Research Article


DOI :10.26650/CONNECTIST2021-804279   IUP :10.26650/CONNECTIST2021-804279    Full Text (PDF)

Gizli Sayılar, Harriet ve Düşmanların En İyisi Filmlerinde Bell Hooks ve Stuart Hall’un Görüşleriyle Siyahi Kadın Temsillerinin Okunması

Gül Yaşartürk

Hollywood sinemasında siyahi kadın temsilleri D.W Griffith’in Bir Ulusun Doğuşu filminden buyana, kölelik ve iç savaş dönemine ait stereotipleri sürdürmekte ve meşrulaştırmaktadır. Siyahi erkek karakterlerin özdeşleşme imkânı sunan özne konumunda yer almasına karşın; kadın karakterler; genellikle çeşitlilikten yoksun, tekrar eden klişelerle temsil edilirler. Çalışma kapsamında Gizli Sayılar (Theodore Melfi 2016), Harriet (Kasi Lemmons 2019) ve Düşmanların En İyisi (Robin Bissel 2019) adlı filmler temsil sorunsalı bağlamında; siyahi kadın karakterlere dair yerleşik stereotiplerin devamlılığının ve kadın karakterlerin özne konumunun sorgulanması amacıyla incelenmiştir. 2010 sonrası ana akım Hollywood sinemasına ait, siyahi kadınların hakları için mücadele veren siyahi kadın figürlerin hayatlarını konu edinen ve yaşanmış deneyimlerine, gerçek olaylara yer veren adı geçen filmlerin incelenmesinde, Bell Hooks’un Karşıt Bakış: Siyahi Kadın İzleyiciler adlı çalışmasında söz ettiği, sinemada arzulayan, aktif bakışa sahip siyahi kadının özne olarak yokluğuna dair görüşleriyle birlikte Stuart Hall’un farkın inşası ve klişeleştirme kavramlarıyla oluşturduğu temsil yaklaşımı kullanılmıştır. Filmlerin siyahi kadın karakter temsillerinde farkı doğallaştırmak ve sabitlemek için klişeleştirmeye başvurup vurmadıkları tartışılmıştır. Filmlerin üçünün ırksal farklılığın inşa edilen ve sabit olmayan bir içerik olduğunu ortaya koyduklarını, Düşmanların En İyisi dışındaki filmlerin siyahi kadınlara dair stereotipleri sorguladıklarını ve kadın karakterle özdeşleşmeye olanak sağlayan bir bakış ve özdeşleşme mekanizması kurduklarını söylemek mümkündür. 

DOI :10.26650/CONNECTIST2021-804279   IUP :10.26650/CONNECTIST2021-804279    Full Text (PDF)

Reading Representations of Black Women in the Films Hidden Figures, Harriet, and The Best of Enemies, through the Views of Bell Hooks and Stuart Hall

Gül Yaşartürk

Starting with D.W. Griffith’s film The Birth of a Nation (1915), black women representations in Hollywood films have been confined to the stereotypes of slavery and that of the Civil War period. While black male characters’ subject position allows identification, their female counterparts are often represented by repetitive stereotypes that lack variety. The study analyzed the films Hidden Figures (Theodore Melfi, 2016), Harriet (Kasi Lemmons, 2019), and The Best of Enemies (Robin Bissel, 2019) to understand such representative problems and question the continuity of established stereotypes in relation to black female characters and their subject position. The aforementioned films of the post-2010 mainstream Hollywood cinema depict the lives of black female figures fighting for black women’s rights, along with their experiences and real events. They were examined using the representational approach that Stuart Hall established through the concepts of “construction of difference” and “stereotyping,” as well as Bell Hooks’ views in The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators about the absence of black women who have a desire and an active mind as a subject in cinema. The paper also discusses whether the films resort to stereotyping in order to naturalize and maintain the difference in these representations and argues that all three films suggest that racial difference is a constructed and unfixed content, and that the films, except The Best of Enemies, question black women stereotypes, establishing a perspective and mechanism, that allows the audience to identify with these female characters.


