Black Women and Literacy in Feature Films

 Dowdy acknowledges the progression Black women have made in the film industry.  When I think about Black women in the media of a predominantly white culture I a strong, successful female lead isn’t the first thing that comes to mind.  We have been tormented by the media depicting images solely of lower class low-literate women.  “Commercial film has trained us to expect a reality where Black life is included as an incidental fact in storytelling of a White scriptwriter.  Understanding the way Black women fit into the schema of White society, I remind my students, is another kind of literacy code that we must unpack when we view films by mainstream filmmakers (Dowdy 174).”  It’s imperative to remember who controls the industry and that however they choose to display black women is how it will be.

Dowdy focuses on the roles and how each woman is perceived in the films.  She also discusses the literacies they fulfill.  In “Passion Fish”, Alfre Woodward plays a black nurse who is the caretaker for a white woman.  It is shown that she must work for the white woman in order to support herself and if that isn’t enough along the way she looses her merit, as she was never certified to be a nurse.  In “Eve’s Bayou” we witness Lynn Whitfield as a black domestic as all the roles of women outside the household are underrepresented.  In “The Color Purple”, Whoopi Goldberg plays a powerless female objectified by her cruel husband. At the beginning she can neither read nor write., but as the movie progresses and she acquires these literacies she becomes a stronger woman.

I wonder the opportunities these women might have, had they acquired more literacies.  Might they have been more independent, more successful, or overall more accepting and appreciative of themselves.  Literacy allows you to gain economic, political, religious, social, and educational knowledge.  Having a diverse group of them makes for a more pleasant lifestyle where you can create your won opinions rather than only having one option, to accept the information presented.