Viola Davis, who played Aibileen in the film, has received backlash about her role, accused of 'selling out' and that she was surprisingly 'reduced to playing a maid in 2011.' Davis, in an interview with NPR, argued that she did not see herself being 'reduced' in this way or made into a stereotype. Instead, Davis said, "I saw [Aibileen] going on a journey. I saw her having humor and heart and intelligence. I saw her as having duality. And that's what I look for above anything else. Because usually, that is what's missing."
After viewing Melissa Harris-Perry's discussion of the film on her new show on MSNBC, I am beginning to understand the political/social problems within The Help - -
Source: google.com via Jade on Pinterest
Perhaps what helped me to respect Harris-Perry's segment most is that one of her guests was Barbara Young, an organizer of National Domestic Workers Alliance who spoke on behalf of contemporary domestic workers. Perhaps her opinion, and the black domestics she represented, was what I was waiting to hear all along; I wanted to hear what real domestics had to say about the film's representation. She had both positive and negative opinions to share: (Positives) - she suggested that people who might not be interested in the Civil Rights Movement will be able to view some of these events and issues in the film; she was also touched by the relationship it presented between the domestics and the children they kept. (Negatives) - she agreed that there were numerous historical inaccuracies; and that the women's voices were being 'given to them' by a young, educated white woman, both problematic issues.
Having read the book several months before the movie came out, I didn't originally see Skeeter as 'giving voice' to the women because the book tells the story from different views, alternating between the characters Aibileen, Skeeter, and Minny; however, the book is itself written by a white woman. For me, I was able to appreciate the gender issues it presented: white women emphasizing child-bearing and home-keeping rather than education and independence as well as domestic violence against women. As a Women's Studies student I was glad that it presented these issues for audiences who might not normally consider them, even if they were 'sugar-coated' a bit (for example: we don't see Minny's husband beat her, we only see the aftermath; Skeeter is independent and unmarried at the end of the film, but not in the book - I'm still not sure why they chose to do this).
The guests on Harris-Perry's show point to a similar problematic example in the film when Yule May, a college-educated black domestic, is accused of stealing and beaten by white police officers. Only a few scenes later she is shown comfortably healed and happy in her prison community of women - not realistic! Again, this was something I overlooked in my first viewing of the film, but noted after Harris-Perry's segment.
As I continue to synthesize these issues and opinions, I have a better understanding why people have criticized the film so much for its treatment of race issues. I'm not sure that I'll be tossing out my film or book and I'll still recommend that people read and watch The Help. In addition, I've taken heed to Barbara Young's advice. She suggests that if viewers enjoy the film, they should try supporting the domestic workers in their communities, helping them pass legislature to improve working conditions.
To learn more, watch Melissa Harris-Perry's segment on The Help!
...any thoughts??
First of all, all movies have some inaccuracies and sugar coating. So to complain about that is to just bring up a tired complaint against Hollywood itself.
ReplyDeleteNext, one question they really need to answer is "Why is it bad for an educated white woman, who was raised by a black woman, to be the one to help these women gain their voice?" Is it only noble and impressive if these black women did it entirely on their own? That's silly! We all need each other, blacks and whites, men and women, young and old, educated and uneducated. One thing that makes this movie so powerful is the relationships across races, especially the relationship between Minny and Celia. The film makes it pretty clear that it was Skeeter's black nurse who helped her to gain her voice, so why can't it go both ways? Why can't she return that kindness by helping women, like her nurse, gain their voices as well?
Also, to me, Aibeleen is much more impressive than Skeeter. Honestly, Skeeter frustrates me. It bothers me that she never scolds her awful friend, she just shames her in literature. And she never really stands up to anyone face to face. It's so cowardly! It bothers me that she never once tried to befriend Celia. It shows that she is still kind of snobby like the rest of them. To me, she is a very flawed and frustrating character. Aibeleen is much more courageous and is definitely an equal partner in the process. I think the black community is giving Skeeter too much credit.
Lastly, I find it annoying that they seem to be ignoring 1)that the book is fiction and is therefore allowed creative license 2)the motive behind the book and the fact that the writer is white. One of my friends who read The Help and read about it said that the author was very much like Skeeter, other than that she didn't use her desire to be a writer to help anyone, instead she ran away. This book is like the author's way of re-writing her past. Of doing in literature what she wishes that she had done in real life. That's a great motive, even if a disappointing life.
Honestly, the controversy makes me think of Their Eyes Were Watching God. Even though it was written by a black woman, because it brought out things they didn't want to deal with about their culture, black leaders had it buried. It didn't go back into print until Annie Dillard discovered it (oh, the scandal! A white educated woman gave a black woman back her voice!). The question is, why are they always so critical of art? Why is it more important for it to paint a perfect picture instead of a powerful one?
