I hated The Help (book and movie). Am I alone?

[lanlady]

Author goes on massive white guilt trip, ends up reinforcing stereotypes (oh lordie, but those Negro women can fry chicken and bake pies and take care of babies! But Aunt Jemima can't lift herself up so turns to a the town's sole intelligent white woman to tell her story -- who, wink wink, is supposed to represent the author of the book.) What am I missing?

[seabeyond]

1. there is a black lawyer woman i really like, dont remember the name, that critiqued

the movie as you see it. i had to respect what she was saying and so i am not seeing the movie. but many on du argue this. so no, you are not alone but you are in a huge minority

[lanlady]

2. Thanks seabeyond

It's good to know I'm not the only one who was offended by this!

[fishwax]

13. Melissa Harris-Perry, I think n/t

[seabeyond]

19. yes. thank you. too many names for me, lol. i have a tough time remembering one

let alone three.

but i have always enjoyed listening to this womans opinion. i respect her.

[Curmudgeoness]

3. I loved the book, and will be seeing the movie later today.

I can see what you got out of the book, and there is a point to be made on that, but I saw it differently. I think that it is giving a new generation a little appreciation of what blacks went through in the not so distant past. I think it was white-washed and did not show just how bad these women had it in life, but I also think that it portrayed the fear and anger that black women had, as well as the plight they endured. Keep quiet. Act nice. Be grateful. Fear for your own children. Never backtalk.

I don't know how it really was for the black maids in 1960, but I think that it is a good thing that people do think about it and discuss it. And this book and movie start that discussion.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. Melissa Harris-Perry totally hated it.

She's the sub and occasional guest on the Rachel Maddow show. She thought it was patronizing and superficial. I haven't read the book or seen the movie, so I have no opinion.

[nolabear]

6. That's my biggest issue, the superficiality. I'm not sure re patronizing.

Maybe so. I hate to say this but I think America needs small bites. This is a small bite. Maybe it'll move things forward a bit. I know that Jackson is actually trying to talk about this rather than everyone going to their corners and throwing stones, and that is a very good thing.

[nolabear]

5. Well, I'm conflicted about the book and movie but you missed some.

First, I'm not sure how any white person could address anything from that time without someone being upset. Although I agree that stereotypes were used and that the characters were really two dimensional, it has gotten a lot of people talking about a time when balck and women were unable to be revolutionaries and so ate their own quantity of metaphorical shit, finding ways to let their souls survive as they could. There are many stories to tell about that time, and this is one of them, clumsy as it is. So I have my criticisms but am glad it's there and people are seeing it.

Btw the actual fact of the maids, the children, the cooking, the discrimination, and the loving care for white children while your own were not able to have the same care is there. I know because I grew up in Mississippi in the 60's and was a part of it as a small child. It's a lot to chew on.

[lanlady]

8. Fair enough

I understand the value of reminding Americans that in our own life times and those of our parents, segregation and repression were a way of life. I just wish we didn't have to resort to comic book-level depictions. Social/historical commentary in the hands of a truly gifted author is capable of changing lives: The Help is not even close to being at that level!

[nolabear]

10. I do have an appreciation for a flawed book that actually exists though.

Are there books of fiction that rise to the level you're thinking of?

[dana_b]

7. ugh. my sister really wants me to go and see this with her

but most of what I have read supports what you have said. I think we may need to spend the day at the beach instead.

[lanlady]

9. Let us know what you think

If your sister manages to drag you to see it.

Here is a short list of all the stereotypes/caricatures:
--Black women as Aunt Jemima/Mammy
--Black women as single moms (where ARE the men in this movie?)
--Dumb blondes
--White men are all idiots/tools/assholes
--Southern women are vapid beings obsessed with clothes and looks

[nolabear]

11. In the spirit of debate, not to imply I think this isn't a flawed movie

About the stereotypes:

Aunt Jemima/Mammy was depicted as carefree, unconcerned and sexless, happy to raise white children and unconscious of her own. These women had to suffer in the world of Jim Crow to put food on the table because they were seen as harmless and ineffectual enough to allow them to raise white children, not because they were trusted.

And that addresses the single mom thing. The black men were there; they just couldn't get jobs and were angry and in pain, and took it out on the women. There are really no men of either race but this was a story specifically about the relationships between the women.

The blonde in question wasn't dumb; she was ignorant, "white trash". That said I think she was one of the biggest flaws, a pasted on character meant to pull the "whites are racists" punches by saying "See? Poor white folks suffered too." Interesting that it didn't work because it's true. Classism was and is a huge problem. But it doesn't hold a candle to racism.

