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Stephgirl
Regular Poster
Username: Stephgirl
Post Number: 84
Registered: 09-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, March 31, 2007 - 07:37 pm: | 
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Who gets laid in the movies
I’ve been following the blog Dar Kush, by Steven Barnes, for a while, and one of his recurrent themes (of many - it’s a multi-topic blog) is black men not getting laid. In the movies, that is. I’m going to excerpt significant quotes from four different posts (hoping he won’t mind) in which he makes this argument.
First, here’s Steven on the upcoming movie Black Snake Moan
Coming soon is a rather lurid-looking piece about a black man helping to “cure” a little white nymphomaniac. I haven’t seen “Black Snake Moan” yet, but I’m putting in my bets: the black guy, played by Sam Jackson, won’t be sampling Christina Ricci’s succulent young body. They will taunt and tease the audience, but in the end, the perennially unlaid Jackson will do another Spiritual Guide routine. More disturbing is that, if I’m not mistaken, Craig Brewer, the director, was behind “Monster’s Ball” where he whored Halle Berry to Billy Bob Thornton…
I saw a preview of Black Snake Moan. The Samuel Jackson character had the Christina Ricci character chained up, which naturally adds a creepiness factor if the movie does get him laid. Steven and I had a little discussion in his comments about that factor, and he argued that
Actually, the “prisoner” thing isn’t an “extra” factor. There is ALWAYS a “perfectly good reason” why the black guy doesn’t get laid. In “Shaft” the time clock was ticking, and a white female witness had her brothers with her. In “Bad Boys” there was a “hilarious” identity mix-up. Etc., etc. Always something–unless the protagonist is white, in which case the filmmakers seem to have no trouble sandwiching in some nookie.
Moving along, I’ll go back to a post that Steven made last year that begins by discussing the TV show Thief:
Starring Andre Braugher, it tells of a group of…wait for it…thieves, as they head toward a Really Big Job. O.K., so I decide to Tivo and watch it. Coming attractions showed him kissing a woman.
Hmmm. His stepdaughter was shown as white. Hmmm. A reviewer commented that “as on 24, characters can die unexpectedly…”
I’m driving along with Tananarive on Sunday, when I turned to her and said: “They’re going to kill Andre Braugher’s wife. I give her three episodes.”
“God,” she said. “How can you be so cynical?”
Well, I watched the first episode, and his white wife had a fatal traffic accident. I immediately turned the show off.
Ack, no, do you have to suggest that “white woman dies because she slept with Andre Braugher” image? You’re making the show sound like one of those horror flicks where you can tell who’s going to die by noting who’s no longer a virgin. Not that I’ve actually seen the show or anything. I’d just sort of like to imagine it as better than that.
Later in the post, though, Steven expands on the “black men don’t get laid on TV and in the movies” theme; not only don’t they get laid with white women, they really don’t get laid with anyone:
Then I point out to them that I never, ever said that I wanted to see interracial relationships (although that’s just fine.) What I was saying is that you can’t see black men in ANY kind of sexual relationships without hurting the box office. The American mind just naturally seems to leap to interracial.
More follows in a discussion of The Pursuit of Happiness:
A perfect holiday film, and a “B+.” If only they had ever shown Smith and his wife (Thandie Newton) relating well, perhaps a flashback before the stress set in. Would one kiss have been too much?##
And speaking of that, “Dreamgirls,” while a fabulous piece of movie making, is hurt by the same shyness about black relationships.
I’m not convinced that “Dreamgirls” actually is shy about black relationships; it shows a couple of mild sex scenes, which is about par for the course for a movie musical - comparable with, for example, “Chicago.” Steven’s larger point, though, does seem to be true; black men, even black men in lead roles, get laid with less regularity than white men in Hollywood movies. OK, that’s leaving some stuff out, like Spike Lee movies. But it does sort of seem to be the rule for your basic Hollywood blockbuster.
Now, I’m not sure if this is something I’d have noticed, if it hadn’t been pointed out to me (not just by Steven). Because each individual movie in which a black guy doesn’t get laid is set up so that it totally makes sense that he doesn’t. So it’s a less dramatic difference, from my point of view anyway, than, say, the tendency of black characters to die faster than white ones in action movies (Joel and I use this last one all the time in making bets on which movie character is going to die first). Once it’s pointed out, though, the overall pattern looks weird, because, as far as I can tell, it is:
White men: Get to sleep with hot women of all races.
Black men and black women: On screen displays of affection will be limited.
Black men and white women: Black men get to love white women pure and chaste from afar. This can be portrayed as anything from really good and wise and chaste (Dennis Haysbert as Julianne Moore’s honorably platonic friend in Far from Heaven) to “We would sleep together in a minute if only the darn plot would let us” (Will Smith and Linda Fiorentino in Men In Black). But it does seem to be a recurrent movie theme. So, my first question is: am I actually right about this? Or am I overestimating the frequency of this kind of thing, because this is just the sort of relationship that reviewers call attention to?
The thing is, I can think of a couple of things which almost make sense of this whole phenomenon - in the sense that the way black male characters get served by their plots fits with what I see of sex and gender roles in movies which don’t have black male leads, and the whole pattern also fits with what I see of people’s attitudes about men and women in real life.
First explanation: Hollywood movies are, to some large degree, about providing sexual fantasy, and they favor the sexual fantasies of the group that’s seen as being the biggest market, heterosexual white men.
