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Popular Culture Review
Inextricably related to her exoticism is a plant that is generally associated with
jungle terrain or rain forests. Thus, Dandridge’s desirability is constructed not only
by her physical appearance but also by the selection and positioning of objects in
the photo; Dandridge appears to be stepping foiward from the shadows of an exotic
plant. Unfortunately, Dandridge internalized this gaze and these effects and projected
them onto herself, thus inviting her own death; a death that is presaged in this
photo.
Dandridge internalized the gaze; however, she found being constructed
to convey desirability a problem because she still thought her desirability was
subverted because of her blackness. Richard Dyer argues that only whiteness can
convey desirability and more specifically blonde white females (42). Applying
this to Dandridge, although she was constructed to convey desirability because of
her sexuality, she was rejected because of her blackness. Recognizing this intensified
her desire to capitulate to whiteness. Fanon contends that ‘'All these frantic women
of color in quest of white men are waiting...they will become aware, one day, that
‘white men do not marry black women.’ But they have consented to run this risk;
what they must have is whiteness at any price” (49). And indeed, Dandridge,
reflecting on her life as she had engaged in futile relationships with white men,
acknowledged her obsession, stating, “Hell bent on marrying a white man, I don’t
know what 1 wanted to prove” (192). Fanon argues that ego-withdrawal could
conceivably help to disrupt this pattern of behavior but is not useful for blacks,
since they require white approval. He added, “They must have white men,
completely white, and nothing else will do,” and once this symbol of whiteness is
obtained, the black woman is metamorphosized; “she [is] white. She [is] joining
the white world” (57-8). Returning to the photo, I see Dandridge’s obsession with
white men again inscribed in the positioning of her body, while her face, nose, and
breasts all point in one direction toward the brilliance of the light, which can be
equated with her desire for whiteness. The shadows created by the light cast darkness
on the part of her body that remains stationary. Thus she has shielded part of her
body, representing her flight from blackness. Even the positioning of the body, as
Dandridge appears off-frame, is in direct opposition to the way Americans
customarily read — from left to right. Dandridge’s position disrupts our traditional
eye movement.
The photo represents Dandridge as an African American woman who has
been characterized as “Other,” a photo in which the configurations of race and
sexual constructions have been transfigured. Lowering a scrim over these
configurations, Dandridge complexified her image, transforming it from simply
“Other” to “Inappropriate Other,” and later inviting death. In conclusion, therefore,
this photo is a representation o f D andridge’s death. Dandridge actually
foreshadowed this at one point, reflecting on her predisposition for self-destruction: