Dominant Ideological Framework

Ever since the sixth grade, I have seen the movie Titanic. It has become one of my favorite white movies. I call it a white movie because I've never noticed until recently that, there are absolutely no black people in this movie. Not even in steerage. Now we all know steerage was for the people who were not rich, so usually the lower class or the poor.

In the movie Titanic, there is Jack Dawson who just so happens to win tickets aboard the Titanic through a card game. He and his friend barely made the ship. They found their rooms, explored the ship, etc. He runs into Rose who is the fiancee of Caledon Hockley. Now Caledon is this very powerful rich white man who can basically and has basically been taking care of Rose, 1. because he can and 2. because she's his fiancee. The mother is basically pressuring Rose to marry him only because her family has run out of money. But after Rose meets Jack, they become inseparable. Although Rose knows she and Jack are different, he introduces her to a new life, things she has never experienced before and he lives life on the edge. And that's what I think Rose likes most about Jack. I say all that to say, Rose was a very relate-able character to any woman of any color because sometimes its not all about what a man has and who he is, its about how he makes you feel and him being able to bring the best of out you. This movie reinforces the ideological framework we call SCWAMP, because throughout the movie we saw straight white men, who were able bodied, successful, wealthy, and property holders. The women were just in their place as a woman was supposed to be. On the side, spoke when spoken to, always had to look good, had no real source of income, etc. These types of things gave the men the ability to feel like they were superior and just reinforced how much we needed and depended on them.

The next movie I would like to bring up is another favorite movie of mine. This movie is Waiting to Exhale. This movie is one of my favorite movies of almost all time because 1. it has all black female main characters and 2. each character has something you can relate to on a personal level. 

In the article, Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators, I think one of the main points in this article was that its important for the black woman to be able to relate to the characters in a movie or TV show. I find this to be true. In Waiting to Exhale, I found that these women were all portrayed very positively. They were all women who could be role models. They each either worked and were great mothers. The one thing that they each shared in the end was that they were all single. Bernadine, was newly divorced and was having a hard time dealing with it. Something that normal women can relate to. Robin was a woman who messed around with a married man, with the hopes that he would leave his wife for her. In the end, she ends up pregnant but decides to keep the child, and to not deal or put up with Russell anymore. Savannah was a successful woman in the TV industry. She lived a very comfortable life, no kids but also no man. She too, bought back an old married flame and she got her feet wet with him a little. She finally came to realize that he was no good, she did not want to end up like his wife and he was just a liar. And last but not least is Gloria. Gloria has a teenage son named Tarik, who is doing what normal teenagers do; bring home bad grades, mess around, stay out late but overall he seemed like an Okay kid, being as though he was raised by a single mother. Gloria has never had a real relationship with any other man besides her son, so when a widowed neighbor moves in across the street and they become close, she doesn't know how to accept the fact that someone other than her son could love her. In the movie, each women had shown a sense of sexiness without bearing themselves completely naked and in the end, got the respect they deserved. 

That movie has something for everyone, but mostly for women. I think this movie reinforces, somewhat, the ideological framework we call SCWAMP, because for example, while battling her divorce case with her husband, Bernadine had to deal with the fact that everything was in her husbands name. The properties, the business, etc. She just assumed, like most women that marriage is supposed to be forever and that nothing could go wrong. That's where we mess up because although you are knowingly coming into something that you both may want equally, and although you may love this person with every ounce of fiber in you, I truly believe we should be cautious and take the necessary precautions so that we don't end up high and dry.