The Bechdel Test And The Duvernay Test, White Men And Their Stories Dominate Film

From the beginning of the film industry, individuals and communities—particularly those of racialized and gendered minority groups—have been either underrepresented, misrepresented, or both. Hollywood has been a massive suspect of misrepresentation and enabling/promoting socially constructed misconstructions through mainstream films since its creation. Despite obvious progress being made towards eliminating underrepresentation and misrepresentation and embracing true cultural depictions, films often still foster stereotypes and misrepresentation both directly and indirectly. One example of a film that does this is “The Pursuit of Happyness” starring Will Smith and directed by Gabriele Muccino.

It’s evident that black performers in Hollywood cinema are customarily depicted as unpleasant based on the clichéd roles they play, for example: the mammy, the promiscuous character, or the angry black woman. Within this paper, I will incorporate Bell Hooks idea of “The Oppositional Gaze”, and Marina Heung ideas discussed in the article "What 's the Matter with Sara Jane?” Daughters and Mothers in Douglas Sirk 's "Imitation of Life”. The film of focus is Imitation of Life (1959) by Douglas Sirk, the film will be analyzed, but I will scrutinize representation of black female characters within this film; in attempt to verify if this portrayal of the mammy and the mulatto child is a positive reference for black females in cinema (because they

The history of African Americans in early Hollywood films originated with blacks representing preconceived stereotypes. D.W. Griffith’s 1915 film, Birth of a Nation, stirred many controversial issues within the black community. The fact that Griffith used white actors in blackface to portray black people showed how little he knew about African Americans. Bosley Crowther’s article “The Birth of Birth of a Nation” emphasizes that the film was a “highly pro-South drama of the American Civil War and the Period of Reconstruction, and it glorified the role of the Ku Klux Klan” (76). While viewing this film, one would assert that the Ku Klux Klan members are heroic forces that rescue white women from sexually abusive black men. Griffith

Growing up in the 90s, watching movies were essential components of life. Specifically, comedies were the heart of interest until teenage years. The notion of wanting to watch a film that resonated with self and culture seemed right. Classic lines such as "I hate you Jody", "Bye, Felecia", or "Eat the cake Anna Mae" were jocular moments that had deeper meanings after years of pondering on how African American women are showcased in Hollywood films. After analyzing the depth of the roles in which African American women in classical Hollywood are depicted, there are three basic roles in which they are giving: the help, the hoodlum, and/ or the

All through the considered silent period, Blacks in film were typically pigeonholed as toms or coons. Nonetheless, the savage still showed up, particularly in the uncommon, in movies of “all colored cast”. These movies were aimed at portraying women as lesser beings because they could be used as dancers or sex tools in the Antebellum South, or in present-day Harlem. Extensive consideration has been given to the commonness and diligence of generalizations of the blacks in America (Bates 661). Yet one of these recognized generalizations or stereotyping, the “abysmal mulatto,” has gotten quick consideration from researchers and social pundits of film and pop culture in the United States. The Birth of a Nation portrays a society that is truly bent in keeping up the rigid social limits, this exclusion is very tricky. It is true that most films during this period, tried to dissect the film’s political capacities and sociological effect as far as race, sex, and class is concerned.

When a person reaches that point where life has drugged them through the mud merely for the color of their skin, will shelter these feelings and allow them to manifest at a point, as with the case with Victor.

The theories of Laura Mulvey and Bell Hooks share their views on how individuals who attend the cinema have the opportunity to gaze and interrupt the messages that are being portrayed. Based upon their views, spectators can have their own beliefs and views of life and not have to focus on societal practices of racism and sexism. The article “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” critiqued by Mulvey, focused on how sexism and voyeurism were the main theme in terms of how males dominated society and how woman were subservient to males due to castration. In the article “In Black Looks: Race and Representation” Chapter 7, The Oppositional Gaze, Hooks mainly focused on black woman’s identity and touches on both sexism and male/white female dominance over them. Both Mulvey and Hooks help to focus ones attention on how the white male sexist and black racial domination is portrayed by Hollywood in cinema. An example of this portrayal is represented by the movie “The Help”, produced in 2011 and directed by Tate Taylor.

When you look at black movies or movies with black and hispanic people, all you see are drug dealers, pimps, robbers(lots and lots of white people commit bank robberies) on the screen or television shows. The white system have been perpetrating this since slavery days., separating groups and causing racism, and again stereotypical views of minorities.

