Black Magic Woman and Narrative Film

Race, Sex and Afro-Religiosity

Montré Aza Missouri

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781349554515, 9781137454171
• eBook ISBN: 9781137454188
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Art General
• Index: Social Sciences

Black Magic Woman and Narrative Film examines the transformation of the stereotypical 'tragic mulatto' from tragic to empowered, as represented in independent and mainstream cinema. The author suggests that this transformation is through the character's journey towards African-based religions.

1

Womanism and Womanist Gaze

The introduction outlines arguments within cultural studies that are central to this research including questions of racial and cultural hybridity, Afro-religiosity and expressive culture, as well as the ‘tragic mulatto’ character and cinematic representations of ‘passing’. As previously discussed, the Black Magic Woman, a reversal of Hollywood’s ‘tragic mulatto’ as victim/whore, is a pivotal departure from the ‘othering’ position of black women in mainstream film. By attempting to resolve the ‘tragic mulatto’ issue of social alienation with an acceptance of ‘blackness’ in the form of African-based religions, Daughters of the Dust, Sankofa, Eve’s Bayou and I Like It Like That seek to transform the dominant images of race, sex and religion. In so doing, these films aim to present black women protagonists who possess socio-political and cultural agency. These productions further seek to challenge notions of American identity by constructing the Black Magic Woman, a female of mixed racial and cultural heritage, as a New World identity.

The following chapter details the theoretical framework for this research regarding notions of ‘womanism’, ‘womanist theology’ and the ‘womanist gaze’. In providing a critical underpinning for interpreting films in this book from a womanist perspective, this chapter places the research within the context of growing scholarship on representations of race, sex and religion in film. The first section, “Womanist and Womanism”, offers critical arguments on womanism, womanist theory and womanist film. The next section, “Womanist Masculinity”, furthers the discussion on womanist film with an analysis of womanist films beyond the boundaries of black women characters or black women directors. The two examples cited here—The Man by the Shore and Sugar Cane Alley—offer black male directors and black male subjects as evidence that authorship or characterisation in womanist film practice is not strictly biologically determined.

The subsequent section, “Womanist Spirituality and Sexuality”, examines both feminist and womanist theological discourses on black female sexuality, spirituality and the power of the ‘erotic’ as a meaningful theoretical space for deconstructing black women’s narratives. This section examines debates on two narratives central to womanist theory, Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God and Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, in exploring the interconnectedness of the sexual and spiritual awakening as a womanist rite of passage towards black female subjectivity.

The final section, “Womanist Gaze”, examines critical arguments on black female spectatorship, including those of bell hooks and Jacqueline Bobo, yet regards the ‘womanist gaze’ as defined by Mark A. Reid as having less to do with a set of moviegoers who share a biological determination and more of an historical body informed by the conventions of cinematic practice in terms of race and gender. It is argued in this section that the womanist gaze is an act of seeing that holds ‘spiritual significance’ to the womanist spectator in viewing womanist film, for such texts provide a transformative departure from the subjugation of personhood as normally experienced in viewing mainstream cinema.

Womanist and womanism

The term ‘womanism’ was first introduced by author Alice Walker in her collection of essays, In Search of Our Mothers’ Garden: Womanist Prose, in which starting from the period of slavery to the contemporary, she critically defines generations of feminist acts by ‘ordinary black women’ as womanist (1987:xi). Since that time, Walker’s essays along with her novel The Color Purple have formed the foundation for both womanism and womanist theory. In discussion with Marianne Schnall, Walker describes womanism as rooted in southern African American culture. She explains that “when you did something really bold and outrageous and audacious as a little girl, our parents would say, ‘You’re acting ‘womanish’” (Schnall, 2006).¹

According to Walker, the extraordinary experiences of African American women and their fight against physical and socio-economic enslavement have made them fully aware that they are ‘capable’ despite dominant notions of black female inferiority. Womanism has come to signify the struggle for liberation by black women and socio-politically marginalised women who feel that the term ‘feminism’ is so historically laden with racial and class bias that even now it cannot define the experiences and strides of women who were once excluded from the movement. Although Alice Walker explains that womanism is, in fact, ‘black feminism’ or feminism of colour, she argues that the use of term womanism is situated in the tradition of ‘ethnic-Americans’ creating new words when the old terminology does not fully define a change that only a new term can underscore (Schnall, 2006).

