as man was, people still disrespect them in many ways. Racism and discrimination still exists to this day “In my opinion, had I been African-American, they would not have fired me,"(Shira Hedgepeth, former director of academic technology at Winston-Salem State University), According to Shira Hedgepeth she worked at an all black college for three years (August 2008 to July 2011) she got fired one day due to the University “Going in a different Direction” (according to an EEOC letter to the university dated Sept. 20.). These things are some obstacles that white woman had to face. In the story Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck there was a character named Curley, he had a wife who didn’t have a name. She was abused, she stayed at home and she did not work. When she was younger, someone gave her the opportunity to become an actress and she thinks her mother hid her letter of acceptance. Curley’s wife did not work because at that time there was discrimination in two ways, because she was a woman, and because she didn’t have the education to work. Curley beat on is wife, maybe because he felt more powerful than her due to the fact that she is a woman, or that he is just always angry. Curley’s wife wanted to experience the American Dream to go out and work. For years white woman did not work, but stayed in the house and were house keepers. White woman wanted to experience the American dream, and were treated unequal for a long time until the 19th amendment passed. They went through tough obstacles like education, discrimination, and sexism.…

    • 872 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Crash Character Analysis
    • 1634 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Crash Character Analysis

    The character I chose to analyze was Jean Cabot, who was played by Sandra Bullock. I feel that she really embodies all the topics we have talked about in class so far. The first time we see her, she and her husband, are heading to their car. While walking she catches a glimpse of two African American males and holds on to her husband harder and gives them a slightly disgusted look. She thinks that because she is a white women, married to a wealthy white male, she is inherently better than the two African American males. This is an example of power and privilege. She has more than one type of power and privilege over these males; white privilege and class privilege. White privilege is “an invisible package of unearned assets” (McIntosh p. 1-2). Jean Cabot exhibits white privilege in that she is obviously white and that she does not realize that this privilege of hers did not come from hard work. I do not think she even realized what she did to offend the African American males, her actions just came so naturally to her because she is oblivious to her privilege. She also exhibits white privilege when the locksmith is at her house. The man changing her locks is Hispanic and she starts screaming racial stereotypes about the locksmith, to her husband. This relates to the second point on Peggy McIntosh’s list, which is “I can avoid spending time with people whom I was trained to mistrust and who have learned to mistrust my kind or me” (McIntosh p. 6). This is relevant to both the examples of the African American males and the Hispanic locksmith. She tried to avoid the African American males by crossing the street because she has learned that they cannot be trusted. In turn they steal her car because they feel that they cannot trust her because of her white privilege and the fact that they cannot be trusted by her. The last example of her white privilege is the way she treats her house keeper.…

    • 1634 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More

Related Topics