ipl-logo

The Butler Vs The Help Gender Matters Analysis

734 Words3 Pages

“White America”, “magical negro”, and “WASP.” Film, literature, and just media in general coin such terms in order to portray a writer’s perspective of a reality that is apparent in society. Helena Andrews and Matt Zoller Seitz attempt to depict a notion of gender and racial inequality in their respective articles: “The Butler vs. The Help: Gender Matters,” and “The Offensive Movie Cliché That Won’t Die.” Both writers incorporate gender and racial imbalances in American film however; Seitz has a more convincing argument that makes his ideas more lucid. Matt Zoller Seitz is able to convey a more compelling insight about American media with his ability to integrate many examples, and by branching out to real world situations.
Seitz is able to …show more content…

Her misguided assumption causes an inadequate explanation of her examples. It is difficult for an audience to relate to films that they are not knowledgeable about. This cycle of misinterpretation creates a flaw in the arguments presented. For example, Andrews quotes: “The most obvious difference between Davis’ Abileen and Whittaker’s Cecil is the characters’ gender” (Andrews 353). Although Andrews does continue to explain her notion, she assumes the audience is familiar with the films, which clouds the path of her ideas, and a reader’s …show more content…

Associating ideas with the real world is a vital technique in engaging the audience to comprehend a viewpoint and understand where the narrator is coming from. However, the absence of these current events in Andrews’ article enables a stronger argument in that of Seitz’s, where these connections are present. To put this into perspective, Seitz quotes: “…Clinton’s unprecedented (un-presidented?) Comfort with African American culture…there was a sense, even in the pre-Internet era, that the white man either wasn’t in control anymore or soon wouldn’t be” (Seitz 359). Seitz uses a concept of inequality between races, and illustrates it with a circumstance in former president Bill Clinton’s presidency. There were little to no instances in Andrews article that used this tactic whereas, there were numerous examples found in Seitz’s article that linked to real life events or

Show More
Related

Summary Of The Film 'Color Adjustment' By Marlon Riggs

477 Words | 2 Pages

In Marlon Riggs’ 1992 documentary film titled Color Adjustment, Riggs, the Emmy winning producer of Ethnic Notions, continues his studies of prejudice in television. The documentary film looks at the years between 1948 and 1988 to analyze how over a 40 year period, race relations are viewed through the lens of prime time entertainment. The film examined many of television’s stereotypes and mythes and how they changed over the years. The one hour and twenty-two minute documentary is narrated by Ruby Dee, the American actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist, and civil rights activist.

Read More

Katherena Vermette's The Break

1674 Words | 7 Pages

This essay argues that the gendered performance of the characters is due to Linda Nicholson’s biological foundationalism as explored in Interpreting Gender (1999). The differences in reactions between the men and women of the story are not

Read More

The Monster As Woman Karen Hollinger Analysis

1270 Words | 6 Pages

For instance, the very first sentence of Hollinger’s essay starts off with this quote, “As Stephen Neale suggests, an intimate relationship seems to exist among the filmic presentation of the horror monster, the castration anxiety it evokes, and the cinematic representation of the female form.” (Hollinger pg. 243 of the Monsters book), in which she uses to intrigue the reader and to give the reader an idea about the work. Hollinger tells the reader that Neale thinks that the usual origin of a monster in a film is due to a relationship that went wrong and also claims that men are more vulnerable to certain anxieties. The placement of her reference to Neale’s essay allows the reader to conduct an idea of what the essay is going to be about and makes the reader think about what is more threatening between feminine monsters or masculine monsters.

Read More

The Culture Of Fear By Barry Glassner: Chapter Analysis

1721 Words | 7 Pages

Blacked Out Most Americans are afraid of African Americans. Why, we ask? Most of us don’t know why we do, is it their physical appearance or is it the fact that they have a different skin tone? In Chapter 5: Black Men of The Culture of Fear by Barry Glassner, Glassner argues that the media exaggerates the excessive attention paid to African-Americans (Glassner 109). Throughout the chapter, Glassner exposes us to secrets and truths about how the media makes us fear African-Americans, they feed us irrelevant information that make it seem like blacks are still a lower class and therefore treating them like they are still slaves.

Read More

Examples Of Critical Race Theory

1747 Words | 7 Pages

Race has always been a problem in America and other countries. But developments such as Critical Race Theory (CRT) has helped challenge race and racial power and its representation in American society. Articles such as Critical Race Theory: An Introduction by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic; White Privilege, Color, and Crime: A Personal Account by Peggy McIntosh have helped CRT develop further. Along with the documentary White Like Me by filmmaker Tim Wise. These articles and film explore the race and racism in the United States, along with critical race theory.