Again, Walker aligns womanism with feminism by stating “Womanist is to feminist as purple to lavender” (1987:xii). Yet, Walker stresses that the former places the experiences of African American and other ethnic minority women at the centre of critical understanding. As Gloria Steinem writes, “womanist and womanism helped give visibility to the experience of African American and other women of color who have always been on the forefront of movements to overthrow the sexual and racial caste systems, yet who have often been marginalized or rendered invisible in history texts, the media, and mainstream movements led by European American feminists or male civil rights leaders”.²

An awareness of the mainstream feminist movement’s inability to address the distinctive concerns of ethnic minority women, poor white women and lesbians has forged the reshaping of feminist thought in terms of the third wave of feminism, black feminism and womanism. These feminist yearnings by black women activists and scholars perhaps stand in contradiction to previously held perceptions within the mainstream feminist movement of black women and other ethnic minority women as ‘pre-feminist’ and unconcerned with the fundamental elements of feminist thought and politics.

Betty Friedan’s 1963 publication The Feminine Mystique marked the second wave of feminism by articulating the desires of college educated, middle-class white women to move beyond the traditional roles of wives and mothers in order to pursue their professional aspirations. Absent from Friedan’s argument is a focus on the needs of ethnic minority and poor white women, many of whom had no need for a manifesto on working outside of the home since for them, that was already a reality. Any social or political movements premised on such ideals did not speak to these women’s concerns. Instead, according to Joy James in “Radicalizing Feminism”, by the early 1970s, these women’s concerns led to the formation of The Combahee River Collective, a Boston-based black feminist group named after the South Carolina River where in 1863 former slave Harriet Tubman, working with Union Troops, forged a military campaign to free more than 700 slaves during the American Civil War (2000:241–242).

The Combahee River Collective not only stressed the importance of black women’s liberation but also emphasised the vital role of black lesbians in the black feminism movement and the necessity of eliminating heterosexism in the black community. Within The Combahee River Collective manifesto, the organisation recognised the common links black feminism shares with the second wave of feminist ideology of espoused the “personal is political” stance for American women (2000:265). Likewise, the organisation acknowledged the obvious connection between black feminism and the black liberation movement and its focus on antiracism. However, the manifesto defines the black feminist presence on its own terms, arguing the failing of both mainstream feminism and black nationalism in addressing the experiences and needs of black women. The manifesto’s authors, Barbara Smith, Beverly Smith and Demita Frazier, described the philosophy of the organisation and in so doing, helped to define black feminist thought:

[O]ur politics initially sprang from a shared belief that black women are inherently valuable, that our liberation is a necessity not as an adjunct to somebody else’s but because of our need as human persons for autonomy. This may seem so obvious as to sound simplistic, but it is apparent that no other ostensibly progressive movement has ever considered our specific oppression a priority or worked seriously for the ending of that oppression. Merely naming the pejorative stereotypes attributed to black women (e.g., mammy, matriarch, Sapphire, whore, bulldagger), let alone cataloguing the cruel, often murderous, treatment we receive, indicates how little value has been placed upon our lives during four centuries of bondage in the Western Hemisphere. (1995:234)

According to Patricia Hill Collins, “Black women’s everyday acts of resistance challenge … interpretations [that] suggest that oppressed groups lack the motivation for political activism because of their flawed consciousness of their own subordination” (2000:184). This type of black feminist activism has sought to empower everyday black women by giving voice to their lived experiences as well as informing Walker’s notions of womanist and womanism. According to Walker, womanism encompasses humanist qualities that stress the complementary relationship between men and women, rather than a separatist approach based on gender. This emphasis on a harmonious coexistence between genders alongside a fight against oppression of all kinds including racism, sexism, classism and heterosexism, is imperative. However, at the heart of womanism is the validation of the ‘everyday’ experiences of black women and other socio-politically marginalised women.

