Dan Dinero poses an interesting argument as to whether Effie White from Dreamgirls can be classed as the stereotypical big black lady, and by extension, whether ‘And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going’ is a big black lady song. He states that “...the performative power of the big black lady is rooted in a politics of refusal.” (Dinero, 2012) This is certainly true of the characters of both Motormouth Maybelle and Effie White, however it must be made clear that it is not simply saying ‘no’ for the sake of saying no - in both cases there are definitive reasons, many of which are the same for both characters. Both obviously make refusals on the grounds of race: for Motormouth one of the main points of her character is to fight for racial change and …show more content…
It could, in fact, be considered that this is one of the few instances in musical theatre where the big black lady or ‘mammy’ character has a higher musical status than a character who could be read as presenting the ‘mulatto’ trope, as she has a solo number where the ‘mulatto’ character originally did not. It could be argued that Deena Jones has been written based on the ‘mulatto’ character archetype - though her exact ethnicity is not stated in the show. An article written following the release of the 2007 film version of the musical
In the novel Dianthe can be seen as both a black and a white character. At the beginning of the novel Dianthe is a beautiful black women of fair complexion who sings in the African American choir. However, after her train accident and “reanimation” she suffers from retrograde amnesia, and forgets her identity. Upon her awakening Rauel and Aubrey are there to impose the identity of Felice Adams (a white women) upon her. After imposing this racial identity change Rauel and Aubrey observe Dianthe, “they noted her perfect manners, the ease and good breeding displayed in all her intercourse with those socially above the level to which they knew this girl was born. She accepted the luxury of her surrounding as one of the manner born.” Dianthe a black women who performs stereotypical black female activities through the example of choral
Rodrigo Villagomez, in the essay, “The Designer Player,” has an opposite view of steroids in professional sports as Peter F. Martin in the essay, “Destroyed.” He argues that the status of athletes is to be entertainers; therefore, they should use steroids. “Baseball is a multibillion-dollar entertainment industry” (Villagomez 586). Baseball is not just America’s pastime, it is more than that. Players are under pressure to be their best. To achieve their goals, they try out steroids. “Because of this pressure, more professional baseball players are turning to performance-enhancing drugs, specifically steroids, to aid them in their quest for greatness” (Villagomez 587). Athletes play a sport to win even if it means winning by using steroids.
Beulah was a classic example of the mammy stereotype. She was a giggly, independent woman who spoke in thick dialect and also happened to be “plus sized.” However, the first person to play her was an average sized white male named Marlin Hunt on the NBC radio show Homeward Unincorporated in 1939. When Hunt died the next year, Bob Corley took over as Beulah on the early 1940’s radio shows That’s Life and Fibber McGee and Molly. Two years after Beulah started broadcasting as it’s own radio show, Hattie McDaniel, and African-American woman, was cast in the role as Beulah. In 1939, McDaniels had become the first black woman to win an Academy Award, which she won for Best Supporting Actress as Mammy in Gone With the Wind. After creating Beulah, it took them eight years to cast accurately. She played into a stereotype that dated back to original minstrelsy, and McDaniels was a high achieving actress. The liberal black community criticized McDaniel for taking stereotyped roles. McDaniel responded that she would rather play a maid than be one in actuality (“Hattie”). At the time, roles that involved African-American stereotypes were could be looked at in a positive light because they provided black actors and actresses, such as McDaniel, to have a role in radio and other emerging forms of
The minstrel show is considered by many as the first American form of musical theatre (Bordman, 2010). However, the tradition of minstrelsy, in various forms, dates back to well before Thomas Dartmouth Rice first jumped Jim Crow. In the sixteenth and seventeenth century, it was common for actors to darken their faces for dramatic effect, as illustrated by Shakespeare’s Othello (Strausbaugh, 2010). It could be said that minstrelsy continues to be alive and well today, in the form of reality television and hip-hop culture. While opinions on what may be considered minstrelsy today may differ, there is no denying that Rice revolutionized how the centuries old tradition of blackface was used to create a new art form, the minstrel show.
What is Bieiris de Romans’ speaker seeking from the woman, Maria, about whom Bieiris writes? More generally, what are female troubadours as a whole seeking from their loves, and their craft? Meg Bogin, in her The Women Troubadours, asserts that “their poems were addressed to women… to whom they vowed eternal homage and obedience. In exchange for their prostration, the troubadours expected to be ennobled, enriched, or simply made ‘better’” (Bogin, 9). Is the poetry of female troubadours less about the women being addressed and more about the troubadours themselves? By performing a close textual analysis of Bieiris de Romans’ poem to Maria, I hope to elucidate some possible answers to these questions.
