Liveblogging The Help
15 Nov 2013 06:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cimoreneIn a striking development, one of our thematic leisure activities at this past social action workshop was a viewing of The Help. Because everybody fucking loves a honky, right?
I decided to watch it while given the opportunity for free, even though I well remembered the reviews when it came out, which I read a fair amount about. I thought it would help to have an informed opinion with specific examples available if I had the opportunity to explain what We Need a Honky was later on.
My phone ran out of batteries at the beginning of the movie though, so I ended up liveblogging my reactions on paper...
1. Well, I see why white people liked this movie so much. It's all about how brave and secretly enlightened Emma Stone is.
2. Emma's nanny was fired, which was Extra Sad because she was a magical negro, apparently, and now Emma is bereft.
3. The tragedy is that this movie is basically where my generation of educated Southern whites are right now. (Compare recent Greek issues at University of Alabama)
4. OMG the Junior League [Note from the future: I've always hated the Junior League but it was a more contemporary thing. The historical, segregationist image of them in this movie is definitely worse though.]
5. Mississippi Goddamn
6. Wait, is there seriously a romantic sub-plot in this fucking movie?
7. Jesus Christ, Emma Stone, you don't "do your homework" at all; you ask maids to risk their lives to do your homework for you.
8. This bitch actually just name-checked the mammy.
9. UGH, and Emma doesn't even say anything to her own mother [Note from the future: when her mother comes in and finds her watching network news coverage of Martin Luther King's march on Washington and turns the TV off, to which Emma responds with an aggrieved teenager air, "Mo-om, that's national news!" Her mom dismisses this and Emma eyerolls and accepts that even though she is actually an adult. In response to that her mom actually physically grabs her and jerks her around to say something racist or other and Emma doesn't respond to that at all, just pulls her arm away and stalks away, again, like an aggrieved teenager.]
10. All of the maids coincidentally need this honky, but amazingly, they were too foolish to know that at first [Note from the future: when she first asked to interview them for her Book for White People], until personally touched by tragedy.
11. Isn't it so affirming that you can ~help oppressed minorities just by passively noticing their humanity, not even actively recognizing or affirming it? What a pleasant and non-threatening message for the white woman who might not want to speak up.
12. OMG, thanks for your wise advice, lower-class white lady!!!
13. "Oh no, Emma, what if the worst happens as a result of what we are doing???" [Note from the future: Nobody has any more idea than anybody else, but why not infantilize the black women by having them turn trustingly to noble, educated White Lady Emma.] "Pointless sassiness!" [Note from the future: Octavia Butler's acting was the only thing that saved the writing of her character, but the clumsy stereotypes behind it were still embarrassingly visible.]
14. Isn't it nice that we can laugh at [the white trash character] instead of at the maids? [Note from the Future: That way we can simply shift the target of the ho-ho-ho classist comic relief that's usually aimed at black people without challenging the ideas and structures underlying the construction of class and the characters' ideas about it.]
15. The ~white trash~ ~refreshingly naive/gold-hearted loose woman~ character is from "Sugar Ditch"? are you for real?
16. The white women's tears are so moving, that's why Emma's personal pain is the climax of this movie even though it's also dealt extensively with actual death and violent oppression.
17. Oh, OK, apparently we can also laugh [classistly and by using them for physical comedy] at the maids, they were just saving it up.
18. Oh, wow, this movie has a real class problem...
19. And of course it redeems the racist mom because otherwise that would be too uncomfortable for the white people who are meant to identify with Emma.
20. The physical comedy is getting a bit much... it's escalated rather.
21. OMG, the white trash woman and Bryce Dallas Howard's evil racist queen bee character have actually switched class now! Because racism is classless, and good people are colorblind, natch.
22. "Go find your life, Miss Skeeter," say the gracious magical creatures with their earthy wisdom. "Go, with our blessing." She's completed her quest.
23. Oh, I see... the truth set Viola Davis free, so that constitutes a 'happy ending' (complete with touching, contemplative music) even though she subsequently also lost her job and the child she actually loved.
As we were walking out after the movie our teacher asked me if I'd seen The Help before.
I said, "No, but I know about it. I read about it when it came out, because, well, there was a lot of... discussion... because it has a, well, a We Need a Honky... thing. That is, there are all these black people who have really serious problems, that they're also working at, but they can't solve their problems on their own until this sort of magical white character comes and helps them."
"Wellllll, yeah, but it was still a really touching movie!" said my teacher.
Um.
I decided to watch it while given the opportunity for free, even though I well remembered the reviews when it came out, which I read a fair amount about. I thought it would help to have an informed opinion with specific examples available if I had the opportunity to explain what We Need a Honky was later on.
