A writer over at Popeater asks the question:”Can an overweight African American woman be successful as a leading lady in the movie business?”
The writer is of course talking about Academy Award nominee, Miss Gabourey Sidibe and he wonders if Hollywood will ever rise to the challenge of doing more films that feature overweight Black women.
Right out the box, I’m going to tell you that I have not seen the movie “Precious” nor do I plan to see it. Why? Because I have this thing about watching movies that make me want to slit my wrists at the end for all the depression I had to experience for 90+ minutes (Thirteen, Native Son, etc.). I have no doubt that Gabby did an outstanding job in that movie and I do not doubt her acting abilities. What I do know is that beyond all the accolades, the over the top praises about how beautiful she looked is an undercurrent of truth: Hollywood wouldn’t dare produce more films that feature overweight women PERIOD (unless their weight is part of the storyline).
When radio shock jock Howard Stern said what he did regarding Gabby, people from all corners of the web came to her defense in the same manner as we did for Haiti (a small, poor country nobody really cared about until the earthquake hit it. Suddenly, it’s our duty to defend Haiti against any and all critics). Stern may have been way over the top with the rest of his comments, he was one of the rare ones out there who was bold enough to tell the truth in the midst of pure phoniness. While Stern was slammed for being insensitive and a racist, commenters over at mediatakeout had no problem saying some of the same things.
Let’s be honest here for a minute. The moment Hollywood begins featuring full Black women on a regular basis, there will be an outcry of racism coming from us because “Why do they always have feature a big Black woman? All these fine Black sistahs out here that are slim and the only ones they can focus on are big, Black women.” Hollywood may be the open-minded liberal oasis, but in the end it is all about sales. And they are not going to take a risk on something they know will get that kind of feedback.
Gabby is not the one who should feel too ashamed to look at mirror. In fact, she has a whole lot to be proud of. It is those of us who will not be honest about what we prefer to see on the big screen. And it isn’t just great acting.
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No, It Will Not Work And I Will Tell You Why
by Duane on March 18th, 2010 at 2:50 pmA writer over at Popeater asks the question:”Can an overweight African American woman be successful as a leading lady in the movie business?”
The writer is of course talking about Academy Award nominee, Miss Gabourey Sidibe and he wonders if Hollywood will ever rise to the challenge of doing more films that feature overweight Black women.
Right out the box, I’m going to tell you that I have not seen the movie “Precious” nor do I plan to see it. Why? Because I have this thing about watching movies that make me want to slit my wrists at the end for all the depression I had to experience for 90+ minutes (Thirteen, Native Son, etc.). I have no doubt that Gabby did an outstanding job in that movie and I do not doubt her acting abilities. What I do know is that beyond all the accolades, the over the top praises about how beautiful she looked is an undercurrent of truth: Hollywood wouldn’t dare produce more films that feature overweight women PERIOD (unless their weight is part of the storyline).
When radio shock jock Howard Stern said what he did regarding Gabby, people from all corners of the web came to her defense in the same manner as we did for Haiti (a small, poor country nobody really cared about until the earthquake hit it. Suddenly, it’s our duty to defend Haiti against any and all critics). Stern may have been way over the top with the rest of his comments, he was one of the rare ones out there who was bold enough to tell the truth in the midst of pure phoniness. While Stern was slammed for being insensitive and a racist, commenters over at mediatakeout had no problem saying some of the same things.
Let’s be honest here for a minute. The moment Hollywood begins featuring full Black women on a regular basis, there will be an outcry of racism coming from us because “Why do they always have feature a big Black woman? All these fine Black sistahs out here that are slim and the only ones they can focus on are big, Black women.” Hollywood may be the open-minded liberal oasis, but in the end it is all about sales. And they are not going to take a risk on something they know will get that kind of feedback.
Gabby is not the one who should feel too ashamed to look at mirror. In fact, she has a whole lot to be proud of. It is those of us who will not be honest about what we prefer to see on the big screen. And it isn’t just great acting.
Sphere: Related Content