Strange Days (1995)
In âWhite Privilege and Looking Relations: Race and Gender in Feminist Film Theory,â Jane Gaines examines black women at the intersection of many forms of oppression. She describes that for long women have been seen as an afterthought in terms of feminist analysis. When black women are included in this these analysis to showcase âdifferent perspectivesâ, while maintaining woman as the common denominator, âstill places the categories of race and sexual preference in theoretical limbo.â They are blind to the many implications of womanhood that is not white womanhood. The dominant female paradigm obscures the function of race, she writes, and they talk only about male dominance and female subordination. This, however, contrasts significantly with the black feminists who equally identify themselves in terms of race. They do not see the black male as a patriarchal antagonist, but rather black men share in the racial oppression with black women.
White film critics have universalized their theories of representations of women, while black women have been excluded from those very forms of representation.
In Strange Days (1995), Mace grounds Lenny in morality. Lenny and Mace never discuss their relationship in terms of their own racial identities nor is it implied in the storyâs progression. The narrative of a de-racialized romantic love dominates. Though the film in some ways lends itself to the tropes to black women being seen as nurturers, Mace challenges them through her confidence and strength. Maceâs character was neither victimized or as a comedic device. She was sexy but not objectified. Her blackness was one aspect of her, not her sole defining trait. In a scene when the car catches on fire, Maceâs badass is on full display. Lenny is sitting in the passenger scene frantic while Mace is in the driverâs calm and strategic. Mace drives the car into a river and leads them to safety. Â Katherine Bigelow doesnât seem to use Mace simply as an insertion of a black female character in order to check âinclusivenessâ off her moral check-list as Gaines suggested many white feminists do in their analyses. It is one of the more positive representations of black womanhood in cinema.
I also think Mace deviated from how black women characters are often shown by not being pigeonholed into a trope. Mace is a complex character; she is tough and capable while also being kind and compassionate. She frequently saves Nero from getting beaten up or killed and also has a son who she loves, demonstrated by her moving him into another home for the night for his own safety. I think Bigelowâs film proves that these traits are not contradictory but make for a realer and more interesting character.
Mace was seen as the strong character in the film. She was always the one comforting Lenny, she was the one who was rubbing his back and she was the only one who knew what to do. Mace was not seen as a woman of color that was just used showing inclusion but she was written as a character with depth and with actual plot. Katherine Bigelow did a very good Jon in representing a strong and in depth person of color.
