From the tigress to the nanny through the bitch21 voices testify to the stereotypes of which black women are victims.
“Tigress”, “panther”, “feline”, but “oh, but you’re eloquent”! The myth of the black womanin theaters right for Black History Month, puts its finger on a little-known and visibly widespread phenomenon: racialized sexism.
Hang on, it’s not gay.
We know the stereotypes to which women in general are victims. So imagine black women. Doubly targeted, doubly stereotyped. No, it’s not flying high.
“I find you very pretty for a black woman”, “you teach nursing sciences? “, not to mention all the adjectives attached to their so-called “chocolate” skin, why not “salted butter caramel”, while we are at it. It would be laughable if it weren’t so infuriating.
Ayana O’Shun, the director, stood out last fall at the Montreal International Documentary Meetings with her film, which won her the Magnus-Isacsson Prize (given to an emerging director for a film of a social conscience).
Because. Armed with 21 testimonies (all so eloquent that it becomes paradoxically redundant in the long run), including Diane Gistal (curator of the exhibition, the “pretty for a black woman” above), Agnès Berthelot-Raffard (professor of philosophy at York University, and not nursing, thank you) and the rapper Sarahmée, who came here to testify that yes, we can rap without stripping, let it be said.
Going back to the colonialist sources of the problem, with images from films, posters and other historical material, the director develops three major stereotypes: the myth of Jezebel (or the hypersexual woman) who occupies the greatest part of the film, the myth of the nanny or the granny, as well as that of the angry black woman (or bitch), albeit more briefly.
From lightening creams to the political sense of hair to twerking (no, not all black women twerk!), not to mention a subject that comes at the very end, fragile mental health and suicide, she casts a wide net here. , although without ever giving voice to men.
If the form is classic and does not reinvent the genre, let’s salute the editing, which skillfully and with conviction superimposes the testimonies, a little long, as we have said, but no less powerful.
We come out of this film a little stunned, but with a certain amount of hope that the message will make its way. Let’s move on to something else one day, finally.
Indoors
Documentary
The myth of the black woman
Ayana O’Shun
1:34