Michelle’s Comments (group member since Jun 27, 2011)

Michelle’s comments from the readHERs group.

I'm not sure if the book is about compromise at this point...

I don't feel that the book is degrading to women for the reasons that most of you have stated.


2. Do you feel Ana's inexperience makes her unprepared to make rational decisions under such extreme circumstances?

I think Ana's inexperience made her more curious and somewhat trusting of Christian, whereas someone more aware of their own limits may not have gone that far with him. I agree with Shannon and Carmesia.

5. Were you able to identify with Anastasia's personality/character? Why or why not?

Yes. I also could relate to falling in love with someone with characteristics that are difficult to accept and that you wish he could change.

7. There has been much criticism about the writing style and character flaws of the book. Did either bother you while reading? Did anything seem too unbelievable?

I wasn't bothered by the writing style. I didn't notice it until I talked to some people about the book. I thought the inner goddess thing was funny at times...


9. Which actor do you think will play Christian in the film portrayal, and which actress will play Ana and Kate?

I'm down for Ryan Gosling.

I absolutely loved this book and can't wait to share it with friends. I have been on the sidelines watching men that I know struggle with the absence of their fathers in their lives. I believe both boys were impacted by their father's absence, but I believe the Other Wes suffered more by the belief that he was abandoned. I agree that Wes could identify himself in the positive memories that he had of his father and the Other Wes chose to identify with his brother. His brother was unable to persuade him to lead another life because he wasn't doing it and he didn't have the ability to show the Other Wes how to get to where he wanted him to go. The Other Wes wanted money. I don't think you have to be living the 'good life' to show someone else how to do it, but I just think Tony did not have the ability to "father" or "mentor" or guide his brother to set aside short term goals for long term goals. Tony had what the Other Wes wanted ... so he followed after him.

I loved Wes' mother and the fact that she was willing to try all options to keep her son out of trouble. She was the difference in her son's life. She didn't just care and scream at him to do better... she parented. She made choices for him not based on what he wanted but based on what he needed. She figured out how to bring out the best in him. She made sacrifices ... asked for help from her family ... and they made sacrifices. She went all out for him. For some kids that is necessary. I think the Other Wes' mom had every hope that her son would be better than Tony, but she didn't do much more than hope. She didn't look further than what he told her he was doing ... And, clearly she had her own issues.

I believe parents have a large influence on the success of their children. Now there are certainly some outliers, but I wholeheartedly believe in the "train up a child" philosophy. The absence of strong parenting are a large part of why our children are the way that they are...

I defintely want to keep it going...!

For the question about Hilly: I think Hilly believes in what she believes in and fully expects for everyone else to believe it too, i.e. that black people carry diseases that can harm white people. She thinks she is better than most of the people she is around and all black people. She is determined to get her way. Since we didn't get a chapter from her point of view, it's hard to know where this comes from... but even after going through everything we see her experience, she is still the same person at the end of the book/movie.

None of that diminishes her ability to be a good mother to and love her children, I think, mainly because her opinions have nothing to do with her ability to love the people she thinks are deserving of it (i.e, her husband, children and anybody that agrees with her). They aren't "beneath her" or black.

In addition, children are also easily controlled and manipulated. At that age, they love their parents unconditionally and they have little opinion that isn't fed to them. So, I don't think it's not inconsistent with the way she treats everyone else. I wish that her character would have been more developed in the book. There is always a reason why someone believes and behaves the way that they do... I'd love to know her reasons. In the movie, her mother says that her father ruined her. I wonder what that meant...

As for the movie, I loved it! I loved all of the actresses! Hilly's Mom was a favorite for me. I also loved Celia, Minny and Abileen. I loved the end scene with Celia and Minny, as well. I loved the scene with Skeeter's mom. Her telling off Hilly let us see her relationship with Skeeter come full circle and there was a sense that she was sorry for what happened with Constantine.

Cover story: Is 'The Help' heroic or stereotyping? Lisa Respers France, CNN
August 11, 2011 12:33 p.m. EDT


(CNN) -- When the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People complained about Hattie McDaniel's portrayal of slave housekeeper Mammy in the 1939 blockbuster film "Gone with The Wind," the actress is reported to have responded, "I'd rather get paid $700 a week for playing a maid than $7 for being one."

As the film "The Help" opens nationwide today, it faces the same challenges and criticisms of the best-selling novel of the same name.

The tale of a group of black maids in 1960s Mississippi who agree to share their lives via a book written by a young, aspiring, white female journalist has been hailed as a touching and moving portrayal of friendship and triumph, even as some have complained that the film offers the age-old Hollywood trope of the "white savior" who helps a group of beleaguered blacks who can't help themselves.

Even before the film's debut, there were calls to boycott the movie, which stars Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard and Octavia Spencer.

For director and screenwriter Tate Taylor, the controversy surrounding the movie is much ado about nothing.

"What I've discovered is that many people who (criticize "The Help"), usually about 80 percent, have not read the book, which I find a little frustrating," said Taylor, who adapted the screenplay from the novel written by his childhood friend Kathryn Stockett.

