Melissa Harris-Perry revisits 'The Help'

[Whisp]

Last edited Mon Feb 27, 2012, 05:16 AM - Edit history (1)

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/melissa-harris-perry-revisits-everything-she-hates-about-the-help-in-oscar-preview/

Melissa Harris-Perry Revisits Everything She Hates About The Help In Oscar Preview

The film, she told her audience today, “erases and then rewrites a rich and robust history in which black women never needed someone to speak for them” by making the protagonist a white woman. She explained that the real protagonist who grows as a person is white, while the black characters are there to feed her growth. In this manned, the film erased a horrid reality about the service industry at the time: “for black maids, the threat of rape was always a clear and present danger.” She clarified that she had nothing against the actresses in the film and meant it only as a criticism of Hollywood that they “would have to use their extraordinary talent” to portray maids, a role black women have had in film for decades.

Her panelists agreed– Micki McElya noting that beyond the glossing over of the rape issue, it was problematic to promote the idea that “the black woman working in a white household is there because she loves to be there” and thus doesn’t need reasonable hours or pay, and is willing to do anything. Leader of a domestic worker action network Barbara Young was actually the most sympathetic towards the film, and particularly the “humanizing relationship between the domestic worker and the child,” a point Harris-Perry agreed was positive, as it showed the capacity for compassion across classes. Elon James White, the lone man on the panel for this segment, was just as offended with “they disneyfication of this deep thing” and the idea that The Help was a black film when “it was more like a white woman’s coming of age, [but] sprinkle a little oppression over it.”

[Tx4obama]

1. I totally disagree with MHP on this one.

I listened to her the first time she reviewed the film and she made me furious,
and her second attempt to bash the film only made me more mad.

I think she needs to watch the whole film again and look at it 'as a person' and not a professor'.

From MHP's comments in the 'first' review I came to the conclusion that MHP apparently missed the parts where minimum wage & social security were mentioned, historical events where shown within the film, and the growth of the domestic workers took place.

MHP has a huge hang up about the issue of 'rape' not being addressed in the film, 'rape' was NOT an issue that needed to be addressed in this particular film.

If MHP wants to watch a film about the issue of rape then I would suggest she write a book on the issue and then find someone to make it into a film for her.

p.s. I am thrilled that Octavia won the Oscar for supporting actress,
but I was was rooting for BOTH Viola Davis and Meryl Streep to win for best lead actress - I thought they were BOTH great.