Popular Culture Review Vol. 10, No. 2, August 1999 | Page 49

Interrogating the Representation of
African American Female Identity
in the Films Waiting to Exhale and Set It Off
In the past twenty years or so, members of Western culture have become
consumed by a myriad of popular culture artifacts designed to entertain, educate,
or inform. Such artifacts as film, television, and theater are primary mediums
through which these needs are met. While the images constructed within these
mediums are created essentially for the purpose of entertaining, they are often
central to the (de)construction of race, class, and gendered identities. More spe
cifically, these images are critical in constructing and/or challenging lived reality
and perceptions of that reality.
Research has discovered the critical role the mass media play in shaping
our attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions; however, little inquiry has been made into
the dialectical tensions associated with racialized gender identities in cinema.
Victims of cinematic annihilation are African American women, whose cinematic
caricatures typically perpetuate and rarely challenge longstanding stereotypes as
cribed to them via film and television. These images of Jezebel, mammy, prosti
tute, maid, and welfare queen, among others, have adapted to the changing times;
however, they have only evolved into “sophisticated ghettoized” images of Afri
can American female identity.
Few would argue against the observation that popular culture has become
integral to life in America. Unfor tunately, limited discourse has evolved regarding
how film as a visual artifact articulates a dilemma for marginalized communities,
particularly the African American community. Social scientists have observed a
double standard in popular culture. While films and television programs that ap
peal to mainstream society give the opportunity to strictly entertain their audi
ences, a double standard exists to which African American television programs
and movies are held (Tucker, 1997; Inniss & Feagin, 1995; Merritt, 1991; Poussaint,
1988). Instead of solely “entertaining” for the sake of entertainment, which we
have come to assume is the goal of most Hollywood films, films featuring pre
dominately African American casts are expected to possess a moral fiber that pricks
our social consciousness. Whether it is to address racism, sexism, or classism within
a political framework, films that capture and express racialized experiences and
Blackness (Gray, 1996) are criticized as devaluing the very people they are em
bracing because the films fail to present an assimilated image of racial identity
within a Western framework.
In order to address this dialectical tension as it relates to racialized gender