What is the controversy surrounding "The Help"

[RandySF]

I'm hearing high praise and criticism over the movie "The Help", which means the book must have been pretty good. Can someone fill me in? Was the book good?

[myrna minx]

1. Melissa Harris Perry's review:

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/melissa-harris-perry-breaks-down-the-help-ahistorical-and-deeply-troubling/

[sfpcjock]

37. +1

Yes, she explained how it generally trivializes the civil rights struggles of blacks.

[sammytko]

39. +2!!!!!

[catbyte]

2. This link to a Salon article pretty much sums it up:

http://www.salon.com/news/race/index.html?story=/ent/movies/feature/2011/08/12/why_hollywood_keeps_white_washing_the_past

[Number23]

36. Good God, that is one HELL of a read

Even more problematic is the overriding sense -- conveyed not just in "The Help," but in so many historical movies -- that the era being depicted is tucked safely away in the past, a closed chapter, and the collective insanity that gripped society has dissipated thanks to the efforts of good-hearted people like you, the viewer.

In all honesty, I see slight variations of this exact same attitude EVERY SINGLE DAY here on DU and a few other places.

[hedgehog]

3. Here's one aspect:

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2011/02/lawsuit-claims-the-help-author-stole-her-character-from-her-help/21055/

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/family-maid-files-suit-against-author-of-the-help/

[Fleshdancer]

4. I'm reading the book right now...

I'm only 25% into it so I can't really form an opinion yet, but it's a great book so far for what it's worth. :shrug:

[helderheid]

29. Best book I've read. Well, book on CD which was great as they used multiple actresses to read.

[oviedodem]

5. I patently refuse to watch this and will not let my 12 year old daughter watch it either..

I am frankly getting sick and tired of seeing african-american movies be either a silly lacking substance flick, a back in time horrors of slavery, a pick yourself up from poverty flick or something like that.

Here is what I want just a few times:

Give me a Wall Street type movie with prominent black actors
Give me a Deception type movie
Give me Inception with a prominent black actor in the lead role

I am tired of the stereo typical movies that are continuously being made. Furthermore, to title it the help!!! I don't care if its a book it should stay that way then. I hate the message it sends to young minority girls and the image it shows to the rest of the world.

It is time that society move past some of this into the realm of modernity, but sadly Hollywood won't let it happen.

[lapislzi]

6. Why don't you read the book?

Before you criticize. It's a very good book about the raising of consciousness in early 1960s Mississippi.

[oviedodem]

7. I am sure its a great story. I HATE the title and guess what... it can stay

as a book.

Visual media like movies/TV have more impact these days. This is the main reason why I am adamant against it. Hell make a documentary that would have a helluva lot better!

[housewolf]

25. Sadly

a documentary would be seen by far fewer people.

I haven't read the book or seen the movie. But my understanding is that you can't heal the past by rejecting and denying it. You can heal it by revisiting it and seeing the error and tragedy that it was.

[GentryDixon]

11. It is a good book.

My husband is a white man raised in the south during the 50's and 60's. He knew racism first hand, and understood the terrible inequities he was being taught. Not necessarily by his parents, but by society as a whole.

We were discussing how important it is teach younger generations just what slavery was all about, or soon it may be denied, just as the Holocaust is being denied by some.

My favorite character was Aibileen. She was a proud woman with much determination. My least favorite was Skeeter, as I felt she was could have stood up and confronted her peers, rather than letting the manner in which was raised dictate her actions. Hilly was just another of those disgusting bigots we have all heard about, and love to hate.

As I have not seen the movie yet, I can only go by what my newspaper had to say in their review. If in fact the reviews are accurate, it is unfortunate the movie dwells more on Skeeter and not the strong role Aibileen & Minnie played in the the scheme of things.

[TBF]

12. I haven't seen the movie - and won't after reading the reviews.

Sounds like they took the book and made it into something else. I saw Abileena and Minnie as the heroines in the novel, but it sounds like they were reduced to backdrop in the movie.

[Little Star]

42. Well it was good enough for Oprah & The White House..

Mediaite
By Frances Martel | 9:39 pm, August 10th, 2011


The film adaptation of The Help, a novel about the lives and tensions between Mississippi white women and their African American maids, debuts this weekend, and amides its release it has raised many questions and concerns about the way it portrays the lives of its black characters– though getting rave reviews from Oprah Winfrey and getting a screening at the White House. Tulane Professor Melissa Harris Perry was one of the skeptics, who watched a screening of the movie today to review for Lawrence O’Donnell and found it so bad she jokingly demanded workers’ compensation for having watched it.

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/melissa-harris-perry-breaks-down-the-help-ahistorical-and-deeply-troubling/


I read the book and it was excellent. I will be seeing the movie Monday evening with my daughters & my MIL.

Melissa Harris Perry (whom I adore) should have written her own book and told it in her way. There is no reason for her to bad mouth a book that sheds light on that time in our history. She could have easily told a story from her own point of view.

[chimpymustgo]

23. I read the book - appalling black dialect, cardboard characters who lacked any motivation for their

actions. It was a tough slog at 550+ pages. No wonder it got turned down 59 times by publishers.

