Stereotypes In The Help

Something that has been prevalent in our society for the past few decades is the image of racism; whether it be through social media, films or magazines. Unfortunately, the images we have witnessed regarding racism are very negative. These images often show the group who is being the victim of this behavior too often be at fault; almost saying that because they are a certain color or from a certain culture that they are set up for failure based on their actions. This is the case in the movie “The Help”, where viewers watch black women become domestic workers for white women in the southern states during the civil rights movements. With the help of theorist Stuart Hall and Michael Omi and Howard Winant, this essay will intend to show that Hollywood

An ideology is defined as “a systematic body of concepts especially about human life or culture” (Meriam Webster dictionary). In our society today, according to Stuart Hall, “racism is one of the most profoundly naturalized of the existing ideologies” (Hall 1995: Pg. 19). This is due to the fact that there is abundant of hatred towards specific groups which creates a blanket of inequality, as well as stereotyping. On top of this, media also portrays images of racism more clearly than before, Hall mentions this in his article called the “The Whites of Their Eyes” by saying that “ media depicts images of racism more than before, allowing consumers of media to be more away from it”(Hall 1995: pg. 20). That being said, in the movie “The Help” viewers witness the ideas that black women in that time period were to be domestic workers and nothing else. This is shown through a scene where we witness one black mother teaching her daughter how to be the best domestic worker she could

However, it is also made very evident that although this essay covered three separate concepts, it is also critical to understand that these three do tie together. On top of films like “The Help” We have witnessed many films which have been reproduced for the sole intention of making money such as“12 years a Slave”. Not only do we witness these events from our past come back tour future, but we see them in a different light. We often see directors add things such as comedy so it’s not such a dark moment, however, this doesn’t mean it’s alright to laugh about as it has caused so much pain before. Not only do these films allow for some transformation but they also allow for ideologies to be born, leaving an impression of how a certain group of people is expected to act, which leads to racial formations. Following that, we know that for everyone to have equal justice we need to start moving towards removing discrimination from society. All in all, media, unfortunately, tends to represent race in a negative way, we have seen from this paper there is ultimately some backlash from it all. With that being said though, we understand now that Hollywood depicts these images for the sole purpose of creating a revenue however, it does not make up for the fact that many groups such as blacks, face the reality of these events and face the consequences of them every