Dismantling The Help: The Hollywoodization of The Civil Rights Movement in 1963

Author: Mendoza, Aramis Josephine

Year: 2023

Degree: Other

Advisor: Thabet, Andrea

Committee Member: None, None

Option: History

Abstract

[Introduction] The Help directed by Tate Taylor and based off Kathryn Stockett’s novel portrays an incomplete narrative of Black women’s domestic work in white households through a white feminist lens under the backdrop of the 1963 Civil Rights Movement. While the movie seeks to show the perspective of these Black women often ignored throughout history, the movie instead focuses largely on an upcoming white woman writer named Skeeter. To shape Skeeter’s ultimate writing success story, the movie utilizes the Civil Rights Movement and the Black domestic workers, mainly Aibileen and Minny, to jumpstart Skeeter’s writing career, subsequently leaving the Black community to deal with the aftermath of the publication of Skeeter’s novel. Based in Jackson, Mississippi, The Help details the racial turmoil of the time through the grossly comic portrayal of outdoor bathrooms for the domestic workers, the unrealistic arrest of Yule Mae Davis, and the turbulent assassination of Medgar Evers. While Medgar Evers killing was historically accurate, the oversimplification of white allyship, Black resistance, and the softening of segregation and discrimination allow the audience to feel a false sense of accomplishment at the end of the movie which would realistically end in bloodshed. Although The Help builds its story around various key aspects of the Civil Rights movement in 1963, the movie substantially underplays the intensity of discrimination against Black people by heavily filtering the movement to craft an agreeable Hollywood narrative.