EXTENDED ABSTRACT


Hollywood cinema continues to rely on stereotypes that emerged during the Civil War period and largely draws on slavery for the representations of black people, which can be largely attributed to D.W. Griffith’s film, The Birth of a Nation (1915). One of the most remarkable studies on this subject is Stuart Hall’s Spectacle of the Other, where he argues that Tom, Coon, tragic Mulatto, Mammy, and bad Buck are the stereotypes commonly used for representing black people. It is also essential to add Jezebel, Sapphire, and the insensitive Superwoman to the stereotypes listed by Hall. Blaxploitation films, which emerged in the 1970s, first placed mythical and later modern black male characters as the protagonist. On the other hand, black female characters were either overtly sexual or their sensuousness was the only point of interest. Since the 1980s, many black actors have played heroes or leaders in Hollywood films, whereas black actresses still play cookie cutter roles that make it difficult to tell one apart from another. Such representations construct them to either highly sexual or ridiculously unrealistic roles, where their characters lack any glimpses of drama, humor, or even wickedness. Therefore, it is not possible for spectators to witness their complex inner lives, leaving them feeling indifferent about the performance and unable to identify with it. Stereotypical representations of black women in cultural imagery were basically shaped during the Civil War and the period of slavery. As Angela Davis maintains, black women were associated with masculinity as they performed all kinds of heavy tasks, which affected their self-perception immensely. Looking at the 19th century as regards to feminine ideology, it can be argued that black women were considered an anomaly, a perspective that they internalized to appear more congruent with the myth of the “new woman.” Such angry masculine stereotypes about black women render their experiences, as well as their strong and ambitious personalities, invisible, whose effects Bell Hooks reveals on the process of watching films and identification. According to her, black women do not encounter black female characters on the silver screen who they can identify with. Especially in Hollywood films, the female character must be white in order to be deemed worthy of attention and desire, which leaves black female spectators unable to connect with them. Rather than being passive recipients of the film, they should question the images presented to them as entertainment, with a critical perspective. Even a contemporary figure, such as Michelle Obama, still appears in the media in connotations of negative representations that are associated with slavery. Thus, it is of significance that films involve representations of black women that are positioned as historical subjects, to positively affect black women in making themselves subjects of cinema. This study dealt with the films Hidden Figures, Harriet, and The Best of Enemies, which focus on the lives of black women who have shaped history, with a perspective presented by Angela Davis and Bell Hooks, and an approach that Stuart Hall created through the concepts of difference, construction of difference, and stereotyping. Through this, Hall set the framework for fundamentally suggesting that the representations of difference cannot be considered independently of power relations and that they are constructed, not fixed. Difference is created through representation and thus, must be fixed in order for the classification system of culture to continue. Hidden Figures reveals that difference is a result of the power relationship between black women and white men, showing that it is dialogic, not fixed, and can transform. The film has black female characters in the position of subjects, who are portrayed outside of stereotypes, whose inner worlds are accessible and thus, more relatable for the audience. Harriet shows that difference can alter according to the place and conditions in which we live, and that it is not fixed but constructed in the language; however, it repeats the stereotype of the superwoman with masculine features who accomplishes the impossible. It also offers spectators the opportunity to identify with the character who is positioned as a subject with a goal. The Best of Enemies shows that difference is constructed through space and language and that it is not fixed, but dialogic; on the other hand, it confines Ann Atwater to the angry black woman stereotype, robbing the audience of the opportunity to identify with her. 