Jade! I, too, have been similarly conflicted in my processing of the Help, and find my attitudes continually shifting to the point of being unclear on where I stood at all. I truly enjoyed this post, because I have found few sources which incorporate the view I believe most viable and beneficial, a view that realizes the faults of agency and commodification but recognizes the positives of female empowerment and increased awareness to domestic issues. The more I see opinions like this, the better I can digest the novel and the movie.
ReplyDeleteI agree with a lot of your points, Lindsey. And I, like you, don't really think of Skeeter as the 'protagonist' or 'heroine' - to me, the black women are the most powerful images of womanhood. The only other woman I truly liked was Celia, and similar to you, I think 'The Help' could also stand for 'the help' that some of the women (no matter their color) provide for each other - Minny helps Celia through the difficult times in losing her babies, Celia, in turn, helps Minny leave her abusive relationship (another problematic area I'm sure the black community could be frustrated with), Minny and Aibileen are constantly helping each other. All in all, Lindsey, I have to say that I don't know that as white women we can fully understand the frustrations of the black community. I love the film and cry every time I watch it - to me, Aibileen is the true heroine and 'voice' at the end of the film, but I just want to try and understand the anger and frustration that others have about the film.
ReplyDeleteElla Marie - Glad you enjoyed the post! And I enjoyed reading your thoughts as well! Check back or try and Google the Melissa Harris-Perry segment...I think you'd really enjoy it!
My fiancee and I argued about this book extensively (neither has watched the movie or read the book - which prompted a reading of 'How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read' but I digress).
ReplyDeleteMy instinct tells me that our cultural myths about the civil rights movement are played out in the film. An example would be the way we all know MLK Jr.'s 'I have a dream' speech and remember the principle of nonviolent protest but forget what he had to say about economic inequality in the U.S.
In my own home region I have regularly heard people speak as if the Civil Rights movement is over - equality was reached but many have, of their own laziness or neglect, slipped into the welfare state and the prison industrial complex.
In short, seeing things through the dominant community's eyes can make it seem both that the hurts of the civil rights movement were largely emotional and aren't persistent. In such a way we can revisit for a moment the horrors of the past but ignore the injustice today (unless someone is prejudiced because that's the problem). No, the problems are systemic and they persist.
Perhaps the book did not mean to celebrate too soon the total triumph of the civil rights movement, but that is what I see communicated in the culture at large and I believe it dangerous. For this reason, I question my own motives for ever reading such a book (I will admit a feminist perspective would be 'help'ful, but why isn't there a New York Times bestseller written exclusively from the Black perspective?) if I derive comfort from it in any manner.
I realize I've railed against a book I haven't read - I have read reviews but that is never the same. My fiancee still wants to read/watch it and I suppose I won't win. I'll have more thoughts after such a moment occurs but until then, I'm unlikely to consider the book in a positive light.
Thanks for your input, Josiah, and I'm glad to hear my husband and I aren't the only ones who've been debating back and forth about this issue! Similar to what it seems with you and your fiance, I've read and watched the book (and I've been very enthusiastic about it, I might add, sharing it with others and telling them to read/watch it) and my husband only recently watched it. [I might add that while we watched it we stole looks back and forth trying to 'check in' on each other's reactions, since we'd already been debating these issues together]
ReplyDeleteOne of the main questions my husband had (and I think this relates to the critical blog post he shared) is what does it mean that I, a white woman, want so much to read and watch black women/men being in oppressive situations (mistreated domestics)? I assured him that I didn't see it that way at all, that I wanted to watch them 'win!' because, in my mind, their situation has improved.
However, as you point out, that is not necessarily the case. And similarly, what does it mean that this has been 'hyped' so much rather than a book by a black author giving voice to black domestics (even in the Melissa Harris-Perry segment, the white woman represents the historical perspective and is the writer of a book on the 'mammy' image in America).
Back to Lindsey's point, though, it is a film which has the right to 'sugar-coat' for the sake of the powerful message it does send. I'm still synthesizing, as I mentioned in my post and I'm not sure that I'll ever come to a consensus about how I feel, but I at least want to help others - like myself - understand that it should be looked at critically and openly.
'Critically and openly' - anything worth considering is worth considering in this manner.
ReplyDeleteI suppose for me, I can never truly see with another's eyes so I appreciate whatever tries to get me there even if it fails. It's the celebration of 'winning' that frightens me if we aren't sure there's been a 'win'.