Discussing womanist theory, Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan insists that it is “a field of study, a way of thinking … that takes seriously the exposure, analysis and transformation of societal and personal injustices and oppressions that affect those who usually matter least in society, as symbolized by poverty-stricken black women” (2006:177). As with womanism, womanist theory is preoccupied with elevating the experiences of everyday black women and those of other marginalised groups as an epistemology. In “Who’s Schooling Who? Black Women and the Bringing of Everyday into Academe”, Phillips and McCaskill argue that the guiding force of a womanist theoretical approach is “the absolute necessity of speaking from and about one’s own experiential location” instead of on behalf of someone else’s experiences. Philips and McCaskill explain:

Black women’s scholarship has placed Black women and their experiences at the center of analysis just like traditional White men’s scholarship has placed White men and their experiences at the center of analysis; the crucial difference is that Black women’s scholarship has articulated and owned the centering, whereas traditional White men’s scholarship has not. Black women’s scholarship does not parade as universal, but rather it emanates from a point of acute authenticity and invites others to participate in a similar, equally authentic, process. (1995:1010–1011)

Further articulating a process of knowledge-production that places black women’s experience at its core, Patricia Hill Collins argues for an “Afrocentric feminist epistemology”. Collins expands on sociological concepts of ‘both/or’ orientation in framing the ‘dialectics of black womanhood’, the phenomenon of black women standing within the group yet simultaneously outside of the group, thus rendering a multiplicity of realities and identities (2000:196). This notion of multiple identities is of particular significance in our discussion of the Black Magic Woman as examined in detail within this text. However, by fusing Afrocentric and feminist thoughts as a basis for knowledge validation, Collins suggests that African American women’s shared cultural and historical links with other African Diasporas in the western hemisphere and on the African continent informs an epistemological approach to critical study.

In his essay “Dialogic Modes of Representing Africa(s): Womanist Film”, Mark A. Reid suggests that womanist film thematically distinguishes itself from, yet speaks to the concerns of white feminist and pan-Africanist audiences as “two ‘interested’ spectatorial groups” (1991:375). He argues that womanist film is a rejection of “raceless feminism” and “phallocentric pan-Africanism”, while both white feminist and black nationalist audiences draw varying interpretations and, at times, criticism for these films (375). According to Reid, white feminists view womanist films as having a pre-feminist stance and question the validity of the feminist label being attached to such productions. Similarly, Pan-Africanists perceive womanist film’s critique of black patriarchy as an attack on black manhood and the black liberation struggle.

Alternatively, Reid argues that Pan-Africanists hail womanist films for themes of racial struggle while mainstream feminists acknowledge womanist films’ critique of patriarchal systems. Therefore, the same cinematic approach is appropriated by both groups however within a limited scope, so as to associate ‘blackness’ with ‘manhood’ and ‘womanhood’ with privileged ‘whiteness’. Reid acknowledges that the patriarchal gaze is not biologically determined and that both male and female viewers can take on this viewing position. However, Reid recognises that the black womanist reading of such film texts moves beyond the ‘female-phallic position’, while black womanist film production suggests a reconfiguration of the Pan-Africanist community and ideology which gives way for social and political alternatives to the male-identified black movements (384).