Should white author write black dialect? "Frankly, Skeeter (the main character, through whom most of the novel is told) is not 'the great white hope' in the book or in the movie," Taylor said. "The people in charge of their lives are Aibileen and Minny (the black maids), so they therefore teach Skeeter and in turn teach Jackson (Mississippi)."

'The Help" not only raises hackles because of the painful era it represents, it raises questions as to how far black actors have come in Hollywood.

During what is known as the Golden Age of Hollywood from the 1920s to the early 1960s, African-American actors were often relegated to roles as domestics. One of the most famous of those roles -- that of Mammy -- won McDaniel the first Academy Award for an African-American in 1939 for best supporting actress.

Spencer plays saucy maid Minny Jackson in "The Help" and said that if the roles in her film were at all like those of the past, she would be "mad as hell."

"This isn't the same thing that you have always seen," she said. "These women are proactive in bringing about change in their community. They may not be the most eloquent speakers or be the most educated, but they are heroic, and I think they're positive images that we have never seen."

Davis stars as Aibileen Clark, the maid whose decision to cooperate with aspiring writer Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan the novel is centered on.

Davis (who in 2008 was nominated for an Academy Award for her brief role in "Doubt") said she understands that the film's time period is an uncomfortable one for many in her community, but it is her hope that the audience can see beyond the maids' uniforms and into their hearts.

It's through the ordinary people that we get a glimpse of who we are.

"I think that oftentimes, we as African-Americans are so ashamed of the slave, of the maid, and all that we were and not understanding that it is on the backs of the slaves and the domestics that have brought us to where we are," she said. "It's through the ordinary people that we get a glimpse of who we are."

Spencer said she views the film as a work of appreciation to just those people.

"This is one of the first times that I've seen domestics or people of lower means from that era have a voice and the story has been told from their perspective," Spencer said. "I've never read something where we weren't just plot points and our characters had lives outside of the kitchen."

Sarah Sluis is assistant editor and staff writer for Film Journal International, where she wrote about "The Help." In her story, Sluis notes that "There's also an aura of liberalism in these tales of racial harmony, which have made recent films like 'The Blind Side,' 'Avatar' and 'Gran Torino' favorites among audiences and the Academy membership. But there's also a dark side. Such tales carry at least a whisper of paternalism and insinuate inferiority."

"It's nice to have that Emma Stone character trying to instill equality in the 1960s community, when in reality, that wasn't really the way things worked out," Sluis said. "There were people who fought for civil rights and were abolitionists back in the day, but I really don't think that's how history played out most of the time. And yet, it's a dominate narrative that Hollywood likes to tell."

Sluis said she believes the movie worked better than the book, in part because of the powerful performances of Davis and Spencer.

Dolen Perkins-Valdez is author of the novel "Wench," which chronicles the lives of four slave women who are their masters' mistresses. She said Stockett faced a challenge because the issues of race and race relations are still so raw in this country.

Couple that with the minority number of black filmmakers in Hollywood, and there is bound to be criticism, Perkins-Valdez said.

"We still are facing a crisis of representation of black authors, spilling over to the representation of black images on film and screen," she said. "I think that as long as we have this crisis of representation where very few black authors can win the kind of success that Kathryn Stockett has won and as long as that's the case and it's disproportionate and imbalanced, I think the reaction of discomfort of a white woman telling this story is relevant."

Like the novel, the film does has its core supporters. Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., the nation's largest association of African-American women, released a statement in support of the movie. Three cast members -- Cicely Tyson, Aunjanue Ellis and Flo Roach -- belong to the sorority.

"It is a story that is painfully honest, yet incredibly uplifting and inspiring," said Cynthia M. A. Butler-McIntyre, national president of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. "It is a testament to the lives of so many African-American women and offers a realistic depiction of what can happen -- good and bad -- when you make the decision to stand up and speak out. The film also offers a snapshot of the harsh reality of race relations in America while also addressing the unspoken power and beauty of relationships among all women, regardless of race."

Taylor said he tried to maintain as much of the novel as he could in adapting the film.

He said the book was born out of a conversation Stockett had with Taylor on September 11, after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Stockett was longing for Demetrie, the black maid who took care of her when she was growing up in Jackson in the 1970s.

Likewise, Taylor had a black babysitter, Carol Lee, whom he calls his "co-mother." The director said both he and Stockett were intrigued about the lives of those women, who had such an impact on their lives outside of the relationship of caregiver and child.

That's why Taylor rejects the argument that the story seen through the eyes of a white author, Stockett, is a skewered one.

"It boils down to this: Katherine had a right to tell the story because this woman, Demetrie, made Katherine the woman who she is," Taylor said. "I get the criticism based on past works of fiction and in film, but I just would challenge everyone to leave their judgment behind and take a peek."

Davis agreed. She said if movie-goers want to be supportive of black actors and black film projects, they will see the movie.

"The reason to see it is because of Octavia Spencer, Cicely Tyson, Aunjanue Ellis, Roslyn Ruff, Nelsan Ellis," she said. "This is probably the only film by a major Hollywood studio that has that many black faces."

