Despite the film Daughters of the Dust coming out in 1991, its influence in Hollywood is still felt today. Most recently, it was restored at the Film Forum in 2016, as well as featured in Beyoncé’s 2015 music video Lemonade. This film not only influenced Hollywood, but also African American women's representation in Hollywood’s narratives. This is due to the exploration of an African American family, through the African American female’s perspective. The film’s female-centric narration is revolutionary due to its distance from the Hollywood clichés that often follow African American women. By having these marginalized voices hold the dominant position in a motion picture, it assisted in challenging Hollywood’s norms, as well as lead to the …show more content…
movie’s overall success. However, despite the movie’s success and subsequent revival in Hollywood history, the director of the film, Julie Dash, struggled to produce and finalize Daughters of the Dust. Dash’s struggle in the production of the film reflects the ongoing effort for African American women’s voices to be heard in movies narratives, and everyday life. Therefore, by analyzing Daughters of the Dust’s refusal to abide by Hollywood's cliches, as well as Dash’s struggle to produce the film, black women and their voices are shown to be persistent, as well as unforgiving in their existence in narration, and in society. Daughters of the Dust has not only received a recent revival in Hollywood, but is also credited with being the first African American film directed by an African American female to reach theatrical release . Through the movie’s monumental legacy in Hollywood, and its phenomenal success, Dash helped pave the way for future African American women directors. However, the journey to create this film was rife with setbacks, many specifically created by the filmmaking industry. For example, it took Dash 15 years to produce the film, an abnormally long time. This elongated process was due to obstacles in Hollywood, such as a lack of funding. Jennifer Machiorlatti notes in Revisiting Julie Dash's "Daughters of the Dust": Black Feminist Narrative and Diasporic Recollection, Julie Dash’s struggle, saying that “...after a number of studies rejected the film for production and distribution consideration, Dash began building her own financial base…” In large part, these setbacks were unique to Daughters of the Dust, as Dash was an African American woman director, in a predominantly white job field, attempting to change the way Hollywood told not only African American stories, but narratives in general. Dash, through the film Daughters of the Dust, told the story of African Americans from the African American woman's perspective. This was different from Hollywood's conventional perspective and narration, which is rooted, as well as affected, by the domination of male ideas and norms. Daughters of the Dust being told through the black woman's point of view was new, and ultimately, revolutionary for Hollywood. The new perspective of Daughters of the Dust, was a consequence of the film being directed by an African American woman, instead of a male, which often told stories that were not reflective of the African American female’s perspective. Unfortunately, this unique perspective led to many difficulties for Dash; African American women’s voices were not only struggling to be heard in narration, but also in real life. As Karen Backstein notes in The Cinematic Jazz of Julie Dash, “…[Dash] rewrites Hollywood history, reinscribing the presence that had for so long been repressed and effaced, and turning the usual paradigm inside out, not only in terms of the past but also in terms of present day Hollywood… it still remains difficult for women and, more difficult for black women.” Daughters of Dust was written in a perspective that was not conventionally compatible with other Hollywood-narrated and produced films, due to the highlighting of the African American woman’s voice. It is through Dash’s unwillingness to follow male centric Hollywood conventions, that she found difficulty in gaining social and financial support for Daughters of the Dust. Dash’s struggle, however, does not only speak to black women’s struggles in film, but also paralleled the difficulties of African American women in American society, and this is clearly present in her work. As Dash noted in Julie Dash: Filmmaking within a Culture of Women by Black Camera, “…I’m a product of the times. Of course my films are going to reflect the political climate that I came up in.” Therefore, Dash's struggle for accurate and meaningful representation for black women in Hollywood's narratives, has impacted the films she has produced. Due to her struggle in the film industry, Dash prompted the focal importance of black women and their voices. However, despite Dash's struggle to produce Daughters of the Dust, the film went on to be seen across the United States, and grossed $1,642,436. Thus showcasing not only African American women's resiliency, but also the capability of success for a film that focuses on African American women's voices. Dash has produced many movies that center on black women and their voices, however, this narrative can most predominantly be seen in her movie Daughter of the Dust. It is through the African American woman’s narration and point of view that the audience is told the story of the Peazant Family, an African American family in 1902. In Filmmaking within a Culture of Woman by Black Camera, the identity of the two narrators is explained, saying, “[there are] two female narrators - one a matriarch, wrinkled and respected; the other an unborn child- [both] offer rich accounts of the