Considering differences in feminist and black cinematic aesthetics regarding womanist film, Reid quotes filmmaker Kathleen Collins: “there is a Black aesthetic among black women filmmakers. Black women are not white women by any means; we have different histories, different approaches to life, and different attitudes. Historically, we come out of different traditions; sociologically, our preoccupations are different” (1991:386). Ultimately, Reid concludes that these differences shape “black womanist film” which he defines as “(1) the narrative content which constructs black womanist subjectivity and (2) the various processes by which an audience might receive the narrative’s construction of this subjectivity” (376). What sets womanist film apart is how it frames black female subjectivity centrally in its production and reception as well as how these two factors interplay. Reid is careful to point out that not all films by black women directors are defined as ‘black womanist film’; rather “black womanist film results from imaginatively representing the socio-psychic and socio-economic experiences of African and African diasporic women” (376).

It is also important to remember, as Reid suggests that not all films with black female protagonists are womanist films. Further, I would argue that films directed by those other than black women should not be excluded from a discussion of womanist film. Instead, I contend that womanist film is more concerned with black female subjectivity and womanist sensibilities that address issues of social injustice on various fronts than with authorship. Further, regardless of the director, black women characters presented in womanist films should possess womanish attributes. These womanish qualities include a (1) compassion for humanity, (2) recognition of the necessity for harmonious relationships between men and women, (3) willingness to fight oppression of any kind through ‘everyday’ actions as protest and (4) the ability to imagine alternative social, political and economic possibilities beyond the oppressive forces of the dominant society.

Further, I would contend that a central theme of womanist film is an emphasis on spirituality, particularly Afro-religiosity, as it informs the narrative, characterisation and/or aesthetic. Moreover, Afro-religiosity is represented in ‘coming-of-age’ narratives in which a main character undergoes a rite of passage. This emphasis specifically on representing Afro-religiosity plays a key role in crafting the visual style of womanist film. In her discussion on Zeinabu irene Davis, Gwendolyn Audrey Foster examines Cycles (1989), a short film about a young woman’s anxiety waiting for her menstrual cycle. This shared women’s experience is framed within the realm of ritual, incorporating Yorùbá orisha’s music and imagery. Foster again recognises in this work and Davis’ Mother of the River (1995) the director’s intention to connect her audience to the Afro-religious expressions of black women (1997:21).

In Spirituality as Ideology in Black Women’s Film and Literature, Judylyn S. Ryan suggests that spirituality is of importance in “renewing self-possession”, which she regards as the central focus of black women’s film. Ryan contends that renewing self-possession “focuses on the characters whose control of their images and self-definitions is restored” and that it extends to viewers—especially, but not exclusively, Black people/women viewers. Both processes are assisted by a (narrative) reliance on spirituality (2005:122).

Ryan envisions the role of a black woman filmmaker as that of a “priestess” doing her spiritual conjuring by articulating the interconnectedness between the individual and her community. Ryan recognises the role of Afro-religiosity in this process in terms of what she calls “New World African religions” as examples of religious/cultural hybridity and “traditional African religions” both holding positions of centrality within the transformative themes in black women’s narratives, to be interpreted through a “paradigm of resistance” (2005:11). Although this research builds on Ryan’s work in examining womanist narratives and spiritual transformation, this work goes even further into the decoding of cinematic texts based specifically on Afro-religiosity.

As previously discussed in this research and as Ryan’s work points out, Afro-relig...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction – From ‘Tragic Mulatto’ to Black Magic Woman: Race, Sex and Religion in Film
• 1 Womanism and Womanist Gaze
• 2 Beauty as Power: In/visible Woman and Womanist Film in Daughters of the Dust
• 3 Passing Strange: Voodoo Queens and Hollywood Fantasy in Eve’s Bayou
• 4 I’ll Fly Away: Baadasssss Mamas and Third Cinema in Sankofa
• 5 Not Another West Side Story: Nuyorican Women and New Black Realism in I Like It Like That
• 6 It Is Easy Being Green: Disney’s Post-Racial Princess and Black Magic Nostalgia in The Princess and the Frog
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Filmography
• Bibliography
• Index