In the stereotypical horror movie, women are often portrayed as passive victims of violence, such as Janet Leigh in the famous shower scene of Psycho. These victimized characters are often the objects of what has been termed “the male gaze,” a term used in film and gender studies to describe the heterosexual male perspective through which women are portrayed in media. The male gaze is so ubiquitous that it is often considered the norm and therefore goes unnoticed. However, rather than portraying this stereotypical female character, Charles Burns’ Black Hole uses elements of the horror genre to draw attention to the male gaze and its symbolic violence against women. In his representation of Eliza’s rape, in particular, Burns uses horror cinematography

“Man, I counted at least 15 black people on that monitor. I’m here at the academy awards, otherwise known as the White Peoples Choice Awards.” said Chris Rock to kick off the 2016 Oscars Academy Awards. The Awards were surrounded with controversy through and through. It was the second time in a row that absolutely no African Americans had been nominated. Considering that a lot of great movies came out in which African Americans either wrote, directed, or acted in, a few in the the Black community exclaimed that the racism in Hollywood needed to end. On the other hand, others felt that the reason that no black actors were nominated was because they were not good enough this year, or the one before that…, to earn a nomination. They feel as though

To begin with, Maggie Greenwald’s Josephine Monaghan is the classical oppressed woman in western films. She is kicked out by her own family for having an illegitimate child with her family’s photographer and labelled a ‘whore’ by her own father. This reflects the traditional gender roles assigned to females since birth. After the attempt of prostitution by strangers in which she miraculously escapes from, Josephine’s goal is to simply survive. The decision Josephine makes after the series of unfortunate gender-based experiences reinforces the idea that even for a manly woman, Hollywood’s classical representation of women is still relevant.

Female television and film producers have come a long way in this industry. It wasn’t until recently that female directors and producers have been known to create content under the category of “intimate dramas.” As such, content involving arm dealers, spies and super naturals have been regarded as unfit categories for female directors and producers. In fact, female directors have made “rom-coms”, political, violent and traumatic films for years, but because they were made by women, they were in a sense, disregarded or deemed as “unfit.” Any film or television show produced by, or directed by someone who was not Caucasian, or a male, was more often than not “labeled arthouse and niche” (Bier par. 1). However, this

I 've always been Mulan. Ever since I was a child and my friends and I would claim what Disney Princess we would embody in our role playing games, I would always be designated the role of Mulan. There would also always be a Caucasian friend that would make a comment like, "oh you know...for obvious reasons." The reason was obvious. I was Asian. While every other Caucasian girl had a range of choices ranging from Belle, to Snow White, to Cinderella, to Ariel, I was limited to one princess. It wasn 't as if being designated to an empowered female character that saves China was the problem, the problem was the lack of representation that presented itself to me at such a young age. For all the adolescent African-American children, they only have Tiana from Princess and the Frog. All the young Native American children can only personally identify as Pocahontas. While little Middle Eastern children only have Jasmine from Aladdin. It seems as if producers would create a token princess to encompass the entire minority and see that as being progressive, but then they’ll design another blonde haired-blue eyed princess named Elsa and she’s deemed revolutionary by the masses. As I grew older, I began to notice the whitewashing of characters in the media, and an absence of minority representation in entertainment.The absence of minority faces among Caucasian saturated casts highlights the prevalent issue of intrinsic racism in modern day entertainment

Throughout the sequence of events that surfaced during the climax of the film, it is prominently displayed that the relationship between white and black people were fortified. One of the first instances of such an occurrence is illustrated when a large group of black maids in Jackson came to Aibileen's house in order to share their experiences as maids with Skeeter. Beforehand, the women were apprehensive and hesitant to speak to the young author because they feared that she would expose them to the rest of the town- they weren’t able to trust her. However, after a KKK member murdered one of their own, they collectively decided that enough was enough. Specifically, the ladies were tired of the relentless racial prejudice and segregation that

Over 400 hundred years there has been slavery, racism, and discrimination in America with blacks, and other minorities. A famous man once said “I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word” – Martin Luther King Jr (brain quote). The movies ‘Miracle at St. Anna’ directed by Spike Lee, and ’12 Years a Slave’ directed by Steve McQueen both show the struggle African Americans went through during a tough racial period in American history. Even today in Modern society African Americans still deal with racism. Spike