Gone With The Wind: The Portrayal Of An African American Woman

Since the 19th century, African Americans have often been subjected to racism and marginalization within the American society. Although they have been brought as slaves to America in the 17th century and thus, live probably since generations in the country, they are barely recognized as part of the American community and are forced to live on the fringe of society. As a consequence, African Americans have become the targets of cinematic and television comedy, delineating various stereotypical images of African American men and women. David O. Selznick’s film adaptation Gone With the Wind, published in 1939 and adapted from Margaret Mitchell’s eponymous novel, offers the first portrayal of an African American woman. Conspicuously, the African American woman in the film emphasizes stereotypical images being decisively devised by white American writers and

In 2000, Raja Gosnell published his comedy Big Momma’s House, starring Martin Lawrence, representing not only drag performances, but also underlining again the image of an overweight, broad-shouldered, and very tall African American lady. Martin Lawrence, acting as agent Malcolm Turner, dresses up as lady Hattie Mae Pierce, commonly known as Big Momma, by using a fat suit in order to proceed with investigation. Consequently, similarities between the Mammy archetype and Big Momma in Gosnell’s movie become rapidly obvious. Therefore, this research paper aims to answer the question whether Big Momma can be considered as a contemporary representation of the Mammy archetype or whether producer Raja Gosnell uses the Mammy stereotype in order to add more comedic