Frame My Black Womanly Body
So, I wrote an article recently on the blog (Inter-racially Comical) that got a lot of positive responses. I thank you. I then had a conversation with a friend of mine about it, well more of a Twitter conversation. To begin with the article was quite genre specific, it came off the back of my disdain over one of my favourite comic book based shows, The Flash S2. The leading lady Iris West...Allen? is played by the beautiful Candice Patton who is a black female. This season we have seen little of her, and none of her PoV. This comes off the back of Season one in which Barry Allen, a white man, is helplessly in love with her. Alas it was met with pure ignorance and hatred from the fandom of the show which, as we can deduce, has lead to her scenes being cute down and their relationship, which is bi-racial, being completely written off. Have a peek at the post to see my very strong opinion on that haha.
This show flows in the genre of the superhero fantasy, which does not open itself up to a more deeper narrative of the black female body in other genre’s. So it got me thinking as much as it got me flustered: The Black female body’s narrative is one imbued with violence and abuse, and the black woman’s narrative has been that of a mistress never good enough to be a wife, an angry and ‘feisty’ girl, perhaps and more often than not, from the hood or KoKasi. The fact remains, the female body and her narrative stems from a negative historically incorrect mind frame. The majority of the time black females are portrayed negatively in film and television unable to attain solid relationships with men and women.
It would be wrong for us not to acknowledge the changes that have come at the hands of non-black producers/show-runner/writers in which we see black characters given meaty characters and are intelligent and strong. Which is why we hail HTGAWM, and why we hail The Flash. In South Africa we first saw this waaay back in time in shows like Generations. And now we see this in South Africa we see this in film through the efforts of films like Tell Me Sweet Something(a story about a young black female writer who owns a book store) and in the international favourite Ayanda and the Mechanic. We finally get to see reality depicted through the art work of motion pictures, where television has caught up with reality. Yet somehow we take a set forward and take five steps back due to ignorance and feeble mindedness. We are questioned about why it is an issue? Can anyone say #AllLivesMatter? Why is it so important to analyse how the black woman is framed? Why is it so important to be inclusive of racial issues? Well because film and television is not a medium for the male white race only. Not anymore. Sorry butch (yes, butch is what I meant not the other word).
Films such as Karmen, which have been rebooted over the years in various countries around the world tell the tale of a ‘free’ woman or a Jezebel who is an evil queen in the bible. In the original French tale Carmen is a black woman who engages in bisexuality and affairs and is experimental in her pursuits leading men and women to suicide. She is sexual and fiery, with attitude in truck loads and stands up to men. The American version, starring my idol Dorothy Dandridge, is similar. In Africa we have Karmen Gei by Joseph Gai Ramaka, a flavourful Senegalese adaptation. And the South African adaptation is uCarmen eKhayelisha. It’s a brilliant narrative yet it doesn’t escape me that it still portrays the black female body as a sexual and violent playground.
In a darker more ‘realistic’ tone we can look at the film Precious in which Precious’ body is molested by her mother, mocked and shamed by the public, raped by her father and physically abused by her mother. We see in American history films such as the Colour Purple, Twelve Years a Slave and The Help an oppression of the black female body in a brutal way. These women are in some shape and form given horrible treatment, we can’t see them beyond their pain and suffering. There is no point of view or narrative beyond the suffering she has to deal with. And on the other hand she is hyper sexualized and cannot be seen beyond what her body can offer.
On the flip side to this there is the black woman who is overbearing, hard and undesirable woman who drives men away and end up alone. This narrative can STILL be seen in current show for example Being Mary Jane.
There seems to be steps taken in the right direction, and what is amazing is that they are taken by black female writers and producers. Terry Pheto has gracefully done this through the film Ayanda and the Mechanic. Akin Omotoso has achieved this through Tell Me Sweet Something, the south African television scene is currently doing this through strong female characters, and even in America through, yes, Being Mary Jane and Black-ish and The Flash as well. There are considerable steps being taken in the right direction but the change is too slow, as soon as a good step is taken in inclusivity a few steps are taken back when the white race complains.
And this is where we come in...I have always and deeply believed that the narrative for black women MUST be changed, must be a mirror of reality especially in my country. Ever time I write a novel or a poem or a synopsis for a film my protagonist is a black female, an ambitious one with multiple layers and multi dimensional, a prism. She is a real depiction of what is happening in life...Art does, after all, imitate life.
Live in Light - Nono Iman.
gummygunk
2087
dailybridgerton
blakekathryn
germansingergirl
tangentwithtanner