I don't get the white men stereotype. The blonde's husband was a pretty good guy after all. They were certainly portrayed as just the breadwinners who left the icky family stuff up to the womenfolk until they had to come in and lay down the law. But as I said it was about the women.

About the Southern women being obsessed with looks, it dawned on me when watching that this was taking place at exactly the same time as Mad Men, and the women in NYC were shown just the same way.

As I said, I'm interested in the feelings stirred by the book and movie so don't take this as "You're wrong and a bad person" but as an invitation to continue to discuss your point.

[Curmudgeoness]

12. I just got home from seeing the movie, and the movie leaves

a lot of good stuff out that was in the book, but does hold true to the book. You are right about many issues you have brought up, although I will say that I found Celie (dumb blonde/white trash) to be much more complex in the book. She was one of my favorite characters.

During that time, though, in that Junior League class of people, the men really did leave all that "woman" stuff up to women. They worked and brought home the paychecks, and the women were responsible for trying to keep stress out of their lives at home. At least, that was the way many of them were. It was a cultural thing.

I love that this part of history is being looked at, and discussed too.

[LisaM]

14. I agree with you one million percent.

Worse, the author introduced many brand name products that weren't available at the time the book was set (Tab, Shake and Bake), knowing that they were anachronisms. I guess that there is a certain type of person that wouldn't bother, but I'm not that type.

[nolabear]

22. Okay THAT'S unforgiveable.

And I'm shocked. Really.

[raccoon]

30. ITA--mistakes like that make me wonder what other mistakes the writer made. nt

[PassingFair]

15. I haven't read the book, or seen the movie. It looks like one of those "Thank you, white lady!" ....

Hollywood snow jobs about the "good" white
helping to up-lift the "helpless blacks".



:puke:

Why don't they make a movie about
Nat Turner?

Or make a movie version of "Kingsblood Royal"?

Or hell, if you HAVE to have a white hero,
how about John Brown?

[JohnnyLib2]

16. I agree about stereotyping but see the awareness-raising as more important.

I encountered Delta cotton plantation culture in the mid-60s and little had changed there. In the rural areas, though, living conditions were much, much worse and every facet of small towns (schools, churches, shops, health services) was segregated and vastly unequal. And the white attitudes.....

Even having grown up near Native American "colonies," I was shocked. So, yes, the movie has distortions. But to hear people now, finally, discussing this openly seems significant.

[NV Whino]

17. You have to put this in the context of the 60s

You also have to realize that this is creative fiction, and in the movie especially, it is condensed.

That said, I loved the book and the movie. And just for the record I was turned on to the book by a friend of mine from "Atlanta society" who had grown up in similar circumstances. Black mammies, white trash, Junior League and all.

[BiggJawn]

18. Is that you, Melissa? n/t

[mzteris]

20. my AA friends have panned it

it's as you say.

A "feel good movie" for the white folks...

I refuse to see it.

[mzteris]

21. see this review

http://www.rawstory.com/rawreplay/2011/08/melissa-harris-perry-the-help-movie-ahistorical-and-deeply-troubling/#.Tkek89DIumw.facebook

[Initech]

23. My boss didn't like it.

[nolabear]

24. So how did people like The Color Purple?

And why?

[CBGLuthier]

27. It was not filtered through WHITE eyes

90 percent of Hollywood movies about civil rights are shown through white eyes. The POV characters are white.

[jcboon]

25. I agree

I grew up during the early sixties and had an Afro-American "nanny". The movie annoyed me. Though it was entertaining I found the general tone of it to be paternalistic and superficial.
Also, how the hell does a white woman, the author, have any idea what black women of the time were thinking?

[CBGLuthier]

26. This is what these kind of movies make me think of

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3ZG1-o9KWc

[Bake]

28. A feel-good movie for white folks?

I can tell you, I'll bet a month's pay there are a lot of pissed off white folks in Jackson, Mississippi.

That's the way it was, and to a large extent still is, in Jackson, Mississippi. Whemn I first moved to Jackson, I thought, wow, they've come a long way. Six years later I think, not so much.

Bake

[TuxedoKat]

29. I haven't read

or seen the movie yet. Melissa Harris-Perry had some very succinct and astute comments about it that would make it impossible for me to like it. I might eventually read the book though, but only through the library if I bother. Actually, I was thinking of reading it with my teenage daughter to point out some of the things Ms. Perry stated.