Off of this weeks reading, we take a better look at the viewership of blacks in film and open up the discussion of how black work is being viewed through Bell Hooks article "The oppositional gaze." First we take a look at the background of how people viewed blacks in film. As stated in Hooks article black works were viewed as being lesser quality because it was thought that a white persons film wasn't good enough so it became a black persons film back in the day. "Since they came into being in part as a response to the failure of white-dominated cinema to represent blackness in a manner that did not reinforce white supremacy, they too were critiqued to see if images were seen as complicit with dominant cinematic practices." Peoples first reactions to these were not great. To tag off of the discussions we had a couple weeks ago about women in works of art Black women in films were represented as "objects of male gaze" so not only were the blacks not viewed in the best way but the female blacks were viewed even worse. Only recently have there been more voice from black females in the film world. By not saying anything you are intentionally saying it's ok, I think only within the last decade and now due to events over the course of this year are more blacks and especially female blacks will and ready to give you their opinion about how they are being viewed in films and their rolls.
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