film Q&As
sharon1997
MicheleWallace.pptxMichele Wallace
“Spike Lee and Black Women”
Michele Wallace
Michele Wallace builds upon Toni Cade Bambara’s critique of Lee’s sexism. She demonstrates how Greg Tate’s celebration of She Gotta Have It (1986) does not acknowledge any of its gender problems and sexism. She notes that within Tate’s framework, “women emerged only as also-rans in this numerous lists of who’s getting it right.” (24)
She views Melvin Van Pebbles as a problem because of his film, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971).
Michele Wallace
Wallace’s examines She’s and feels that “Nola seems less a character than a dark continent to be explored and conquered. Although she addresses the camera directly, her language seems inane and self-canceling.” (26)
Nonetheless, she still was eager to see what Lee would do next.
Michele Wallace
Wallace argues that the women in the film “take no apparent interest in either politics or culture except as passive consumers.” This is similar to Bambara’s view of the females in the film.
Wallace posits that the options for Black women in the dance sequence, Scarlett O’Hara or Mammy are actually “neither/nor.” (27)
Michele Wallace
Wallace observes when she saw the film, she felt the audience read the female characters based on colorism; the Gamma Rays were celebrated while the Jigaboos were ridiculed.
She mentions the rape as a “dastardly deed” and how Jane is tricked; this is in contrast to Bambara.
Wallace has a provocative question about Lee’s characters from She’s to Daze, “are we interpret his progress from playing ‘the man who makes her laugh to playing the rapist by popular demand?” (29)
