Austin Lord

In “White Privilege and Looking Relations: Race and Gender in Feminist Film Theory,” 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 ‘different perspectives’, while maintaining woman as the common denominator, “still places the categories of race and sexual preference in theoretical limbo.” 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 the text “White Privilege and Looking Relations: Race and Gender in Feminist Film Theory” by Jane Gaines, Gaines talk about the feminist theory and the idea of how it portrays with the black women. It discusses the idea of “white feminism” and the lack of rights that black woman suffer under white feminist in film. In one part, Gaines talks about the idea of black woman having to choose between men and white feminist, allowing the reader to make the assumption of  that black woman are looked down upon also. In one quote, Gaines states “Racial conflict looms or recedes in this film rather like the perceptual trick in which, depending on the angle of view, one swirling pattern or the other popsout at the viewer.” Here, she is talking about the film Mahogany, A film that deals with race and white feminism. The quote talks about how in the film, race is like a background theme and depending on which angle you look, it shows you different sides. In the fiml Strange Days, the idea is the same. 

Strange Days is a film that revolves around Nero and Mace. Nero is an ex-cop who sells memories in the black market and Mace is his best friend. They discover a memory that allows them to witness teh brutal execution of a prominent black leader, Jeriko One. The movie does what Gaines states above, it allows race to be somewhat of a background story. While the movie shows Jeriko being an advocate for black rights, it does nt dive deep in the movie. The movie discusses the topic to build a plot device behind it and then doesnt do much with it. While the dystopian setting allows for the viewers to assume that Jeriko’s death will be revealed, the movie does not do that, never really getting ‘justice’ for Jeriko’s murders. One scene in particular, the one where Mace tells Nero that he cannot use the tape as leverage, we see how important the tape is to Mace, another black american. We see that she finds this tape more important that Faith and Nero, even herself. While the viewer is left wondering if she will reveal the tape to the public, we see that she just hands it of to the police, ending that plot once and for all.