I know what it feels like to be too white for the black crowd and too black for the white crowd. I have people constantly telling me I am an Oreo because I speak properly and don’t like rap music and I am not the stereotype people want me to be. Obviously, Hattie faced it on a bigger scale, being an actress and facing racism and criticism from all sides. I think it’s truly admirable that even in that she stuck to what she was happy doing. At the end of the day, it isn’t about if you made other people happy, it’s about if you are happy. That is one thing I will take away from reading about Hattie and writing about her. She never let anyone tell her she wasn’t good enough. She stuck for herself too. When the director wanted her to say the N-word in Gone With The Wind, she straight up said no and she is the reason you never hear the N-word in that movie. She is amazing and it sucks that the black community back then didn’t see her full potential. They just wanted to look at the negatives. The NAACP disowned because she played a servant but she repeatedly said she wasn’t happy to play a servant. That was all she could play. Her playing a servant had nothing to with who she really was and people don’t really see the difference between what she played and who she was. She was a person and to quote Ms. Hattie McDaniel herself, “I am an actress, when you say ‘cut’ I am no longer
Singer/actress Lena Horne's primary occupation was nightclub entertaining, a profession she pursued successfully around the world for more than 60 years, from the 1930s to the 1990s. In conjunction with her club work, she also maintained a recording career that stretched from 1936 to 2000 and brought her three Grammys, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1989; she appeared in 16 feature films and several shorts between 1938 and 1978; she performed occasionally on Broadway, including in her own Tony-winning one-woman show, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music in 1981-1982; and she sang and acted on radio and television. Adding to the challenge of maintaining such a career was her position as an African-American facing discrimination personally and in her profession during a period of enormous social change in the U.S. Her first job in the 1930s was at the Cotton Club, where blacks could perform, but not be admitted as customers; by 1969, when she acted in the film Death of a Gunfighter, her character's marriage to a white man went unremarked in the script. Horne herself was a pivotal figure in the changing attitudes about race in the 20th century; her middle-class upbringing and musical training predisposed her to the popular music of her day, rather than the blues and jazz genres more commonly associated with African-Americans, and her photogenic looks were sufficiently close to Caucasian that frequently she was encouraged to try to "pass" for white, something she consistently refused to do. But her position in the middle of a social struggle enabled her to become a leader in that struggle, speaking out in favor of racial integration and raising money for civil rights causes. By the end of the century, she could look back at a life that was never short on conflict, but that could be seen ultimately as a triumph.
Her stage career began in 1919 in the United States when she toured with The Jones Family Band and The Dixie Steppers (About Josephine Baker). During that time she did comical skits, but wished to advance to a chorus girl. Originally she was thought to be “too skinny and too dark,” but when one of the dancers left, she was able to fill in (About). The audience loved her.
I think this play is a lot about what does race mean, and to what extent do we perform race either onstage or in life:
What is critically known as the best American musical, Gypsy provides American musical theatregoers with dynamic characters, a captivating story and extraordinary music. Gypsy is an American musical that is based on the self-written book, “The Memoirs of ‘Gypsy Rose Lee’”. It is often referred to as, Gypsy: A Musical Fable. The musical made its debut on May 21, 1959 at The Broadway Theatre in Manhattan. The characters have been subject to many in depth analysis throughout its lifetime, adding a lot of new content and progressive thinking to the world of musical theatre. The history of the musical, musical acts, correlation to the real story of Gypsy Rose Lee, awards won and impact Gypsy had on musical theatre will be discussed in further detail.
...ly?s heritage. So ironically, while Dee is looking for her African-American culture, and it lies right in front of her eyes. Her sister, mother, grandmother, and herself are all a part of their family?s heritage, which stems from the African-American heritage that Dee is so desperate to find.
Meshes of the Afternoon by Maya Deren is one of the most intriguing and significant experimental films of the 1940’s. Maya Deren is a surrealist experimental filmmaker who explores themes like yearning, obsession, loss and mortality in her films. In Meshes of the Afternoon, Maya Deren is highly influenced by Sigmund Freud’s theory of expressing the realms of the subconscious mind through a dream. Meshes of the Afternoon, is a narration of her own experience with the subconscious mind that draws the viewers to experience the events being played out rather than just merely showing the film. I chose Maya Deren for my research because her intriguing sense gives viewers an enthralling experience by taking them to a different, semi-real world of the subconscious mind. Meshes of the Afternoon not only reveals Deren’s success in a male dominant arena, but also provides a sensational and escalating experience for the spectators.
Requiem for a Dream is a movie that was directed by Darren Aronofsky. It's a story about the decent in to the hell and torment of drug addiction; however, Aronofsky sets out to demonstrate both the seductive ecstasy of a high and the shattering anguish of addiction. Character development is the main focus of Requiem, which is shown through creative camera angles, precise editing, and brilliant acting.
After all, she was never told no, so in her mind her options for success were endless. Dee grew up being taught the there was no real issue with society, but once she moved away to college, her perspective on the situation changed dramatically. Dee States “I couldn’t bear it any longer being named after the people who oppress me” (Walker, 318). This indicates a sense of remorse towards her family’s heritage and the way she was raised. Furthermore, linking the reason why she changed her name. This action is a rebellion towards her heritage and her family’s morals, as it is taking the very essence of their history and rewriting it to claim ignorance on the fact that this poverty induced lifestyle never happened. Although agreeing with Dee on certain situations, I’ve come to the conclusion that you should not step out of your heritage. This could cause you to lose your path and ultimately isolate you from your family’s history. Agreeing on the aspect of higher education, this puts Dee in a strange position in the story. She is not liked because of her ignorance towards her heritage, yet she has a way about her that is compelling to the audience. In “My Dungeon Shook” it states that “The details and symbols of your life have been deliberately constructed to make you believe what white people say about you” (Baldwin, 2). This statement supports the idea that Dee/Wangero changed her name because of what white people said about blacks and their lifestyle. Though afflicted by change, Dee wants to keep something to remember her heritage; she wants to be a part of the history without participating in the actions and lifestyle of her
Some say that this play is racial in that the family is black, and what the family is going through could only happen to people of that race. One prominent racial is...