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APA

Yaşartürk, G. (2021). Gizli Sayılar, Harriet ve Düşmanların En İyisi Filmlerinde Bell Hooks ve Stuart Hall’un Görüşleriyle Siyahi Kadın Temsillerinin Okunması. Connectist: Istanbul University Journal of Communication Sciences, 0(61), 279-307. https://doi.org/10.26650/CONNECTIST2021-804279


AMA

Yaşartürk G. Gizli Sayılar, Harriet ve Düşmanların En İyisi Filmlerinde Bell Hooks ve Stuart Hall’un Görüşleriyle Siyahi Kadın Temsillerinin Okunması. Connectist: Istanbul University Journal of Communication Sciences. 2021;0(61):279-307. https://doi.org/10.26650/CONNECTIST2021-804279


ABNT

Yaşartürk, G. Gizli Sayılar, Harriet ve Düşmanların En İyisi Filmlerinde Bell Hooks ve Stuart Hall’un Görüşleriyle Siyahi Kadın Temsillerinin Okunması. Connectist: Istanbul University Journal of Communication Sciences, [Publisher Location], v. 0, n. 61, p. 279-307, 2021.


Chicago: Author-Date Style

Yaşartürk, Gül,. 2021. “Gizli Sayılar, Harriet ve Düşmanların En İyisi Filmlerinde Bell Hooks ve Stuart Hall’un Görüşleriyle Siyahi Kadın Temsillerinin Okunması.” Connectist: Istanbul University Journal of Communication Sciences 0, no. 61: 279-307. https://doi.org/10.26650/CONNECTIST2021-804279


Chicago: Humanities Style

Yaşartürk, Gül,. Gizli Sayılar, Harriet ve Düşmanların En İyisi Filmlerinde Bell Hooks ve Stuart Hall’un Görüşleriyle Siyahi Kadın Temsillerinin Okunması.” Connectist: Istanbul University Journal of Communication Sciences 0, no. 61 (Mar. 2024): 279-307. https://doi.org/10.26650/CONNECTIST2021-804279


Harvard: Australian Style

Yaşartürk, G 2021, 'Gizli Sayılar, Harriet ve Düşmanların En İyisi Filmlerinde Bell Hooks ve Stuart Hall’un Görüşleriyle Siyahi Kadın Temsillerinin Okunması', Connectist: Istanbul University Journal of Communication Sciences, vol. 0, no. 61, pp. 279-307, viewed 29 Mar. 2024, https://doi.org/10.26650/CONNECTIST2021-804279


Harvard: Author-Date Style

Yaşartürk, G. (2021) ‘Gizli Sayılar, Harriet ve Düşmanların En İyisi Filmlerinde Bell Hooks ve Stuart Hall’un Görüşleriyle Siyahi Kadın Temsillerinin Okunması’, Connectist: Istanbul University Journal of Communication Sciences, 0(61), pp. 279-307. https://doi.org/10.26650/CONNECTIST2021-804279 (29 Mar. 2024).


MLA

Yaşartürk, Gül,. Gizli Sayılar, Harriet ve Düşmanların En İyisi Filmlerinde Bell Hooks ve Stuart Hall’un Görüşleriyle Siyahi Kadın Temsillerinin Okunması.” Connectist: Istanbul University Journal of Communication Sciences, vol. 0, no. 61, 2021, pp. 279-307. [Database Container], https://doi.org/10.26650/CONNECTIST2021-804279


Vancouver

Yaşartürk G. Gizli Sayılar, Harriet ve Düşmanların En İyisi Filmlerinde Bell Hooks ve Stuart Hall’un Görüşleriyle Siyahi Kadın Temsillerinin Okunması. Connectist: Istanbul University Journal of Communication Sciences [Internet]. 29 Mar. 2024 [cited 29 Mar. 2024];0(61):279-307. Available from: https://doi.org/10.26650/CONNECTIST2021-804279 doi: 10.26650/CONNECTIST2021-804279


ISNAD

Yaşartürk, Gül. Gizli Sayılar, Harriet ve Düşmanların En İyisi Filmlerinde Bell Hooks ve Stuart Hall’un Görüşleriyle Siyahi Kadın Temsillerinin Okunması”. Connectist: Istanbul University Journal of Communication Sciences 0/61 (Mar. 2024): 279-307. https://doi.org/10.26650/CONNECTIST2021-804279



TIMELINE


Submitted02.10.2020
Accepted07.01.2021
Published Online31.12.2021

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