This is not a movie review.
Sunday afternoon I went to see “The Help” with my mother and sister. I don’t want to talk about the merits of a white author telling a Black story. I don’t want to discuss the politics of Black actress still playing maids in 2011. (Although Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer were simply awesome!) And I don’t want to focus on the historical inaccuracies in both the book and the movie.
My take away from the movie was the strength of women. Black women in particular. These women encountered injustice, racism, slights, cruelty and plain evil on a daily basis. Yet they still got up and took care of their children and the white babies in their charge. They went to church, looked out for their family, friends and neighbors and paid their bills. In short, they survived.
Fast forward to today. Opportunities are endless. We are no longer the help unless that is the career we choose. We can run corporations. We can serve in Congress. We have the power to run the world. Yet too many of us give that power away. We give that power away through bad decisions, giving in to our circumstances and losing hope. We give that power away by being afraid.
Whether you are a fan of Beyoncé’s or not, you have to give her credit for sounding a rally cry for women. I belive that women do run the world. We birth and raise the babies. We take care of and empower our men. We hold it together for everyone around us sometimes to the detriment of ourselves. We not only survive. We effect change.
I enjoyed the movie “The Help.” It may not have been a perfect depiction of the civil rights era but it is a perfect depiction of the strength of women. I was reminded me of the power we possess.
Enjoy!