Cover story: Is 'The Help' heroic or stereotyping?By Lisa Respers France, CNN August 11, 2011 12

http://www.cnn.com/2011/SHOWBIZ/Movie...

This is an article I found on "The Help." Interesting opinion... thoughts?

The new film, “The Help,” starring Emma Stone, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer has gotten a bit of buzz recently. The film is based on a novel by Kathryn Stockett about two black maids working in white households in Jackson, Mississippi during the late 1960s. I was curious about the film, since my first impression is that it is a female version of “Driving Miss Daisy.” I can’t say, however, that I am curious enough to want to watch it – for I’ve seen films like this one before.

My obvious bias against the film has nothing to do with the quality of the script or the enormous talent of the actresses in the film. Rather, it has to do with the fact that I grow sick and weary of seeing yet another Hollywood production that is so quick to grab onto a racial stereotype. Most of these films have the brave white protagonist, who has the courage to (gasp!) treat us like we’re actually human beings. Films such as “A Time to Kill” and “Amistad” are perfect cases in point: In the midst of telling a very painful story about the black experience, the film makers always take the time to ensure that the white guy is the hero. So, even when we’ve been self-sufficient, it’s only because a white person has allowed us to do so – even benevolent white supremacy is still white supremacy, nonetheless.
This leads us to the controversial question of the day: How should African Americans feel about seeing ourselves portrayed in roles that are subservient to whites or fulfilling some other stereotype? The great Hattie McDaniel, who played “Mammy” in “Gone with the Wind,” once made said “I’d rather make $700 a week playing a maid than earn $7 a day being a maid.” McDaniel’s point is well-taken. It’s very difficult to get work in Hollywood for anyone, especially African Americans. Additionally, the story of the pimp, the athlete, the maid or the shoe-shine man is just as relevant as the stories that were once told on the Cosby Show. Not only are we sugar-coating our reality by demanding that all roles fit a counter-stereotype, we are engaging in the same elitism that cripples our society at large.

While we must allow for all stories to be told, this does not excuse us from the responsibility of confronting Hollywood for the fact that they are far quicker to allow us to play stereotypical roles than to express the breadth of our existence. One can’t fault Viola Davis one bit for taking on this role, but I can bet my last dollar that the same executives who chose Viola to be a maid would not be so interested in casting her as an Astronaut or Physician.

A one-dimensional approach African American portrayals simply represents the same tired garbage that we’ve been watching for the past century. I won’t go see “The Help,” because I have no interest in giving Hollywood a financial incentive to create a sequel to scripts that confine black men and women to being nothing more than trusty sidekicks to their overseers.

But the most important thing to remember is that the first step toward controlling our destiny on-screen is to control our destiny off of it. That means that the financing and ownership of black cinema is an important step in our cultural evolution. But even then, the degradation of the black image on screen may also occur at the hands of a black film maker seeking to fulfill the shallow objective of profit maximization (as Sheila and Bob Johnson once showed us with their ownership of BET). That’s the flaw of thinking like Hattie McDaniel: there is nothing wrong with passing up economic opportunity if you are doing so to protect your integrity – We must always pursue a double bottom line and there are things in life that are far more important than money.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Professor at Syracuse University and author of the book, “Black American Money.”

Well so much is happening in these chapters, I don’t know where to begin.

I feel really bad for Celia, who is naïve to the fact that she will never be a part of Hilly’s crew. She tries to be someone she’s not and ends up making a fool of herself at the benefit. But it is natural to want to belong to something… to fit in… and to care about people’s opinions of us. I like that Johnny wants her to be comfortable and tells Minny not to let Celia know that he knows about her.

I hate how Hilly has caused everyone to dislike Skeeter, and I’m really disappointed in Elizabeth, because she’s such a follower.

I love, love, love Minny and her chocolate pie. Now I can understand why Hilly would hate her so much. Hilly is ridiculous for lying on Minny. Hilly can’t take it when someone goes against her, so kudos to Minny, Skeeter and Celia for standing up for themselves.

I actually believed that the newsletter deal was a typo. Skeeter is a trip for purposely doing that. I am really enjoying watching Skeeter grow…

I am loving this book.

I like Skeeter and the growing relationship with Aibeleen. She reminds her of Constantine and I think Skeeter is the child that would not have grown up to love her mother more than her maid.

I definitely had the feeling that Skeeter's mom is sicker than she is letting on... and I wonder how that secret and the secret of what really happened to Constantine will come out.

Back to reading... literally. :)

I am loving the book, as well! I love Minny and Aibileen, and I agree with Heather about how they are different.

I like Skeeter, but she's completely naive and I can't wait to see how she develops a relationship with Minny and Aibileen.

I think the Skeeter, Hilly and Elizabeth's relationship is interesting. Their group reminds me of a high school "crew." Hilly thinks she is the leader. Skeeter is the independent thinker and won't be bullied by Hilly. Elizabeth is a follower.

Can't wait to read more!

Hi all! I'm Michelle. I haven't had the opportunity to read for fun since starting law school. I am looking forward to getting back to it!