Mace > Faith
In the reading for this week, Jane Gaines’s essay White Privilege and Looking Relations: Race and Gender in Feminist Film Theory disputes different feminist theories, which she makes a point to state how some do not fully recognize the discrimination against women of color. Her reading also touches on women in film are made subject to the male gaze and how they play a bigger role in more than just “eye candy”. She states, “…women’s sexuality evokes an unconscious terror in men, then black women’s sexuality represents a special threat to white patriarchy; the possibility of its eruption stands for the aspirations of the black race as a whole” (p. 303) In the film Strange Days (1995), the audience gets to see and appreciate a powerful women of color. There were countless times when Mace came to Lenny’s rescue but one that stands out the most is when Philo sent him to the basement of his home and Lenny starts getting beat by three of his people. Mace comes in and single handedly fights off the three attackers and saves Lenny. Not at a single point was her character made to be sexualized by the male gaze. She just exuded raw strength and power. She exuded the “heteronormative” character we usually see played by men. She kept saving Lenny’s life, she had her emotions on lock, and she was the rational thinker. Mace embodied the idea Gaines had for a black women’s sexuality representing a special threat to white patriarchy.
Mace’s character in this film really surprised me in a pleasant way. Her dominant character went against the normal stereotype where gaze on women, presumably white, made female characters sexualized or “eye candy”. I really loved how she had her role on lock and kicked butt.