family’s move northward. ” Nana, is matriarch of the Peazant family, and the unborn child is the child of Nana’s grandson. Nana, the unborn child, and the rest of the family are of Gullah descendent, and are migrating from the St. Simon islands to the mainland near the island. Their ancestors, who were brought to the Gullah islands off the Georgia coast, heavily influence Nana and the Unborn Child’s narration. The ancestors were enslaved people forced to settle on the coast. However, the new generation has led the family onto a new journey, migration. The journey is influenced by both the past and the future, and leads to an inevitable choice the family must make between them. The family, unique due to the female voices leading their story, in the end, must choose whether to leave the island, or maintain the life they are already living. Through the narration of Nana and the Unborn child, a more realistic and accurate representation of African American woman in stories is shown. One of the mechanisms of this accurate representation is seen through Nana and the Unborn child’s unconventional narration, which does not depend on Hollywood’s usual clichés. These clichés typically inaccurately represent or underrepresent African-American women. For example, African American women rarely take precedent in the direction of the narrative; instead, they are often pigeonholed as a secondary character. Typically African-American women play supporting characters, such as the mother who informs the main character of their wrongdoings, or the sibling who propels others development, never actually getting to control the narrative themselves. Daughters in the Dust, however, puts women in the forefront of the narrative, rather than categorizing them as secondary, less influential characters. Nana, and the unborn child guide the story rather than simply assist it. Another dominant cliché that is overwhelmingly attached to African American women is their sexuality, as in their sexual appeal to men. Christina Lane, in In Feminist Hollywood: From Born in Flames to Point, notes the impact sexuality has had on the representation of African American women, arguing that directors are often influenced by the need to have a “replication of mainstream patriarchal cinematic practices that explicitly represents woman (in this instance black woman’s) the object of a phallocentric gaze. ” Sexual clichés reinforce the patriarchal structures that have been attached to the portrayal of black women in Hollywood films, and the narratives that they are allowed to be a part of, leading to subpar and overall hurtful representations of black women in mainstream media. Therefore, Daughters of the Dust, with its female-dominated narration, and focus on family instead of the black women’s sexuality, has positively impacted how black women are seen in cinema. As Jennifer Machiorlatti notes in Revisiting Julie Dash's "Daughters of the Dust": Black Feminist Narrative and Diasporic Recollection, Daughters of the Dust’s “…spiritual belief and the continuation of family is centralized through black women's voices… ” For once, in a wide-reaching film narration, black women are favored, not overtly sexualized, and are conceptualized as a source of meaning and worth. The multifaceted personality of the black woman can be seen in Nana’s opening words: “I am the first and the last. I am the honored one and the scorned one. I am the whore and the holy one. I am the wife and the virgin. I am the barren one and many are my daughters. I am the silence that you can not understand. I am the utterance of my name. ” Nana, in her opening words, alerts the audiences to the fact that she is not following the role of a clichéd African American woman character.
Nana is the silence that you cannot understand, like the many complexities of African American women that cannot be understood by many in the film industry, as well as in society. Nana, as well as the other female characters in the narrative, are more than stereotypical archetypes; they are multidimensional characters that represent the importance of intersectionality. Therefore, Nana and the Unborn Child, free from outside oppression, such as Hollywood’s clichés, are able to control the narration of their family’s journey freely. Through their point of view, the realities of the African American struggle is accurately shown and represented in an authentic way. As Jennifer Machiorlatti notes in Revisiting Julie Dash's "Daughters of the Dust": Black Feminist Narrative and Diasporic Recollection, Nana and the Unborn Child’s allow for “those who have been neglected to marginality in cinematic history to move to the center to claim and own their representation, story, and myth. ” Daughters of the Dust representation of African American women in narrations is different from anything in Hollywood’s past. This unique perspective of dominant African American woman voices weakens the control of dominant and inaccurate viewpoints from men, and moves it to black women, who are less willing to follow the hurtful clichés of standard storytelling in
film. Daughters of the Dust allows for the African Americans woman’s voice to be heard through accurate representations of the African women, which is achieved through the rejecting of Hollywood’s cliché narratives. However, the production of the film was rattled with setbacks leading to a 15-year production time deriving from not only the director’s skin color, but also her revolutionary woman-centric film and narration. Although the movie took 15 years to reach audiences, Daughters of the Dust female-centric narration, as well as Julie Dash’s voice persisted, despite attempted silences by Hollywood.
