The Help (Movie)
The Help
“The Help” is a rare masterpiece of a film in that it demonstrates the social structure of race, gender and class all within an engaging story. I recently came across a joke poster for the film that read, “You’re Welcome, Black People. White People Solve Racism.” The poster appears to just be ironic, funny and perhaps offensive – until you give it some serious thought. The poster’s view is an intriguing one that can tell us quite a bit about its author and how we view racism and sexism in this day and age. The first thing that struck me about the poster is that it is extremely one-sided. It only addresses racism while the gender aspect of the film is almost equally interesting to the film’s race facets. The film is set in the 1960’s and the women are portrayed accordingly. Unlike today where it is commonplace for women to be single and self-sufficient, it was of supreme importance for the women to be married. The husbands of the white women are portrayed to be the main breadwinners, while the wives stay at home and raise their children. The pressure to bear children is so great, in fact, that the character Celia is worried that her husband will leave her just because of her multiple miscarriages. In addition to bearing children, the women are in charge of preparing food and keeping a clean house. Despite the fact that it seems to be the only thing that they are really in charge of, all of the families in the film had maids that assisted the women in these activities. It is a strange dynamic that must have had a belittling effect on the women, as they are trapped in the constraints of 1960s “domestic bliss.” The film writer’s focus on the race aspect of the film shows us that he/she is a person who is very sensitive to anything that could be construed as inequality. But if you actually do some critical analysis of the film, you will find that the author of the poster is taking an oversimplified and downright ignorant view of the message. The
“The Help” is a rare masterpiece of a film in that it demonstrates the social structure of race, gender and class all within an engaging story. I recently came across a joke poster for the film that read, “You’re Welcome, Black People. White People Solve Racism.” The poster appears to just be ironic, funny and perhaps offensive – until you give it some serious thought. The poster’s view is an intriguing one that can tell us quite a bit about its author and how we view racism and sexism in this day and age. The first thing that struck me about the poster is that it is extremely one-sided. It only addresses racism while the gender aspect of the film is almost equally interesting to the film’s race facets. The film is set in the 1960’s and the women are portrayed accordingly. Unlike today where it is commonplace for women to be single and self-sufficient, it was of supreme importance for the women to be married. The husbands of the white women are portrayed to be the main breadwinners, while the wives stay at home and raise their children. The pressure to bear children is so great, in fact, that the character Celia is worried that her husband will leave her just because of her multiple miscarriages. In addition to bearing children, the women are in charge of preparing food and keeping a clean house. Despite the fact that it seems to be the only thing that they are really in charge of, all of the families in the film had maids that assisted the women in these activities. It is a strange dynamic that must have had a belittling effect on the women, as they are trapped in the constraints of 1960s “domestic bliss.” The film writer’s focus on the race aspect of the film shows us that he/she is a person who is very sensitive to anything that could be construed as inequality. But if you actually do some critical analysis of the film, you will find that the author of the poster is taking an oversimplified and downright ignorant view of the message. The