Maybe it's like Robin Hood's tales - we all like to laugh at the unjust priests and sheriff when Robin triumphs (they are 'gests' after all), at the tables being turned. But, do we, in our enjoyment, lose energy to see what ought to be done to rectify the wrongs that create the possibility of such enjoyment?
Ultimately, I can't speak further until I've read and watched...and even at that point I expect that I'll struggle with where my reactions emerge from. I don't think the black community has a unilateral way of viewing 'the Help' either, but I'll remain watchful for anything that takes my mind away from the struggle yet alive - and to such an extent as this is true I won't be 'help'ed or 'help'ful.
Hello, Jade.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate you initiating the conversation and thank you for your input.
I don't know why it should be problematic that voice was given to black women, when they themselves were having trouble producing it on their own. As Lindsey wrote, there's nothing wrong with help being extended over the racial boundaries and I don't think the movie means to say that that was the sole way racial difficulties were or are to be overcome.
I can see how it can be off-putting to some that the movie does not exhibit autonomous efforts of these women in gaining their voice back. I can imagine a similar case that would not sit right with me either: Sexually exploited Korean women given voice by Japanese women during the Japanese Colonial period in the early 20th century in Korea. However, if that was true even in somewhat isolated cases as with this one, why should it not be put out there? Why should we not be informed of such an unusual case? Why should this voice be silenced?
This movie is but a depiction of a simple and pure human desire to 'help,' not an attempt to deepen the inhumanity of racial oppression and dehumanization of blacks by depicting a white girl as 'the savior' (which she isn't, if you have watched the movie) as some think. It also shows that the divide was not that 'black-and-white.' MLK Jr. had whites walking by his side and appreciated them as brothers and colleagues just as this girl regarded 'the help' as her mothers, teachers, and friends. Yes, there was an obvious power imbalance between them due to social convention but it was in disregarding them and even using it for good rather than evil that both parties overcame its constrictions and could be friends.
I sense anxiety as to what sort of response this kind of movie might elicit. Movies can be educative but in bad cases misleading and even hypnotizing. Sadly, we cannot dictate the reaction to this medium and neither should we. If anyone watching it thinks that it means to give us euphoria about the race situation, I think (s)he is missing the point. If anyone thinks it presents a single solution to the racial problem (which, as you have noted, is far from being overcome, Josiah), that person's a silly simpleton. Let us hope that, overall, it will be 'help'-full to the majority who watches it.
--Kiona (Josiah's fiance)
I don't see any reason MLK Jr. can't be supported by whites, nor why whites can't raise their voices. I don't see any reason Japanese can't support Koreans' human rights. My point was that MLK Jr. is 'white-washed' in the public imagination so that whatever 'change' he envisioned is now a distant memory - a dream fulfilled ('we have a Black President do we not?') - whereas the inequalities persist.
DeleteThe problem is...if I were to tell a fictional account of MLK Jr., I would be less likely to grasp the full picture. The issue isn't that a voice is lent - it's that this voice can be taken as penultimate (and so affirm the Mammy perspective without acknowledging the physical and sexual violence aspects occurring in such environs - the problem is what the story doesn't tell).
I think Jade's approach here is a valid one - read the Help, but read other books too which can claim some historical accuracy and context. Forgive me, I'm concerned about the silly simpletons because I think they're in the majority. I hope to be completely mistaken.
You're right about anxiety - at an artistic level I'm naturally put off by feel good stories. The oldest tales are typically tragic - Merlin is entrapped, Arthur dies or disappears, Robin Hood bleeds out at his cousin's betrayal, and the Norse tales are no nicer. I like that which provokes adequate reevaluation progressing into action. That's a high standard and most 'Disneyified' stories don't reach that point. So, maybe my standards are too high. This leaves me anxious still and I won't apologize for this.
Thanks for joining in the conversation, Kiona! I agree with you that this 'unusual case' and the 'voice' it presents should not be silenced. In fact, I will still be recommending that people read the book and watch the movie. As I said in the post, I had previously been unable to understand 'at all' the arguments being made against The Help and now I'm able to a little more...
ReplyDeleteI think you put it best when you said, "This movie is but a depiction of a simple and pure human desire to 'help,' not an attempt to deepen the inhumanity of racial oppression and dehumanization of blacks by depicting a white girl as 'the savior' (which she isn't, if you have watched the movie) as some think." I agree, and in both reading the book and watching the film I personally don't see Skeeter as any kind of 'savior' but I can understand that some might see her in that role or some might criticize the movie for attempting to place her there. But even in the film we see Aibileen writing notes from Minny's stories in her kitchen!
I agree, Kiona, that we cannot 'dictate the reaction...and neither should we' and that it will be 'help'ful for people to watch and read it!