Some Movie Magic

So where to begin? As a preface I really hope to clear up what I was talking about in class. After some reflection, I don’t regret saying anything, but I don’t want what I said about feminism to come off the wrong way. Firstly, I wanted to address the point of view I am seeing the movie and furthermore reading in. I am essentially a white, middle class male. This, as our classroom discussion tells, make my opinion relevant in a certain light. I saw the movie as two things: on a surface level I saw the movie as a poorly executed action movie featuring undeveloped characters and ridiculous outfits, but secondly, I did see the movie as a definition of a strong black woman in a power struggle. I liked how we in class talked about the idea of our personal backgrounds influencing the way we saw the movie. I of course am going to relate to the plot and main characters in such a way that I can make a connection to my history. I don’t immediately think of the movie as the “struggle of an urban city black woman,” that’s just the fact. Unfortunately, I do go into the movie with a certain bias. Perhaps I cannot properly appreciate ever the dimension of an ethnic struggle because I don’t understand it. I am a white, middle class kid and that’s the truth of the matter. It does not discount an ethnic groups struggle through history (which I do completely respect) it just does not allow me to fully understand that said struggle. I am not racist, I am not homophobic, and I am not anit-feminist. But, we as a whole are so accustomed to being politically correct that sometimes we’re so afraid to make arguments, there is no point in even discussion what someone has to say, so for shits and giggles lets face the facts here. Agree or disagree with me but I feel like something needs to be said about the discussion that we had in class. I mentioned a Victoria secret commercial and said that I have heard some girls saying that that is an act of feminism. I brought it up because I thought it was crazy. (Just as people in our class was to quick to disagree that anyone would even offer that idea) The point that I was trying to make was the although I feel a woman should feel sexy and beautiful, there is a line between “self-representation, and sexual representation.” I think its so important for a girl to feel beautiful, but when it jeopardizes her dignity and she just becomes a figure of lust, I don’t in any way feel that is a powerful tool of advocating femininity. I think that men sometimes loose respect for women when the women don’t necessarily respect themselves, and to be so revealing in my opinion is not respect for ones body. I know this is a controversial point and some may disagree with me, but I believe that the feminist idea should be based around respect and the respect all should have for women. I don’t think it should be based on a woman exposing herself. The same actions could have happened in the movie, and the same message of femininity could have been made if the women wore jeans and a t-shirt. Yes, I do believe a woman should express herself sexually but there is a fine line. I am not trying to shut down the idea of the feminist, I just think that sometimes we, just like our reading does, make such assumptions and try to make sense of everything. We as modern audiences, have a tendency to immediately place a work on a time line. I have talked about this before. We place a movie like this smack dab in the 70s and only look to the societal factors of the time period to look for every grueling connection. We sometimes don’t even make a simple evaluation of what the movie means. I understand it blaxploitaion, but maybe it can simply be that; an urban celebration of culture. I think because most of our class is white middle class, educated peoples; we have to make some metaphorical connection between the societal times and the movie. We basically become what we hate most about the readings. I do though like how the movie did depict an identity. Thinking about the formation of identity is such an important idea, and I really like the idea of an identity being born like people saw in the 70’s. I can see the celebration of urban culture in the movie, but I can also see how blacks would frown at the way the movie projects it. It really is a ridiculous movie. Poor acting, story line, and dialogue. It can in some instances be kind of insulting and child like, portraying the black characters as almost silly. But, never the less, as everything else we do in this class, the artist in my opinion, is simply giving the audience a snapshot of the times. Movies don’t depict reality but simply a fantasy. I don’t really know how to address the queer aspect that the reading mentions though. I of course have not seen the sequel it speaks about so I am not going to make an opinion about anything, but according to what it says I suppose I can see some relevance. I do though feel that reading did go on a tangent (like my blog) when it got to that part. I did like what the reading said in the beginning though, “to show us a woman who is independent, resourceful, self-confident, strong, and courageous.” Looking at this alone I suppose the avocation of feminism is implied, but when added to boob revealing dresses, high heels, fast cars, and Afros, the whole idea must be reevaluated. I didn’t like the movie, I didn’t like the reading, and I left the class discussion a bit uneasy. I guess the big point I want to leaves readers with is the message to understand that this work is indeed influence by societal ideas, but lets not be so quick to make assumptions about some things. Lets evaluate who we are as a modern audience and see where our biasness comes from. I appreciate everyone bearing with my rant, and I am very open to other ideas on all the matters, thank you for your time.