firecat

I haven't seen the movie or read the book The Help but I've seen a lot of people talking about how it's not an accurate description of the time period and place it depicts or of the relationships between white families and black domestic workers in the 1960s US South. Here are a couple of articles discussing the subject.

"An Open Statement to the Fans of The Help" by the Association of Black Women Historians (ABWH). Includes a reading list.
"I Was 'The Help'" by Helena (depicts the author's experiences as a personal assistant to a wealthy woman in 2004)

Crossposts: http://firecat.livejournal.com/728752.html

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

firecat

Thanks, I appreciate your perspective a lot.

I get frustrated when a movie seems to have people like me (for whatever value of "like me" doesn't get portrayed very often in movies -- queer, nerd, fat, etc.) in it and doesn't flesh out the characters or oversimplifies them because they're stereotypes for the main characters to react to. Those movies might cause or perpetuate damage with the stereotypes. And they might be good movies in other ways or might teach some people things they don't know.

It's a superficial comparison but the movie Up bugged me because there was a geeky female character in it (spoiler elided) so the main character could decide to go on an advanture. I wanted a story about the female character.

I hope some useful conversations come out of all this.

Edited Date: 15 Aug 2011 04:53 am (UTC)

From:

treecat

Yes, it is frustrating. I try to see things where I think there might actually be a character that is 'like me' somehow because it is extremely rare, and the stuff that is wrong sticks out because of that.

To a certain extent movie portrayals, except MAYBE in a biographical/historical piece are always going to either be stereotypes, or deliberate plays off of stereotypes, of whoever they are portraying.

It's sad that even now, if the movie did not have the central white woman character so many fewer people would watch it, try to relate to it.

From:

firecat

I try to see things where I think there might actually be a character that is 'like me' somehow because it is extremely rare

I am extra cautious about movies/books that are supposed to have character(s) "like me" and am less likely to consume them than movies/books about different characters/cultures/worlds. I'll ask a lot of people with clue first what they thought of it.

I'm not sure I think movie characters inevitably have to be stereotypes. Why do you think so?

From:

treecat

Maybe they don't and I'm grouchy? It depends on who is writing it. If they are writing about people like the ones they actually know they can be less stereotyped, but still to not get in trouble they should be making them composites if not meant to be historical fact. When people write about people they don't know - what else are they going to go on for the most part? It's not 100% stereotypes, but often.

I shouldn't mix the words "to a certain extent" and "always" in the same sentence and expect it to make sense.