The Help and Why It' So Problematic...

[etherealtsuki]

The Truth about the Civil Rights Era
by Martha Southgate

I resisted the fictional and soon-to-be cinematic juggernaut that is The Help for quite some time. In an otherwise extremely positive review in 2009, EW summed up my feelings quite well: ''The backstory is cringeworthy: A young, white first-time author - inspired by her own childhood

Comments

[senkig]

Oh, and I definitely thought the lack of black male characters in the movie was problematic. There are only three mentioned, one is dead, one is abusive, and one is a waiter. That's a huge issue. Even if it's not about black males, there are more sympathetic white male characters than black male characters.

[thevelvetsun]

Good point.

[fauxparadiso]

Regardless of the book/film's story, this is an example of Hollywood's policy of "A black person's story isn't worth widespread notoriety unless a white person (the author & Emma Stone's role in this case) is telling it". And THAT is what I'm boycotting.

[thepuddingcook]

THIS.

[masakochan]

Well, that and 'WHITE PERSON HAS A ~SUDDEN EPIPHANY~'.

[lickety_split]

This movie's inevitable Oscar nomination is going to piss me off so much.

[etherealtsuki]

It won't be surprising. The movie itself pretty much frames Stone's character as the lead if it tells the stories of the Black maids.

[senkig]

The marketing for the movie does portray Emma Stone as the lead (which will unfortunately get more white people into seats than without her), but the movie portrays Davis's character as the lead. That was a pleasant surprise for me, at least.

[lickety_split]

Well, I guess it was the LEAST they could do. Sigh.

[senkig]

Yeah, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer were definitely the two reasons I saw this movie on opening weekend (and Cicely Tyson was a welcome surprise).

[etherealtsuki]

But those lead roles are essentially The Mammy stereotypes. And they aren't the 'lead' roles as much as the major secondary characters because that's how they set it up.

It's kinda funny that the site I linked said you can go and support Black actresses and not see the Help. I rather go to movie with positive Black female lea characters and support them, tbh.

[roseofjuly]

I honestly 1) want to see Davis and Spencer and 2) want to see how much this movie sucks.

[dangerousdame]

I haven't seen the movie or read the book, so I can't comment on how well it deals with its issues, but I can say that Hollywood has a depressing tendency to assume audiences need a character "like them" in order to get into a story, whether it's the fictional American in The Great Escape or the heroic white guy in Dances with Wolves. It's a shame that Hollywood thinks of even American minorities as exotic and in need of a more "relateable" hero.

[ms_mmelissa]

What was really gross to me was James McAvoy's character in The Last King of Scotland. I was interested in learning if the ending was true or not and was disgusted to discover his character was COMPLETELY MADE UP.

[lizzy_someone]

I can say that Hollywood has a depressing tendency to assume audiences need a character "like them" in order to get into a story

Um, as someone who is not straight, white, or male, I fucking wish Hollywood thought about my needing characters "like me." Hollywood assumes audiences need straight white male characters. That's characters "like them" for the straight white male audience members, but they're not the only ones who see movies.