My Precious

Both of these pieces were definitely, um, interesting to read - especially Alienation's blog post, "What if Black Women Were White Women?", which I felt was both drastic and reasonably argued. It seems that Alienation focuses more on stereotypes as they exist in general American culture, while bell hooks analyzes various media texts in order to prove the point that "popular culture provides countless examples of black female appropriation and exploitation of "negative stereotypes" to either assert control over the representation or at least reap the benefit of it" (65).

Over the weekend, I saw the movie Precious, and realized that the film addresses some of Alienation's musings. Throughout the film, the audience gets a glimpse into what Precious is thinking about, which includes her deepest ambitions. In one specific example (which doesn't give anything away, I promise) Precious is shown getting ready for school, brushing her hair in front of the mirror. As she is looking into the mirror, the reflecting image turns into that of a conventionally beautiful white woman with long blonde hair and a wide smile on her face. Precious smiles back as if she is imagining herself as having these aspirational qualities.


Above: A Pensive Precious

For me, this particular scene was pretty powerful in the movie. But I guess that pretty much all of the scenes were powerful. Anyways, this part specifically demonstrates the unequal of the black female image with that of the white female. I feel like Alienation is simply pointing out some of the more minor effects of dominant ideologies that most don't really consider, or want to consider.