One of the sociological theories is conflict theory. The conflict theory deals with people's level on wealth, or class. The conflict theory says that social change is beneficial, contrary to focuses on social order. In the story of the woman and her children, the conflict theory plays a big role on the situation. Police of higher class are threatening the homeless woman. The conflict theory is a constant struggle of people of higher class over powering people of lower class, or the weaker. The police are trying to over power the woman by telling her to leave. Even though the woman and her children were doing nothing wrong, the police used their power to tell her to leave. Also the people of the area showed their conflict theory by telling the police officers to come. They must have felt embarrassed to have a woman of such lower class to be around them. They used their power of class to have the woman removed from their community. The woman wants to be there because she has no home and it is a good community to be in, but the people look at it as an embarrassment to them because it makes their area look bad for someone of such lower class to be around them. The conflict theory is unique to all other theories because it separates people into categories determined by their wealth and standards. Their status is the element that categorizes them, weather it is class, race, or gender. The conflict theory do not always use class, race, and gender all at once. In this situation race and gender is not a main issue, although gender could be a reason, but it would fall under the feminist theory. This story is mainly dealing with class. Through all this conflict the woman feels over powered and domina...
Daughters of the Dust, was a movie about traditions, and the history of the women in a black family carrying these traditions. The movie starts in 1902, in an island where a family has lived for generations, since the slavery times. Part of this family, wants to leave the Island, but another part wants to preserve the traditions staying in the island. So the whole movie is about the struggle of the members of this family, in relation to leaving or not leaving the Island. The oldest women of this family, is the wisest of that family; she carries the traditions deep in her heart. Another woman, she is in her forty or so, and has two daughters, she is the other side of the coin. She wants to leave the island and break with the traditions...
The Blind Side is a heartwarming and compelling story of the NFL player Michael Oher, who is adopted into a family that is a significantly higher social class than he. The story is a true account of a boy that went from rags to riches and depicts eloquently the social stratification in the United States.
Talcott Parsons and Robert Bales, two of the leading figures in sociology, may be considered the founding fathers for the ideas of the “modern family” and the “male-breadwinner family.” Collectively, their work has influenced how Americans analyze families and has sparked new ideas regarding the American family from sociologists such as Stephanie Coontz and Arlie Hochschild. However, when studying the American family, Parsons and Bales fail to understand that the “ideal” family may not be so ideal for everyone. They neglect to consider societal influences and economic changes when discussing patriarchal social norms as the most optimal family structure. Their description of the male-breadwinner family consists of the father being the “instrumental leader” within the home, providing economically for his family based on his occupational earnings. Meanwhile, the mother is considered the manager of the household, providing for her husband and children physically, emotionally, and mentally.
The movie Blind Side begins with the author, Michel Lewis explaining the incident of Joe Thiemann in which he broke his leg into two parts. He then explains the importance of a left tackle in the game of football. After a brief description author introduce Michael Oher; tall, beefy, quiet and athletic guy who is being interviewed by what it seems like a government officer. Michel who was abandoned at very young age and didn’t knew much about his father nor his mother, although he wanted to stay with his mother who was an alcoholic and struggles to find an orphan house or a good family that can take care of Michel. Despite not having much a family nor someone who takes care of him, Michel never gave up on the situation and lived most of his
The Blaxploitation movement’s success was partially due to the rise of the civil rights movement, but also due to the financial crisis that was ongoing in Hollywood. In-home television had just hit the markets fully for consumers, therefore there was less of a need or want to go out and see movies as often (Lawrence, 2009). In this paper we will explore Blaxploitation in the form of four different films and the different ways they made an impact on society. These films include: Cotton Comes to Harlem, Shaft, Super Fly and Blacula.
The audience is able to gather hints and references made in the film that slavery in one way or another affected these people living on the island. By watching Daughters of the Dust, I was able to gather new knowledge that I did not previously have of this secluded community. The filmmakers definitely evoked a response from the audience in the way they demonstrated particular aspects of this community. Although, I do not have any ties to the African American community, it was easy to understand the hardships of the Gullah community from this film.
