Brittany Liu's Blog #5 Oppression and Womanhood

The original French title of the film Black Girl translates into "someone's black girl."  Already the film targets the degradation and manipulation of someone regarding race and gender.  The lead character Diouana believes she will lead a better life for her and her family by working as a servant for a family in France, but unfortunately she is treated more like a slave.  The wife of the family is Diouana's foil character.  She embodies the original French title by treating Diouana as if she were a possession.  Diouana loses her identity in France, which is replaced by that "black girl."  Diouana's oppression from the wife is reflected in the mise en scene of the frames depicting her life in France.  The high contrast of her dark skin with her white dress show the tension between her and her white master, while the black polka dots on the dress represent Diouana's struggle to hold on to her identity.  The walls are even stark white and the floors have black stripes, perhaps guiding her away from this oppression.  Although Diouana and her master are two very different people, they share the limiting role of a woman as merely the caretaker and breeder.  When Diouana refuses to work, the white mother has to assume her role.  They are the creators and caretakers of the family: the core root of a nation and the strongest bond among humanity.  

A glimpse of the start of a family is seen in The Colored Museum during the "Permutations" scene.  Similar to Black Girl, oppression and assimilation are at the center of the performance.  The young girl has sexual relations with the garbage man, who represents the history of slavery, whom her mamma does not want her associating with.  She is punished and locked in a closet because she wants her to assimilate with the white supremacy.  The egg shell is a symbol of the white supremacy that the colored baby has to break free from in order to be born: to live freely.  Like the still of the baby that was projected in class, birth equates with life and freedom, but the umbilical cord is also a reminder that we are connected to our ancestors and sometimes that leads to immediate oppression.  The question is whether she will actually assimilate better with the nation by marrying a white man?  Similarly, in Black Girl Diouana took the job with the white family in search of glamor and power, but this made her more of an outcast and caused her much pain because her family was not with her.

In Imagined Communities Anderson rarely mentions the role of women in the creation of a nation. But what he does mention regards the arranged marriages between rulers and noblewomen or princesses (Anderson 76).  Women were merely the connectors for political gain.  In a way, the mother in "Permutations" also tries to arrange the young girl's marriage with oppression so that she can gain from society.  In Black Girl Diouana becomes "married" to the white family and in turn is oppressed to the point of death.  I don't believe Anderson intentionally gave little information on the role of women in forming a nation because when nations were forming a woman's role in society was not valued enough for him to write a whole chapter on them.  Thankfully, women have broken free from the stereotype of just the breeder and caretaker and I believe this is reflected in today's cinema, which features one of my favorites, Zero Dark Thirty.     
 
Here's a little side article I found on "Why Women in Hollywood Can't Get Film Financing"

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-02-21/why-women-in-hollywood-cant-get-film-financing#p1