It's a badly written book - and the racial slights and omissions render it utter garbage.

[Z_I_Peevey]

26. I agree.

I found it dreadful.

[Seedersandleechers]

34. I read the first chapter

and could not did not want to continue reading it. Not my kind of book.

[Missy Vixen]

27. I'll look forward to reading your book

Where might I find that? And, by the way, how many years has it been on the New York Times bestseller list?

I might also mention that the vast majority of successful authors find themselves with a large number of rejections. Stephen King's work was rejected fifty times before he published, for instance. A large number of rejections says nothing about quality of work, or lack of it. It says a lot about the courage and determination of an author.

Those who can't do themselves, criticize.

[Liberal_in_LA]

10. Saw a lifetime movie a few weeks ago that starred a black woman

It was about a black college woman who returns home to her recovering alcoholic mother. They work thru the hurts of the past (typical lifetime movie). The white character was the friend. I was shocked to see a movie with black women in the leads.

[Blasphemer]

18. Lifetime did the same with Lucy Liu in the tv-movie "Marry Me"

I don't often watch Lifetime but I love Lucy Liu and I was happy that they cast a minority actress when the part was obviously written for a white actress.

[hifiguy]

22. That was the first time I ever watched anything on Lifetime

and it was only because of my long-time crush on Lucy Liu. :loveya: It wasn't a bad little rom-com either and Lucy was excellent.

[loyalsister]

38. I would like to see one where the mother is successful

rather than a negative stereotype.

[helderheid]

31. It wasn't silly nor did it lack substance. You obviously didn't read it!

[proud2BlibKansan]

32. This book isn't any of those things

Why don't you read it before criticizing it?

[Warpy]

8. The book wasn't bad for a fantasy of what should have happened

but never did. That was a line that was never crossed and the maids were a lot more afraid to cross it than the employers were, although both were afraid.

I will not, however, watch the movie. The book was centered around the help. The movie will be centered around the authoress/heroine who exposes their exploitation. No thanks.

[spartan61]

9. I read the book and thought it was excellent.

It does painfully tell the story of the racial divide in the early 60s in Mississippi. Unfortuantely there are still people in our country with this same racial bias. (Case in point: the racial signs at the tea bagger rallies.)

I will probably see the movie, but I know that the movie is usually never as good as the book.

[chimpymustgo]

24. Please see Melissa Harris Perry's review and others - and reconsider the book and movie with these

insights.

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/melissa-harris-perry-breaks-down-the-help-ahistorical-and-deeply-troubling/

http://www.artscriticatl.com/2011/08/film-review-the-he... /

http://phillisremastered.wordpress.com/2011/08/11/choco... /

http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/...

[Curmudgeoness]

28. I don't really want to get into the fray, but I also loved the book

and have recommended it to others. I have not seen the movie yet, but I intend to. I can see some valid points made in these critiques, but I will not reconsider my opinion of this book based on other peoples' opinions. I do not look to others for what I should and should not like/think.

I do realize that the lives of black women doing domestic work in the 1960's were often worse than is portrayed. Often, but not always. I think that many black women did have these experiences and did not encounter rape or lynching. The book gave me a good example of how these women had to constantly bite their tongues, how they were always in fear of their jobs and for their families, how they were treated as robots who had no feelings, and how afraid they were. I thought that this was an excellent book to introduce or remind people that it has not been that long ago when this happened, and educate people about what that life was like.

[Brickbat]

13. This.

http://www.beforebarack.com/2011/07/28/sniffing-dirty-laundry-a-true-story-from-%E2%80%9Cthe-help%E2%80%99s%E2%80%9D-daughter/

[monmouth]

17. OMG, such a wonderful article. The comments are also wonderful. The

only way my aunts were able to leave Ireland and come here was that they were "in service" and the church spoke up for them...Old maids, chaste and hard workers were their attributes. My grandmother worked in the catholic school so that my mom and her sibs attended with little or no tuition. To compare my family's experience with that of the black women of the south...well, there just is non. Thanks for posting that. I loved it and sent on to my AA friend who I know will love it.

[Number23]

43. The comments are REALLY wonderful, aren't they?

And more than one person has reached the same conclusion as you, that though many groups have suffered, not all suffering is the same.

You said: To compare my family's experience with that of the black women of the south...well, there just is non.

and a comment from the article said:

While my Irish forebears came over and served as domestic help in New England, their experience is nothing like the experience of your relatives. I have compared them in the past, but will no longer, save to illustrate the point that the two experiences were worlds apart.

The black experience is truly unique in this country. It is distressing to see our pain forever used as the "benchmark of suffering" by every damn group in existence looking to gain a higher profile. Your post and that other post are encouraging.

[helderheid]

35. That was incredible!

[Number23]

40. Oh my God.

That article has just blown my mind. Blown it to pieces. Blam... it's gone.

As a black Southern woman, the first thing that came to my mind reading this was seeing the woman call the author's mother "Odessa" and my first thought was how disrespectful that was. Apparently, the author felt the same way.

