Seldom
do I see my image anywhere, especially portrayed in non-stereotypical
and non-heterosexist ways on the silver screen. As
a matter of fact, if you google “black lesbians” or “black
lesbians in film” you’ll get a plethora of porn sites to
visit.
But writer-director
Des Rees’s semi-autobiographical coming-of-age drama, “Pariah”
gives me a glimpse of my younger self, growing up in Brooklyn.
“Pariah,’’
is about, Alike (ah-LEE-kay), a virginal 17-year-old African American lesbian high school
student living in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn who
doesn’t know how to come out to her parents, who’s eager
to have her first sexual experience, and who’s not sure
of the type of butch lesbian she wants to be - “soft stud”,
AGs - “Aggressive Lesbians,” a subculture of young butch
lesbians who adopt a gangster hip-hop persona to complete
for femme women, or something totally different.
“Alike
knows that she loves women; that’s not the question. The
question is ‘how to be,’“ Rees told the Boston Globe.
“And so, in my own struggle, a large part of my question
was how to be in the world.”
One of the ways of defining
how to be in the world, especially for high schoolers, is
through clothes. But with a mother, Audrey (Kim Wayans),
who demonstrates zero tolerance for her daughter’s non-gender
conforming ways, especially exhibited by Alike’s taste for
non-frilly femme attire, we see Alike forced to be a gender
chameleon - changing into her butch togs going to school
and out of them going home.
“Pariah” wouldn’t be
an authentic black coming-out tale if religious homophobia
didn’t show its countenance on someone. And Audrey is that
person.
With
the hopes of her shy tomboyish daughter blossoming into
a more socially friendly and feminine girl, Audrey convinces
a churchgoer that their daughters, who are in the same class,
walk to school together for safety reasons. And not surprising
to those of us of the Black Church, Alike’s first sexual experience
is with the churchgoer’s daughters.
To
find antecedents or self-reflections of yourself, especially
in American films, is difficult, which is why “Pariah’s”
title and theme of portraying black lesbian life, albeit
marginalized in both African American church and white LGBTQ
communities, in a positive and realistic light is thoroughly
refreshing.
Occasionally,
however, we will see present-day portrayals of black lesbians
on major television channels and in major movie house across
the country, but not by out black lesbians.
For
example, in the 2009 film, “Precious,” Paula
Patton plays Ms. Blu Rain, a lesbian teacher that helps
Precious (Gabourey Sidibe) to embrace her life’s worth and her sexuality. Patton
inspires Precious to learn to read, and
to write, giving her a daily writing assignment that eventually
leads Precious coming into her own. And with Patton understanding
both the NY welfare system and the NY Public School system,
she is portrayed in the film as both an intellectual and
activist who’s not going to let Precious fail or fall under
her watch.
Another
example, in 1996, we have Queen Latifah’s spot-on portrayal
of a butch lesbian in the movie “Set It Off,” that, of course,
set off a conflagration of queries about her sexual orientation.
Last summer, Latifah’s character on the show “Single Ladies”
- which she executive produces - was accidentally outed,
and it worked out in a positive way for the character. Viewers
and the blogosphere began to speculate that Latifah was
channeling her personal life through her small-screen character.
But films written and
directed by women of color that reach the major silver screen
are rare, and by LBTQ women of color it’s even rarer. The
last time I saw a film written and directed by a LBTQ woman
of color that reached the level of mass distribution and
international acclaim as “Pariah” was sixteen years ago.
In 1996, Cheryl Dunye wrote, directed and starred in her
first film “The Watermelon
Woman,”
which was also the first African American lesbian feature
film.
Dunye’s “mockumentary”
is a scathing critique of the racist cinematic representation
of black women. The protagonist of the film, played by Dunye,
makes a film about an obscure black actress from the 1930’s
known for playing stereotypical “mammy” roles relegated
to black actresses during that era. In this faux-cinema-verite
account of a black lesbian filmmaker uncovering the hidden
histories of black women lives - straight and LBTQ - controversial
cultural critic, Camille Paglia,
makes a cameo appearance informing Dunye that the Mammy archetype,
once represented a black goddess figure.
And unbeknownst to the
general public, 20 feature films have been directed by black
lesbians since Dunye’s “The Watermelon Woman.” Dunye’s mockumentary
came out during the height of black queer cinema, from 1991
- 1996, dubbed the “Golden Age,” where black lesbians’ films
were predominately documentaries seen unfortunately by small
audiences.
“That was the period
of time when we had the most women producing the widest
variety of work.” Approximately 50 percent of all work produced
was made during that five-year time period. Very little
work is being produced today by out black lesbian media
makers. So
maybe Dee Rees is part of the trend of the mainstreaming
of niche content that we see happening across all media
platforms,” African American lesbian filmmaker, Yvonne Welbon,
founder and director of Sisters in Cinema, told
The Root reporter Salamishah Tillet.
It’s my hope that “Pariah”
will be part of the trend of the mainstreaming of niche
content. Black lesbian cinematic representation is long
overdue.
BlackCommentator.com
Editorial Board member, the Rev. Irene Monroe, is a religion
columnist, theologian, and public speaker. She is the Coordinator of
the African - American Roundtable of the Center for Lesbian and
Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry (CLGS) at the Pacific
School of Religion.
A native of Brooklyn,
Rev. Monroe is a graduate from Wellesley College and Union
Theological Seminary at Columbia University, and served
as a pastor at an African - American church before coming
to Harvard Divinity School for her doctorate as a Ford Fellow.
She was recently named to MSNBC’s list of 10 Black Women You Should Know. Reverend Monroe is the author
of Let Your Light Shine Like a Rainbow Always: Meditations on Bible
Prayers for Not’So’Everyday Moments. As an African
- American feminist theologian, she speaks for a sector
of society that is frequently invisible. Her website
is irenemonroe.com.
Click here
to contact the Rev. Monroe.
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