ART 150 Multimedia Journal
Film: First Match
The film First Match directed by Olivia Newman follows Monique, an African American high school student from Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood as she joins the boys wrestling team in an attempt to reconnect with her father who was recently released from prison. Her mom had passed away when she was young, and after her father went to prison she bounced between different foster homes.
In this course we have discussed the representation of African Americans in U.S. visual culture. In the past, African Americans were depicted in numerous negative ways from the beginning of the introduction of blackface minstrelsy. The 19th and 20th century media typically portrayed African Americans as savages, or less than human.These representations of African Americans have evolved to create new stereotypes of African Americans such as the “angry black woman,” “the deadbeat dad” and “the drug dealer.” This film plays into all of these stereotypes.
We also viewed the documentary Through a Lens Darkly, which highlights the results of African Americans being unable to self-represent in images/photos in the past. This struggle made it hard for African Americans to maintain control over their images in the media and what has perpetuated African American stereotypes.
This film generates a conversation about race, ethnicity, and cultural diversity by highlighting some of the struggles young African American females face in society. It also represents the intersectionality between race and gender. In an interview with USA Today, Newman stated that she wanted “‘to shed light on women’s stories… and portray women in all of their complexities and nuances.’” (See link to full article below)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/entertainthis/2018/03/29/first-match-netflix-sxsw/470216002/
Gender roles play a large part in this movie as Monique faces criticism for trying to join the boys wrestling team. Her team eventually accepts her when she proves that she is a good wrestler and wins her first match. However, even after her success she still faces comments from her opponents, and even her own foster mother about how wrestling is a boys sport. Monique had to work twice as hard to prove herself to others than her male teammates did. She couldn’t just be good, she had to be great or better than the boys.
One struggle for African American women that was brought up in the movie was about their hair. In a conversation with her father about someone disliking her naturally braided hair as a child he said that “I didn’t raise you to care what other people thought.” In the beginning of the film Monique had clip in hair pieces to mask her natural hair, but after her conversation with her father she took out the hair pieces and wore her hair natural. In the Hapa project, one of the participants Teresa was hesitant to let her hair down, which shows that this is a real struggle for women of color.
This movie also plays into the “angry black woman” stereotype. The movie portrays Monique as angry, violent, and disrespectful. In the beginning she was constantly picking fights and yelling at adults.I think that this a common portrayal by the media for African Americans that perpetuates societal stereotypes.
Although the film plays into some of the stereotypes of African Americans, it also challenges societies expectations of women of color. In the beginning of the film Monique didn’t see her full potential and was lost and lashing out. Eventually she is able to breaks down typical gender roles and in the end makes her own decisions as a strong African American women and is no longer restrained by societies expectations of her.
Sources
"Blackface: The Birth of An American Stereotype." National Museum of African American History and Culture. November 22, 2017. Accessed July 21, 2019. https://nmaahc.si.edu/blog-post/blackface-birth-american-stereotype.
"“I Am Black, but I Am NOT Angry.”." Digital image. Stereotypes and The Danger of a Single Story. February 3, 2017. https://sites.psu.edu/nehemahm/2017/02/03/stereotypes-and-the-danger-of-a-single-story/.
First Match. Directed by Olivia Newman. March 30, 2018.
"First Match (2018)." IMDb. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6061074/.
First Match - Deadline Studio at SXSW 2018. Deadline Hollywood. March 12, 2018. https://deadline.com/2018/03/first-match-sxsw-netflix-olivia-newman-elvire-emanuelle-yahya-abdul-mateen-ii-colman-domingo-1202336157/.