Monday, February 22, 2010

Reel Women: Black Women and Literacy in Feature Films


-Joanne Kilgour Dowdy

In this reading Dowdy talks about how she uses films to teach her students about literacy and Black women. The women portrayed in these films possessed different forms of literacy, such as being a nurse, caretaker, stay at home mother and a teacher. Not all of these women were literate and they all faced problems that came directly from their lack of “book sense.” However, the majority of the time, the woman’s greatest trouble came from their race and being Black. Without book sense combined with other forms of literacy, it is difficult to survive and thrive as a Black woman.

“Passion Fruit”, “The Color Purple”, and “Music from the Heart” are three films that I would like to focus on for this blog. Each woman faces different issues and has different levels of literacy. In “Passion Fruit”, the Black nurse, played by Alfre Woodard, was an addict in recovery that left her child to take care of a crippled white woman. Her literacy was not “book sense” but common sense. She was able to form a relationship with her mistress where there is a mutual respect; “a republic”.

In “The Color Purple”, Celie – played by Whoppi Goldberg – learns to read and write and is able to make enough money to live independently. She “makes a way out of no way,” but we realize that there are other factors or realities in this woman’s life that are not easily cured with “book sense.”

“Music from the Heart” with Angela Bassett and Meryl Streep, shows a Black woman with an education and power as the principal of a school. However, we come across the fact that an education only goes so far in a “Eurocentric society.” “Literacy, in the Black woman’s hands, is trumped by the wider political pressures” (Dowdy, 173). This means an education does not always merit power.

Dowdy uses film to teach her students about Black women and literacy. With these films students are able to see how Black women are viewed throughout Hollywood. Many of the issues brought to light in these films are realities of Black women in America. On the other hand, this is not our only reality. Dowdy is trying to teach her students to “analyze the stereotypes propagated by mainstreamed scriptwriters.” We have to write about the positive experiences of Black women to undo “the damage that negative film images have contributed to our society.”

~ Alaina Walton

1 comment:

  1. In order to reverse the damage that negative films have placed on society, we first have to educate our minds. We have to be the one to say hey something is not right in this film. From there we can teach others that there is more to a black woman than what is portrayed in the media.

    -Darcye S.

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