Why this explanation makes sense: White men sleep with hot women of every race. If they’re old, they sleep with hot women much younger than them. If they’re ugly, women much better looking still fall for them. And they get to see women naked much more often than women get to see men naked. It’s good to be the king.
What doesn’t make sense in this explanation: The whole black men loving white women pure and chaste from afar thing. Why would this be a white man’s fantasy? Heck, why would it be anyone’s fantasy? But maybe I’m wrong about this.
On the other hand, a subset of movies (but only a subset) gets nicely covered if you see them as fitting into the way movies do sex and redemption fantasies. Monster’s Ball, for example, totally works from this point of view. Halle Berry gets to redeem Billy Bob Thornton from his racism, and, as in most movies where a woman inspires a man to be a better person, this happens when they fall in love and sleep together. Both actors play their parts well. And, did I mention that Halle Berry looks good naked? What’s not to like? Well, OK, plenty, depending on just how you see your own identity in relation to the Halle Berry character. Billy Bob Thornton starts out as very racist indeed - he’s the guy who’s more racist than you will ever be - and so this is sex and redemption fantasy at its darkest.
But it does fit into a larger pattern. Halle Berry gets to redeem Warren Beatty and make him cool - from a more promising start as a disillusioned liberal politician - in Bullworth. And women similarly redeem men in other movies where the racial politics element is absent, whether it’s Virginia Madsen inspiring the middle-aged alcoholic Paul Giamatti to rethink his life in Sideways or Geena Davis shaking up William Hurt’s life in a good way in The Accidental Tourist.
But the redemptive value of sexual relationships does seem to me, in movies, to generally run towards women redeeming men, rather than the other way around. On the other hand, women, but not so much men, sometimes get understanding or guidance from wise and asexual friends of the opposite sex. So the chaste and platonic relationship that Julianne Moore has with Dennis Haysbert has a humorous parallel in Julia Roberts’ relationship with her gay (in an asexual way) real best friend Rupert Everett in My Best Friend’s Wedding.
This doesn’t explain, though, why Hugh Jackman, the hacker who is already so cool that he needs no further coolness assistance from Halle Berry, still does get Halle Berry in Swordfish, while Will Smith and Linda Fiorentino get plot obstacles thrown in their way in Men in Black.
Not, mind you, that all of these movies would necessarily be improved by getting the black man laid. Far from Heaven, for example, works better on its own terms, I think, than it would if you turned it into Lady Chatterley’s Lover. And arguably, in some cases, what strains credibility is not so much the way plots get arranged to make sure black men don’t get laid as the way plots get arranged to make sure the white male lead gets laid no matter how fast the time clock is ticking. But then again, movies aren’t exactly all about realism, perhaps especially when it comes to sex. Still, really weird, as an overall pattern.
So it’s with some relief that I turn back to another post of Steven’s on Dreamgirls:
Watching “DreamGirls” at the boxoffice. It has an excellent chance of crossing the 100-million dollar mark. There are a couple of mildly sexy scenes…I wonder if it should be considered to have crossed that special threshold when and if it crosses the 100-million mark. Would anyone who has seen it please offer an opinion? Does or does “Dreamgirls” not qualify as a blockbuster with black love scenes?
Yes, I think it qualifies as a blockbuster with black love scenes. You’ve got your adulterous sex between Lorelle and James “Thunder” Early, and you’ve got your marital sex between Deena and Curtis. That definitely qualifies, in my book. At least in this movie, the world is normal.
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Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 4323
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, March 31, 2007 - 08:13 pm: |
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White HoWood is scared of the BlackMan's penis. What else is new?
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Stephgirl
Regular Poster
Username: Stephgirl
Post Number: 86
Registered: 09-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, April 01, 2007 - 03:44 pm: |
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To Mzuri,
Nothing, of course. But I just want to put it up on the board for the clueless ones who don't get it. That's all.
Steph |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 9115
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, April 01, 2007 - 04:05 pm: |
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Stephgirl,
A sex scene between Jamie Fox and Jennifer Hudson's characters was removed from the final cut of Dreamgirls. Perhaps your article explains why.
Some White men begrudge the alleged greater sexual potency of Black men and the generally leaner, more sinewy physiques of Black men. Also, sex provides a potent depiction of how tender, romantic, powerful yet vulnerable and LOVING a human being can be.
I suppose it's easier to control how Blacks men think of themselves and how others view us if we're NOT presented as full human beings.
PS: Samuel L. had some fairly good sex/love scenes with lovely French actress Juliette Binoche in the recent In My Country. |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 4021
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 02, 2007 - 12:11 pm: |
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This is a pet peeve of Steve's.
He's married to that foine hammer, Tananarive Due. If I was him I wouldn't have time to worry about no other Negroes getting laid.
Look, everybody knows black men are getting laid. Look at all these little Negroes running around here. I for one don't care to see somebody get laid in a movie. I get mad cuz I ain't getting any right then.
Get laid for real. Then you ain't got to worry about it. |
Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 4331
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 02, 2007 - 12:56 pm: |
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What Ever Chris. Like it's the movie's fault that you haven't had any poontang since 1962.
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 8143
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 02, 2007 - 01:28 pm: |
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Two notable exceptions to the rule: Wesley Snipes got good and laid in "Jungle Fever" as did Lawrence Fishburn in "Bad Company" - these niggazz had some really steamy sex scenes with white actresses. |
Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 4334
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 02, 2007 - 01:47 pm: |
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Wesley got it on with JLo in Money Train too. |
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