"Have you ever thought about the fact that the woman you call ‘Odessa’ was the same woman my friends called ‘Mrs. Singley’?"

And it just got better and better and better.

"In my junior high class one day, we talked about how white folks insisted on being called “Mr. This” or “Mrs. That” while refusing to call black folks by anything except their first names."

Side note, do you know that this was the reason that Mr. T (from "The A Team") called himself that? He said that was the only way he could get white people to call him "Mr." And this was in the 1980's.

"So, the next time you visit Grandmommy’s grave, give her a message for me: Tell her Dr. Singley said, ‘Thank you.’”

I'm sitting here with a lump in my throat and pounding my fist on the table at the same time. Good Lord, thank you for posting that link. Thank you!

[Brickbat]

44. You're welcome! I had never heard that about Mr. T. That's amazing.

I can't imagine saying "she was like a mother to me" or "she loved us like her own children" without thinking of the children she might have had at home. And then being so embarrassed by that that I'd still say it. If it's someone's job to look after you, calling that "love" seems really odd, no matter how deep the feeling. And I have to say I've seen some of that right here on DU.

[LuvNewcastle]

14. I usually avoid books and films about racial relations

in the South. The main reason for that is because the subject is extremely complex and depends a great deal on where you are and where your family is (or was at one time) in the class structure. A 2-hour film or 500-page book isn't going to adequately explain all the little details that I think are important when approaching the subject. The character development is hardly ever done to my satisfaction in such works; the people just don't seem human enough. I might read the book one day if I have some spare time, but I'm pretty sure I won't see the movie. I think I would be nauseated by it.

[tanyev]

15. It depends who you are, I guess.

Here are some comments on the Dallas Morning News review:


I am so sick of "white folks are bad, black folks are good" EVERYTHING!

(Responding to another person's comment that they want to deny that racism ever happened)
No, not denying it. Am saying that our culture DWELLS on it incessantly because of political correctness, including as the subject of too many movies, plays, and musicals! I don't find the subject entertaining.

Really, "GET OVER IT". It's OK for minorities to make racist comments about "whites" (like George Lopez) and on the comedy channel and network TV, but if whites do it it's a "hate crime". The whiners that you see on TV nowadays are not even a part of the civil rights era! From what I've seen they don't have the eloquence or the courage that the baby boomers had but they whine incessantly and reap the benefits because of the "real" pioneer activists. Generation X and Y, shut yo' mouth!

http://www.dallasnews.com/entertainment/movies/reviews/20110809-the-help-b-.ece



Lovely, huh?

[readmoreoften]

19. I read similar comments in DU, only veiled.

[Little Star]

16. I loved the book and will be seeing the movie also.

Though I adore Melissa Harris Perry and respect Salon. I disagree with their review of both book and movie.

I think they are both looking at it through a narrow lens.

[Blasphemer]

20. "The Help" is in my summer reading queue

I hope to get to it soon. I'm not sure if I will bother with the movie. I am not surprised there is controversy. Hollywood likes to congratulate itself on its liberalism but when it comes to actors of color, it's all talk and no action. With so few good roles for these actors, it becomes tiresome when the roles that get the most attention are so stereotypical that they become cliche. I have been made to understand that Kathryn Stockett wrote the book based on her own experiences and did a great deal of historical research. Clearly, there was no malice involved on her part. The problem is Hollywood chooses to tell the same types of stories over and over again when it comes to the Black experience. This summer, "Jumping the Broom" did almost the same business domestically at the box office as "Something Borrowed" but the latter got far more attention. The budget for "Jumping the Broom" was a fifth of that for "Something Borrowed". There is little investment in actors of color. I've read that Viola Davis (who stars in "The Help") has her own production company. I hope that more and more actors develop their own projects because it's not coming from the top. A big problem with controversy such as that associated with "The Help" is that Hollywood executives use it as an excuse to not develop and promote films featuring Black actors. They don't look to the specifics of the criticism and just throw their hands up.

[bhcodem]

21. Saw the movie today.

After all the brouhaha, I wasn't sure what to think. I really enjoyed the movie (Hadn't read the book because I spend too much time reading DU to read books!) and everybody else in the very crowded theater seemed to like it as well...and it was a very racially mixed audience. Maybe it didn't treat the subject of the way black maids were treated in that era as seriously as Melissa Harris-Perry would have wanted, but it did give the audience an inkling of what they went through and certainly made one think about it. I considered the movie not to be a documentary but entertainment with a great message.

[proud2BlibKansan]

30. I thought the book was wonderful

Great read.

Haven't heard about any controversy.

[catzies]

33. Read the book, grew up in the South in the 60s, friends' moms were Junior Leaguers

But as far as Southern novels go, this rates well below others in the genre.

And as a period piece, well I'm sure the movie will illuminate some points more than others and I would like to see how it portrays the Jim Crow aspects.

[loyalsister]

41. Historical fiction

Useful, but a great American sin shouldn't be dressed up with the ugly glossed over.

If someone wants to begin to understand Black History through fiction they should read "Uncle Tom's Cabin."