Stereotypes of African American Women in Film - Essay Example

In film, the seductive and worldly imagery of the African American woman has endured. While more empowered positions have been created over time with race relations slowly repairing and providing for a less judgmental view on the African American woman, the films of the early twentieth century reveal the story of how she was viewed. Through the work of Lena Horne and Dorothy Dandridge, the stereotypes can be seen, but explored with a deeper complexity that was brought to the roles because of the presentations that Horne and Dandridge brought to their work.

In many ways, the work that was done by Lena Horne and Dorothy Dandridge broke some of the stereotypes that had been most prevalent about African American women. Horne stated of her position in Hollywood that “They didn’t make me into a maid…but they didn’t make me into anything else either. I became a butterfly pinned to a column singing away in Movieland” (Bogle, 2001, p. 127). She came across as wholesome a problem for the sex-object roles that she was given. Because of her nature, she was not seen as a “slutty” character, but was engaging as an alluring woman who flirted and teased, rather than performed acts that would diminish her nature.

She was elegant and poised, thus creating sophisticated presence. In this, her roles created a sense of broken stereotypes, the women she portrayed not the average that was promoted during her time. Horne’s portrayal of Georgia Brown in Cabin in the Sky never broke through to representing a woman of ill-repute. Bogle describes her work as “startling freshness and untainted wholesome beauty” from both Cabin in the Sky (1943) and Stormy Weather (1942). Her role in Stormy Weather, made her an “object of contemplation, rather than one of possession” (Bogle, 2001, p. 127). In Cabin in the Sky, she is positioned as an instrument of Lucifer, but she brings a complexity as she never fully slips into the state of a tainted woman.

In Stormy Weather, puts Horne in context with the music industry of the early 20th century. She represents an ambitious, but desirable woman who is seeking a career over love. This representation broke with the traditions of both women and African American women, her desires for something beyond an immediate gratification not a familiar stereotype. One of the problems with Cabin in the Sky was that it was set in a familiar type of fantastical setting in which there was an ideal ‘otherness’ in which African Americans lived.

This concept suggested that while their lives were separate, they did not suffer from segregation, but flourished in communities that were just out there somewhere (Bugle, 2001, p. 131). Where Cabin in the Sky created an unrealistic domestic space, Stormy Weather created a somewhat unrealistic professional space in which African Americans experienced their lives. The film was an example of wartime escapism, providing an unrealistic world in which to experience a diversion from the seriousness of the nature of life during the war.

Both of these films, however, were ground-breaking as they each had fully African American casts, the diversity of the roles within those films providing for a better exploration of African American life. Two roles that Horne greatly desired, ended up being given to Dorothy Dandridge. The role of both Carmen Jones (1954) and Jane Richards in Bright Road (1953) were given to Dandridge over Horne. Where Horne exuded a ‘