Michelle Han Tran Professor Thibodaux ENG 1157 3 December 2015 White Chicks: Farce and Purposeful Revenge of the Whiteface Controversy? When many people hear of the Wayans Brothers movie White Chicks, they would inevitably picture the humorous scene where Terry Crews, being the physically huge, prideful jock he is, ironically does gestures and lip-syncs to “A Thousand Miles” on his car radio. Everyone around me adores this particular movie with a passion, often quoting lines and reminiscing their favorite scenes. Moreover, White Chicks is and will forever be intact on our comedy list to watch on a Netflix night. While the movie can fill our hearts with mirth and laughter, there are uncertainties and disapprovals that coexist. Controversially, …show more content…
I’ve only learned about its unforeseen negative reviews and poor ratings through research, and as a result, I was in complete denial. I mean, who wouldn’t find themselves laughing at two black undercover FBI cops attempting to fool everyone by disguising themselves as two white chicks with blonde hair, skimpy outfits, breasts, latex masks, white spray paint, and clorox-colored contacts? Moreover, they look not even the least convincing as the real Hampton sisters, but instead, look like massive, uncanny creatures with high-pitch, cringe-worthy, and monkey-resembling voices. However, that’s the whole point of its humor–––is to produce characters and scenes so nonsensical that it turns into comedy. It glazes over reality and the situational, social issues we have to face in life with a …show more content…
According to critics and reviewers from Rotten Tomatoes, they believe that White Chicks is racist, contains sexist objectification of women, and relies on stereotypes as a basis for their comedy. Though one may see a particular scene in the movie as sexist because the wealthy people held an auction to “sell girls as dates”–––or the scene where the agents absent-mindedly stripped the clothes off the Hampton sisters to check for their sex–––still, these scenes are exaggerated just like the rest of the scenes for the sole purpose of humor. As a female myself, I never found these hilarious scenes in any way offensive. Maybe my laughter was caused by the immense intelligence I felt at the moment when I understood and accepted the jokes, but there were many moments when laughing was also inescapable and psychologically triggered my emotions; I felt as though I can cry someone a river and get a six-pack abs after laughing so hard. I am glad and proud to say that White Chicks has de-stressed my state of being from head to toe and replaced my distressed state with only pleasurable feelings. It’s pretty funny to see a person consciously or subconsciously ransack social norms and make a fool of himself. Like beauty, humor is also in the eye of the beholder; It is art, not science; It is full of contradictions, however, analyzing it too much will make
The concept art imitates life is crucial to film directors who express their views on political and social issues in film. In regard to film studies, race is a topic rare in many films. Like America, many films simply refuse to address this topic for various reasons. However, more recently, Jordan Peele’s 2017 box office hit Get Out explicates contemporary race relations in America. In the form of an unconventional comedy horror, Get Out is intricate in its depiction of white liberal attitudes towards African Americans. In short, Get Out suggests a form of covert racism existing in a post- Jim Crow era. Similarly, Eduardo Bonilla- Silva’s book Racism Without Racists acknowledges the contemporary system of racism or “new racism,” a system
For this assignment, I will be analyzing the 2004, blockbuster film White Chicks with specific reference to dimensions of social stratification such as gender, class, and race. White Chicks follows the story of two African American FBI agent brothers, Kevin and Marcus Copeland who accidently foil an assiduously executed undercover operation intended to capture a group of notorious Dominican drug smugglers. As a final opportunity to redeem their tarnished reputations, the two agents take on an assignment far below their customary standards when they agree to escort billionaire heiresses Brittany and Tiffany Wilson to the Hamptons in order
People are fantastic at pointing out differences. Most times than not it’s to make fun of the person being pointed out and often it’s a racist or stereotyping action. “Fish Cheeks” by Amy Tan, “Gate A-4” by Naomi Shihab Nye, and “Just Walk on By” by Brent Staples all touch on the topic of racial and cultural stereotypes.
Certain stereotypes have stood the test of time, no matter how many strides for racial equality have been made. Sandra Bullock’s character made the statement about the relationship between white and black people: “If a white woman sees two black men walking
The critic reviews were mainly negative some critics said “The filmmakers trot out slavery as a general sins-of-the-past signifier and then have no idea what to really do with such a painful real-world
These days it seems like you can’t escape the all-seeing eye of PC culture. Every poorly worded joke or inconsiderate prank about race can lead to a person’s whole life being destroyed by woke twitter. Yet, a small made for TV movie known as Windy City Heat has managed to walk on by, unscathed by the wrath of PC culture. By stereotyping almost every minority group, Windy City Heat is arguably one of the most offensive films ever made, yet I found it amusing, hilarious, and a little enlightening. Ultimately, I believe that Windy City Heat uses extremes of stereotypes to vitiate the negative aspects of these stereotypes, and in doing so, acts as a morally acceptable pranks that aims to teach members of the film and the audience to be more welcoming.