My phone ran out of batteries at the beginning of the movie though, so I ended up liveblogging my reactions on paper...
1. Well, I see why white people liked this movie so much. It's all about how brave and secretly enlightened Emma Stone is.
2. Emma's nanny was fired, which was Extra Sad because she was a magical negro, apparently, and now Emma is bereft.
3. The tragedy is that this movie is basically where my generation of educated Southern whites are right now. (Compare recent Greek issues at University of Alabama)
4. OMG the Junior League [Note from the future: I've always hated the Junior League but it was a more contemporary thing. The historical, segregationist image of them in this movie is definitely worse though.]
5. Mississippi Goddamn
6. Wait, is there seriously a romantic sub-plot in this fucking movie?
7. Jesus Christ, Emma Stone, you don't "do your homework" at all; you ask maids to risk their lives to do your homework for you.
8. This bitch actually just name-checked the mammy.
9. UGH, and Emma doesn't even say anything to her own mother [Note from the future: when her mother comes in and finds her watching network news coverage of Martin Luther King's march on Washington and turns the TV off, to which Emma responds with an aggrieved teenager air, "Mo-om, that's national news!" Her mom dismisses this and Emma eyerolls and accepts that even though she is actually an adult. In response to that her mom actually physically grabs her and jerks her around to say something racist or other and Emma doesn't respond to that at all, just pulls her arm away and stalks away, again, like an aggrieved teenager.]
10. All of the maids coincidentally need this honky, but amazingly, they were too foolish to know that at first [Note from the future: when she first asked to interview them for her Book for White People], until personally touched by tragedy.
11. Isn't it so affirming that you can ~help oppressed minorities just by passively noticing their humanity, not even actively recognizing or affirming it? What a pleasant and non-threatening message for the white woman who might not want to speak up.
12. OMG, thanks for your wise advice, lower-class white lady!!!
13. "Oh no, Emma, what if the worst happens as a result of what we are doing???" [Note from the future: Nobody has any more idea than anybody else, but why not infantilize the black women by having them turn trustingly to noble, educated White Lady Emma.] "Pointless sassiness!" [Note from the future: Octavia Butler's acting was the only thing that saved the writing of her character, but the clumsy stereotypes behind it were still embarrassingly visible.]
14. Isn't it nice that we can laugh at [the white trash character] instead of at the maids? [Note from the Future: That way we can simply shift the target of the ho-ho-ho classist comic relief that's usually aimed at black people without challenging the ideas and structures underlying the construction of class and the characters' ideas about it.]
15. The ~white trash~ ~refreshingly naive/gold-hearted loose woman~ character is from "Sugar Ditch"? are you for real?
16. The white women's tears are so moving, that's why Emma's personal pain is the climax of this movie even though it's also dealt extensively with actual death and violent oppression.
17. Oh, OK, apparently we can also laugh [classistly and by using them for physical comedy] at the maids, they were just saving it up.
18. Oh, wow, this movie has a real class problem...
19. And of course it redeems the racist mom because otherwise that would be too uncomfortable for the white people who are meant to identify with Emma.
20. The physical comedy is getting a bit much... it's escalated rather.
21. OMG, the white trash woman and Bryce Dallas Howard's evil racist queen bee character have actually switched class now! Because racism is classless, and good people are colorblind, natch.
22. "Go find your life, Miss Skeeter," say the gracious magical creatures with their earthy wisdom. "Go, with our blessing." She's completed her quest.
23. Oh, I see... the truth set Viola Davis free, so that constitutes a 'happy ending' (complete with touching, contemplative music) even though she subsequently also lost her job and the child she actually loved.
As we were walking out after the movie our teacher asked me if I'd seen The Help before.
I said, "No, but I know about it. I read about it when it came out, because, well, there was a lot of... discussion... because it has a, well, a We Need a Honky... thing. That is, there are all these black people who have really serious problems, that they're also working at, but they can't solve their problems on their own until this sort of magical white character comes and helps them."
"Wellllll, yeah, but it was still a really touching movie!" said my teacher.
Um.
(no subject)
Date: 15 Nov 2013 09:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 16 Nov 2013 11:13 am (UTC)And if I'd walked out I'd've had to walk the 15 min back to my sleeping cabin alone in the dark, and we were staying in a super rural place, so. The place had a real Public High School institutional feel. So I couldn't've found a place to make myself comfortable to wait and I didn't have a book or my knitting with me, and my phone was out of batteries...
(no subject)
Date: 16 Nov 2013 06:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 16 Nov 2013 11:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17 Nov 2013 03:07 am (UTC)