Women of Blaxploitation: How the Black Action Film Heroine Changed American Popular Culture

282 Pages·2006·8.24 MB·English

by  Yvonne D. Sims

Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction
1. Reshaping African American Femininity. Mammy Aunt Jemima
Sapphire and Action Heroine
2. Cultivating the Seed
3. Here Comes the Queen
4. Call Me Cleo
5. Love That Woman and Watch the Dynamite
6. The End of Blaxploitation
7. Aliens Terminators and Outlaws. The Mainstreaming of the Action
of Heroine
8. Metamorphosis of the Black Action Heroine
Epilogue
Selected Filmography
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index of Terms
Women of
Blaxploitation
HOW THE BLACK ACTION
FILM HEROINE CHANGED
AMERICAN POPULAR CULTURE
Yvonne D. Sims
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
All photographs are from Photofest.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Sims, Yvonne D., 1969–
Women of blaxploitation : how the black action film heroine changed American
popular culture / Yvonne D. Sims.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-7864-2744-4
ISBN-10: 0-7864-2744-2
1. Blaxploitation films—United States—History and criticism. 2. African
American women heroes in motion pictures. I. Title.
PN1995.9.N4S56 2006
791.43'652208996073—dc22 2006022231
British Library cataloguing data are available
©2006 Yvonne D. Sims. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by
any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publisher.
Cover photograph: Pam Grier as Foxy Brown, 1974, ©MGM/Photofest
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
For my parents,
Clarence and Rosetta Goodwin Sims
Acknowledgments
Pardon the cliché, but this project really has been a labor of love. Under the best
circumstances, writing can be laborious and made more difficult by outside
demands that sometimes require so much energy that one wonders if there is
enough left at the end of the day to come home and write. However, thanks to
inner strength, a lot of drive and the aid of the individuals named here, I found
the energy to write—not an easy task, but a necessary task to fulfill an objective,
but more importantly, my dream. The actual process of writing is indeed a
solitary one, but many people have played an integral role in shaping this book.
My parents, Clarence and Rosetta Goodwin Sims, have always been there for
me; they know how important this project is and have seen me in various stages
as I worked on this text. They have been so incredibly supportive of all my
endeavors, and I am pleased that they are here to see this book come to fruition.
I have been extremely fortunate to have two individuals who lent their ears, eyes
and shoulders. The first, Kristine Hartvigsen, provided extensive feedback on
several chapters. During my too-many periods of self-doubt about the project,
her reassurance was comforting. She has been there at every stage of the book
and I am not sure if words can express the deep gratitude I have for Kristine. If
there were a title that could describe her involvement in this project, I would call
it contributor in the sense that she furnished so much feedback that saying I am
grateful does not fully convey my appreciation. In academe, she would be
considered a research assistant, but even that title is not quite apt for in addition
to research, she has served as a coach, urging me on and, many times, reassuring
me that this was doable. The second, Farida Cassimjee, provided so much highly
useful commentary and also operated as a motivator, particularly during the final
stages of the project when angst and pressure were building. I offer Kristine and
Farida my gratitude, but somehow that simply doesn’t seem enough so this
project is as much for them as it is for me since we are all sisters of the cinema.
The Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study was extremely helpful in
locating archival material. I would like to express my gratitude to the entire staff,
but particularly Janet Lorenz for researching many insightful articles containing
interviews with the actresses of blaxploitation. A film book is incomplete
without stills and I want to thank Photofest for allowing me to use their stills to
complete this project. Also, I wish to thank Frances Gateward, Bishetta Merritt,
and Eric Pierson for their willingness to take time out of their very busy teaching
and research schedules to discuss blaxploitation with me. Their comments were
so helpful and they gave their time generously. Alma Deckert made a lot of
excellent suggestions, but more important, she is responsible for helping me get
this in book proposal in a workable format and was therefore very important to
this project’s foundation.
Donna Maurer has also played a crucial role at various stages in the writing
process. Over the years, she has become a very good friend whose opinion I rely
on very heavily. During the many incarnations of this project, Alicia Conroy,
Alma H. Deckert, Tina Harris, and Doreen Piano have read portions of the text
in the midst of working on their own research projects. Margaret Brocklan-
Nease saw this book in early book proposal format and also read early drafts of
chapters 1 and 4 of my dissertation, which underwent significant revisions and
became the preface, chapter 1 and chapter 2 of this book. Even at that early
stage, I was frustrated with a daunting writing project. Margaret spent many
hours listening to me work out my ideas as well as commenting on pieces I gave
her. Her advice has been invaluable. I would also like to thank Jennifer F. Wood,
who has provided incredible moral support.
Alice A. Tait and Guy Meiss of Central Michigan University were very
instrumental in my decision to take this book in another direction. An article that
I wrote for their anthology was the basis for that decision to focus on the
actresses themselves rather than to focus exclusively on their representations.
Zia Hassan deserves recognition for providing funding towards the film stills. I
wish to thank Eugene Wong and Mitali P. Wong for their feedback, copy editing
and for helping me strengthen some areas of the book.
This book began as my dissertation and I wish to thank my former committee
members Rachel Buff and Joe Austin of the University of Wisconsin-
Milwaukee, Jeanne Ludlow of Bowling Green State University and Peter Shields
of Eastern Washington University. I cannot express enough appreciation to
everyone who has been involved in this project over the last two years. Rachel,
Joe, Jeanne and Peter have seen the manuscript in dissertation format and this is
the final product; I do hope they, and readers who are passionate about film,
particularly the blaxploitation genre, will not be disappointed.
—Yvonne D. Sims
Summer 2006
Preface
Growing up, I saw few African American women role models on television and
in film and never questioned their lack of presence. Like other African American
girls, I played with white Barbie dolls and looked to white women in such
television series as Charlie’s Angels, Police Woman, and The Bionic Woman, as
well as my mother, to shape my ideals of femininity. Then, after my father’s
transfer to Arkansas from South Dakota, I had my first encounter with blatant
racism and its impact on femininity and cultural standards of beauty.
When I was 10, an argument between a white girl and me erupted in my new
school. She told me that my mother had left me “in the frying pan too long.”
When I told my mother about this statement, she explained that “black is
beautiful,” and I should be proud of my skin color. However, I was too young to
make the connection between skin color and beauty. In the meantime, I
continued to play with my white dolls and idolize Charlie’s Angels (1976–1982).
Even when black dolls became available and my mother bought them for me, I
refused to play with them, preferring my white dolls. My mother wondered why
I would not play with Christy, Barbie’s African American friend, and I insisted
that Barbie was prettier, and we had another discussion about beauty.
Nonetheless, I continued to play with Barbie and ignored Christy. It must have
been frustrating for my mother. Finally, when I started paying close attention to
Christy, I realized that the only difference between her and Barbie was skin
color, period; Christy had the same long straight hair and European features as
Barbie. Then, I decided that she was pretty like Barbie.
Eventually, I noticed that all my black dolls had straight hair and did not require
straightening to make it straight like my hair did. Getting my hair done was an
uncomfortable ordeal; the process was quite tedious because my hair was very
long and not naturally straight. My mother would wash it and let it dry
overnight, and we would both cry for several hours as she straightened it with a
hot comb the next day. After all this, she would put my hair in pigtails and tell
me that I was a pretty girl. I was unaware that the hours of hot combing were
only the beginning of a series of painful techniques in an effort to conform to
standard, mainstream notions of beauty.