Read More

African Americans In The 1920's

1236 Words | 5 Pages

African Americans face a struggle with racism which has been present in our country before the Civil War began in 1861. America still faces racism today however, around the 1920’s the daily life of an African American slowly began to improve. Thus, this time period was known by many, as the “Negro Fad” (O’Neill). The quality of life and freedom of African Americans that lived in the United States was constantly evolving and never completely considered ‘equal’. From being enslaved, to fighting for their freedom, African Americans were greatly changing the status quo and beginning to make their mark in the United States.

Read More

New Jim Crow Thesis

562 Words | 3 Pages

Slavery is over therefore how can racism still exist? This has been a question posed countlessly in discussions about race. What has proven most difficult is adequately demonstrating how racism continues to thrive and how forms of oppression have manifested. Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, argues that slavery has not vanished; it instead has taken new forms that allowed it to flourish in modern society. These forms include mass incarceration and perpetuation of racist policies and societal attitudes that are disguised as color-blindness that ultimately allow the system of oppression to continue.

Read More

Argumentative Essay: The American Dream

908 Words | 4 Pages

Only 75 percent of blacks have received post-high school education, compared to 85 percent of whites. Not surprisingly, blacks on average also make less money than whites” (Philip M. Deutsch). It’s unjust that people of color are treated as inferior to white people, and it is that kind of social issue that interferes with the liberties of all Americans of

Read More

Race In Modern Films

536 Words | 3 Pages

Race in modern films plays a huge role in the way society views what is entertaining today. Some very popular films over the past decade would be Iron Man and Into the Woods. Although not easily recognizable with today’s standards of the film industry, there is a huge difference between the number of prominent white actors compared to those of other races. This shines some light on the entertainment industry, as to which races are preferred on the big screen.

Read More

Judith Butler: Gender As Social Norms

233 Words | 1 Pages

On the contrary, Judith Butler emphasizes gender as social norms. As a philosopher, Butler draws from psychoanalysis and literature. She claims we all detach ourselves from our attributes and explains what the trouble with gender is: it is a social construct; looks at what we put importance on, and it has strict binaries. Butler presents the idea of gender as performance or gender performative; to say gender is performative, means it produces a series of effects. The phenomenon produces and reproduces all the time; she makes a controversial claim that nobody is born one gender or the other.

Read More

Women Are More Paid Less Than Men

823 Words | 4 Pages

Context: There are a lot of films that portray male protagonist but very less when it comes to women. Evidence: In an article, “Women in Hollywood” argues that:

Read More

Political Voice In Lee Daniel's Film

838 Words | 4 Pages

In movies that portray political and ethical topics, the theme of a “political voice” is often brought up. In Daniel Lee’s movie The Butler, the political voice of the African-American community is portrayed in different ways. On one side, the movie shows the political voice of the protagonist. The movie follows the protagonist Cecil Gaines, an African-American butler; working in the White House

Read More

The Bfg Analysis

899 Words | 4 Pages

As pointed out by Cartmell and Whelehan (2010), upholders of film adaptation studies are finally seeing light in this century after decades of struggling against the stereotypical notion that screen adaptations in Hollywood reduce literature to heed the dimmest minds of humanity. From the early age of cinema till now, most people tend to view films from the perspective of literature, due to the negative reputation that hangs over adaptations, in spite of its century long history. Cartmell and Whelehan introduces and encourages readers to compare these mediums vise versa, to view literature through the lens of the cinema, or to regard films as a single entity, separate from its novel counterpart. Modern Comparative Frameworks for Film Adaptations.

Read More

Colorism In Film

2008 Words | 9 Pages

Despite its origins, the black community has continued to allow and even encourage colorism to segregate others within our race, aided by Hollywood’s oppression of darker skinned characters and favorability of individuals with lighter complexions for a more diverse range of roles. By doing so, the media now “glorifies the White standard of beauty in women, and demonizes dark skin for men, may

Read More

Argumentative Essay On Racial Equality

1734 Words | 7 Pages

Racial inequality has plagued our society for centuries and has been described as a “black eye” on American history. It wasn’t until the passing of The Civil Rights Act of 1965 that minorities were given equal protection under the law. This was a crucial step on our society’s road to reconciling this injustice. However, the effects of past racial inequality are still visible to this day, and our society still wrestles with how to solve this issue. In 1965, President Lyndon B Johnson said: “You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say you are free to compete with all the others, and still just believe that you have been completely fair.

Read More

More about The Butler Vs The Help Gender Matters Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document