In recent months, the movie The Help made over $148.7 million in Box Office sales since it hit theaters mid-August. With a star-studded cast and a bright light on an otherwise dreary and misinterpreted story, The Help is without a doubt on its way to the Golden Globes.
The Help’s story is about a young southern white woman named Skeeter (Emma Stone) who comes home from college with dreams of becoming a writer. To her dismay, she discovers that her beloved maid and nanny, Clementine (Cicely Tyson), is gone, while also seeing increasingly difficult positions that black maids were forced into involving their white counterparts.
With hopes of becoming a writer and missing Clementine, she sets out to write a book about the experiences of black maids in the south. With the help of black maids Aibileen (Viola Davis) and Minnie (Octavia Spencer), who risk their lives in assisting her write a book on their experiences, Skeeter gets a first-hand perspective on the black maids’ hardships.
Colleges, universities and women-led groups around the country have gotten to- gether to discuss and criticize the main ideas and viewpoint of the book-turned-movie. The movie was originally a book (with the same title) by Kathyrn Stockett that became a bestseller in 2009.
The Feminist Collective at NEIU collaborated with professors Sharon Gore and Kate Kane from the communication, media and theatre department for a “right-on” discussion about the film. The president of the Feminist Collective, Brenda Rodriguez and professor Laurie Fuller led the round table discussion.
Of the many topics discussed, male bashing, male absence, sisterhood versus racism and white/black feminism were brought to light. One issue pointed out was that the movie ultimately became one in which the audience watched mostly about white women’s experiences and how it did not give enough information on the experiences of the black maids.