![]() But here’s the thing: Skeeter is only a little bothered by this kind of behavior in Hilly and others in her social circle. ![]() Meanwhile, Skeeter becomes a little bothered by the bigotry she notices among her friends, particularly Hilly (played by Bryce Dallas Howard), who vehemently objects to her maid, Minny (Octavia Spencer), using the toilet that she cleans because it’s the same toilet that the white folks use. No one questions this in the movie: not Aibileen, of course, not Skeeter and - disturbingly - not the filmmakers. Though Aibileen is the one answering readers’ questions, Skeeter, who is simply taking dictation, gets the credit, the byline and the paycheck. Of course, Aibileen (played with flawless grace by Viola Davis) gets no credit for the assistance she provides. But, being a privileged white Southerner, she knows nothing about cleaning, so she asks Aibileen, the maid of her friend Elizabeth, to help. Rather than finding herself a good ol’ boy to marry, as all her friends have done, Skeeter gets a job writing a column about cleaning for the local newspaper. ![]() Skeeter (played by a sometimes-flat Emma Stone) has just returned to Jackson from four years at the University of Mississippi. The movie’s central character is a young white woman named Skeeter - a clear reference to Scout, Harper Lee’s earnest young heroine in To Kill a Mockingbird. The Help - the Oscar-nominated film adaptation of the best-selling novel by Atlanta author Kathryn Stockett - is a feel-good movie for a cowardly nation.ĭespite its title, the film is not so much about the help - the black maids who kept many white Southern homes running before the civil rights movement gave them broader opportunities - as it is about the white women who employed and sometimes terrorized them. “To our detriment, this is typical of the way in which this nation deals with issues of race.” “This nation has still not come to grips with its racial past nor has it been willing to contemplate in a truly meaningful way the diverse future it is fated to have,” U.S. In early 2009, about a month into the Obama administration, the nation’s first African-American attorney general called the United States “a nation of cowards” on matters of race. Whether you want to help your LGBTQ+ teenager feel loved and accepted or need a good film to watch with your partner, you'll find something to love on this list.Valerie Boyd is the author of “Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston” and the forthcoming “Spirits in the Dark: The Untold Story of Black Women in Hollywood.” She teaches journalism at the University of Georgia. We've made a note of that where applicable, so you can save them for date night. Be warned, though: Many of them do include adult content. These movies with lesbian characters are some of the best of the best ones out there. When many of our rights are under attack nationwide, there's never been a better time to embrace media that shows LGBTQ+ people. Gay and lesbian movies normalize love and relationships between two people of the same gender, teaches viewers about the importance of equal rights for the LGBTQ+ community and reinforces the fact that that gay, lesbian and LGBTQ+ people are just that: people who are just like anybody else. That's incredibly meaningful, especially for those who don't know any LGBTQ+ people in real life or don't have a safe way to explore who they really are. For newly out or young viewers who are still trying to figure out their sexuality, seeing their own experiences reflected back to them on the silver screen offers validation that can make them feel seen and heard in ways their own lives might not. Seeing lesbian, gay and other LGBTQ+ characters onscreen can be literally lifesaving for LGBTQ+ people.
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