Sociology relates to this novel in so many different ways. The family in the story, Flowers in the Attic, written by V.C. Andrews, starts off as a family of procreation, a family established through marriage, which includes the mother (Mrs. Dollanger), the father (Mr. Dollanger), and the four children: Cathy (the oldest daughter), Chris (the second oldest son), Carrie and Corey (the young twins). A conflict begins when the father dies in a car wreck, so the mother and her four children must move in her rich parents estate because they have no money and nowhere to stay. After the father's death, the norms of the children changed. The norms of the children were to stay hidden in the basement by them selves because Mrs. Dollanger may only earn back the right to inherit her father's estate by falsifying that she has no children by her husband who was also her half-uncle. The original agreement was that they can leave the basement when their grandfather dies. The rules of the house were given by the dying grandfather that stated if Mrs. Dollanger was found to have children that she would be disinherited again.
Despite the fact that the character of Phyllis as the “tough as nails” perpetual, intentional aggressor is a valid attempt to obliterate the image of women as the oppressed, one interpretation of this role is that she ultimately seems to misrepresent herself, and females in cinema, anyway. Janet Todd, author of Women and Film, states that, “Women do not exist in American film. Instead we find another creation, made by men, growing out of their ideological imperatives”(130). Though these “power girl”characters are strong examples of anything but submissive and sexual females,the...
This essay will be explaining the definition of sociology, the sociological factors of obesity using Symbolic Interactionism Theory and the Functionalism Theory and a description of the medical condition obesity and how it may affect individuals suffering from it.
Imagine a society going behind the backs of everyone and giving them pills to control them. At the same time, controlling who they love, when they die, and when they have kids. In the book Matched by Ally Condie we can see that the society the protagonist, Cassia, had to constantly be controlled by her society and she had no other choice but to accept it. In the book, the reader can see her grow to take risks for the truth and for freedom because she uncovers more and more about how the society is getting control and what they are controlling in their people. It’s scary to think about, but, the reader can easily see parallels between the current society today and the society Cassia is forced to live in.
Not many classes have topics of which students can relate to easily and can find something to help them understand the ideas better. In our class we watch the show Freaks and Geeks to help us better understand sociology. At first, I wasn’t quite sure how this show set back in the 1980s would help me understand what we were discussing in class, but it turned out to really be a valuable asset in helping the class. The show perfectly displays the themes of the self, the looking-glass self, and in and out groups which we confered about.
In Peter Berger's "Invitation to Sociology", the sociological perspective was introduced. Berger asserts that it is important to examine new or emotionally or morally challenging situations from a sociological perspective in order to gain a clearer understanding of their true meanings. This perspective requires a person to observe a situation through objective eyes. It is important to "look beyond" the stereotypical establishments of a society and focus on their true, hidden meanings. Consideration of all the hidden meanings of social customs, norms, deviations and taboos, allow one to establish an objective image about the truth behind it. This method can also be applied to understanding people. This questioning, Berger says, is the root influence of social change and personal understanding of others. To do this well, it involves much intellectual prowess and ability to reason.
In 1993, Mrs. Doubfire, was one of the first movies to feature a cross-dressed gay and heterosexual man. During this period of time people were exceptionally homophobic. At this time, there was a scarce amount shows with gay characters and storylines. It has in fact been concluded that the release of Mrs. Doubtfire resulted in the increase in production of films containing gay themes. Americans have been in a constant debate about gender roles, and the effects and reasoning behind these roles. While differing gender roles have noteworthy outcomes on many things, the family unit is directly affected by gender roles. The movie, Mrs. Doubtfire depicts this perfectly. The themes shown in this movie can be explained by multiple sociological concepts including female gender roles, male gender roles, and theories on families.
At first I didn’t know what to really expect from taking an online sociology class for class. To be completely honest, I thought I would be reading a lot of boring articles and then writing about them. It turned out that I was wrong. I was able to see what sociology pertains to and how it relates to our lives. It’s funny to think that almost everything in your life is controlled by someone else. Your interests, hobbies, and even clothes aren’t really solely your decision. You may be thinking “no way I am being influenced and I make all of my decisions consciously” but in fact that is not the case.