I do believe the film was accurate in the slang terms and racist comments that it used. I believe although the movie leaned towards being over dramatic that it was really well portrayed with the scenarios that it used throughout the movie and how it all ties back together. I think it led very well to the overall big picture that they were trying to convey to the audience.
The rise of Blaxploitation films such as Coffy revived the social problem films of the 1940s, but instead introduced new representations of race and gender as well as the drug crisis of the 1970s. Despite the progressiveness of Blaxploitation films in relation to previous films such as Birth of a Nation–where black characters were exploited through flat, racial stereotypes for the enjoyment of white audiences–they also thrived on the exploitation of evolved black stereotypes of the 1970s; Bogle’s “black buck,”1 characterized by violence and insatiable sexual desire evolved into the 1970s “pimp daddy,” thriving through hustling women, selling drugs, and sending hits when necessary. The representation of black women in films followed a
What I also found to be quite interesting and perhaps a weakness of the film, was the sense of performative racism that four of the main white characters utilize and how the makers of the film appeal to such a phenomenon through symbolisms as well. In the movie, there seems to be two main kinds of racism the characters exhibit, one of them being blatant racism and another being subtle racism through microaggressions. For example, Katherine experiences blatantly racist and misogynistic behavior from her coworkers, especially from Paul Stafford, the lead engineer (making groupthink much easier) and Ruth, the only other woman working in the office. On the other hand, Al Harrison and John Glenn appeal to the subtler sides of racism and performative white pity, Glenn going out of his way to shake the hands of the computers as the film attempted to paint a positive, “not-all-whites” picture of inclusion, acceptance and tolerance, a kind of racism that almost all of the white people in the film come to, by its end. Examples of this can be seen in scenes like the one in which Al Harrison smashes down the “coloreds” and “whites” restroom signs as if implying that doing so will abolish all racial inequalities with a couple of blows of blunt force. One could infer it seems, that paired with the groundbreaking stories of these three women, white people being decent human
In the acclaimed 2001 film, Legally Blonde, the main character, Elle Woods, is a fantastic feminine icon for females. The film represents the struggle of women to prove their ability. Remarkably, Elle never succumbs to those who so strongly see her as being stupid. While others put down her abilities and intelligence, Elle hardly ever doubts herself. She moves through the world with pure confidence. As Callahan, a law professor at Harvard who later selects Elle Woods for his internship quips, “it’s as if she just woke up one day and said, ‘I’m going to law school.” She decides on a goal and knows she can attain it, even if others only respond with incredulity or mockery. Legally Blonde has many positive depictions of women and femininity for a 2001 film.
There was lots of miscarriage of justice that occurred in this movie that caught me by surprise and disappointment me. If this was a woman from Harlem or another poor city, this would not have been such a big case. In the movie, they talk about the woman being raped and thrown off the balcony and no one had any issue with that. It was not even public headlines in most newspapers, not fair how some stories get more popularity over others.
This film got it right because I am sure that many people can relate to this film. Many us have probably gone
Controversy is always arising when directors have stereotyped female lead roles, if any in their films. With films that actually include female roles in them, finding ones that represent them as strong, independent, capable women, aren’t found in just every genre like action films, or those showing people thriving for higher education standards. While both Kill Bill and Legally Blonde have very strong female leads, the way the films portray the women are a far cry from similar. We’ve all heard people around us say things like, “You throw like a girl.”
It depends solely on the person and their upbringing. Everyone takes things differently, humor also plays a role in acts of deviance. If a person has a nice sense of humor, a deviance act can come off as comical or entertaining, take the McDonald’s employee for example. She could have easily blown me off and went on to the next customer, but since she had a good taste in humor, the deviant act wasn’t really deviant to her. She found humor within the act, while someone else may have responded differently.
The movie The Hot Chick is a 2002 comedy film that focuses on a high school girl named Jessica Spencer who tries to find a way to get her body back after it is switched with a man named Clive Maxtone. Jessica is the typical popular, cruel and spoiled high school girl that one night switches bodies with a gas station robber Clive, due to a pair of earrings Jessica stole from a occult shop that day, one of which ends up in Clive's hands. She wakes up dazed and confused trying to figure out what might of caused this. Throughout the movie Jessica tries to find a way to get her body back while learning first-hand the pros and cons of being a man, while at the same time Clive takes advantage of the situation to commit a crime so he can blame it on