Steve Barnes brings up this topic occasionally on his blog – particularly why the brothas don’t get to do the nasty on screen.
This is what he has to say:
Over and over again, for decades, I’ve watched black men minimalized sexually—even in their own movies (I’ll never forget Ice Cube in “XXX” just getting out of prison, having a seductive blonde ask if there is “anything that he wants” and him replying “a cheeseburger.” Dear God.) at the same time I’ve had to watch white guys promote themselves as the sexual gods of the universe.
That’s their right, of course. But that exclusion—specifically the exclusion of scenes of what I call “breeding behavior”—I believe to be one of the quantifiable measurements of racism in society.
The fact that I can actually statistically measure the difference in audience acceptance of such imagery (as measured in box office results. Take the average movie in which a given white star has sex as opposed to a film in which he does not. The box office stays about the same.
Take the average film in which a black actor has sex as opposed to those in which he does not. If he has sex, the box office goes down. Exit poll data suggests that the difference is that white males don’t enjoy such scenes.) And I believe that this cultural disconnect will show up everywhere a subjective impression determines the outcome of a situation: jury trials, jobs, loans, housing, who a traffic cop pulls over, who a white cop will instinctively/reflexively shoot.
I’ve had to watch this play out countless times. When I talk about the differential in sexual scenes in movies, white guys will usually ask one of the following questions, all of which, to me, indicate that they REALLY don’t want to understand what I’m saying.
1) ”Well, there are more white people in America. Of course there’s more sex scenes.” I’m not talking about raw numbers. I’m talking about the percentage of such scenes in movies starring whites as opposed to blacks.
2) “Well, there was a kiss. Why doesn’t that count?” Because we’re not measuring kisses. I’m measuring love scenes. If I said “notice that no one eats steak in movies?” would you say, “well, they’re eating hamburger, why doesn’t that count?”
1) “Well, they woke up in bed together. Why doesn’t that count?” Suppose I said: “notice that there are no car chases in Hitchcock movies?” would you answer: “well, you get to see parked cars. Why doesn’t that count?”
2) “Well, why does sex matter so much anyway? I don’t even like sex scenes?” Obviously, for the statistics to be so skewed, sex matters a LOT. Whether it does to you, or to me, is irrelevant. SOMETHING is going on here. If I said: “Ever notice that you never see Asians wearing green in movies?” would you say, “Well, who likes green anyway?”
3) “Well, maybe black actors don’t want to do love scenes.” Sorry. We’re just like you. No differences I’ve ever been able to see.
My wife actually did an article for Essence magazine on this issue, and interviewed several actors. Over the years, I’ve had the chance to ask several more. They all say the same thing: the studios discourage them because over decades, they’ve seen the data.
White guys turn off if they see anyone but another white guy having sex onscreen.
And finally, after realizing that I’ve really done my homework on this one, they usually fall back on: “well, things have gotten better, haven’t they?” No. They’ve gotten worse. The 1970’s was the time of “Shaft” and “Superfly” and so forth—films made by major studios for a black target market. These films had strong, smart, sexual heroes. To this day, there’s never been a black male more overall competant and fully human than Richard Roundtree in “Shaft In Africa.” Jesus, that was thirty years ago!
Then the market shifted, so that there are fewer studios, fewer theater chains, and corporate decisions are made at levels far removed from the day-to-day realities of film production and distribution.
A few black stars: Denzel, Will Smith, etc.—can now make as much money as major white stars. But they have to appeal to a general audience to do it, and to do that, they have to keep their clothes on.
Again, if you want to see how this works, look up a list of the top 300 boxoffice films, and note the difference in levels of sexuality. The data is there
DAKOTA: The first time I heard Steve talk about this, I hadn’t realized the depth to which black male authors have become “eunuchs” on film. I began thinking about some films featuring black actors and it became clear just how right Steve is. However, I don’t think the problem is limited to white males viewing black men, or black couples in general, having intimate relations on film. I think that black people also have a problem. Case in point, has anyone seen Idlewild? I went to a sneak preview. It was an audience full of black folks. There were shocked gasps during the oral sex scene. A couple of folks laughed during the sex scene with Andre 3000. As I left the film, I told my friend about Steve’s theory. I said, “based on those sex scenes, the films going to tank.” And guess what? It did.
I believe Steve’s theory also extends to books featuring black characters, although I think black readers are more comfortable reading about sex. I wonder, do white readers really want their imaginations filled with images of black folks having sex? Giving recent posts on various blogs, we know that white readers aren’t picking up black books for whatever reason. This is especially true in the romance community, but that just underlines my point. On the flip side, black readers love their dose of black love in books, hence the success of Zane and Noire, to name a few. But often, I hear readers of all races say they are ashamed to a pick up an erotica book in the store. They’ll order books online as if erotica books are tantamount to ordering adult movies. Why, oh why, are we so uncomfortable with sex in these great ol’ United States?!
MONICA: Are you saying that maybe we don’t take to watching the nasty all together with our Moms, Pops and kids in the movie theatre? I am noticing that the family oriented films like the Tyler Perry films are doing very well in the community. I can’t conject, because I love to watch fine black men doing it onscreen (preferably with women and particularly with black women) but I do admit a preference for watching this sort of entertainment with my own man in front of my own television.
Reading is a solitary activity and a different matter. Maybe black folks do prefer to dip secretly into our sex in books? I don’t know about white folks, but I suspect few of them are sneaking over to Zane too.
This is what Steve has to say about black women onscreen and it is also a fascinating topic for thought.
Is it petty for me to be pissed at Adrian Brody for kissing Halle Berry at the Oscars? Probably, but to understand why, you’d have to be willing to look at it from my point of view. Berry has transformed her career by making herself (cinematically) sexually available to white men. Can anyone even REMEMBER the last time she was romantically paired with a black man? She is channeling Dorothy Dandridge in that sense, the beautiful black actress who had to have an affair with Otto Preminger in order to promote her career. . . .
For the entire history of blacks in America, white males have had sexual access to our females. First during slavery (and no, it wasn’t all rape…although considering our current opinions of sexual harassment and coercion in the workplace, it is impossible to consider such relationships entirely “voluntary”) and then afterward.
We all know that power is the greatest aphrodisiac…I sincerely think that one of the road-blocks to social equality was this cultural advantage—that just by being white, a man had a competitive advantage socially, because by dating or being seen with him, a black or Asian woman was “moving up.”
Why would any sane person want to give up an advantage like that? So when I see Adrian Brody presume that to give the biggest black female star in history a big wet sloppy kiss—on television—in front of her husband, no less, who sat in the audience with a smile grimly stitched onto his face—it was an insult, a reminder of the degree of social privilege he inherited just by having white skin.
Like I said: NO black actor would have done such a thing to, say, Julia Roberts. Never. Three hundred years of aversive conditioning have guaranteed that. But Brody just instinctively knew it would be all right. Sorry, but unless America would have reacted as enthusiastically if Wesley kissed Brooke just as passionately, this is just salt in a wound.
MONICA: There aren’t enough leading black women on screen, period, regardless of who they are screwing or not. Black leads are paired with nonblack women! This seems to be a much bigger topic of watching black men get it onscreen (a view I think most women enjoy too, as long as the men are fine). How many fly, eligible black men are around anyway? In view of the numbers, do I want to see black men get it on with anything BUT a sista? Sheesh. Not really.
DAKOTA: You’re right, Monica. There aren’t enough black women onscreen. Not only are black male leads getting paired with nonblack women, but the reverse is also true. It seems that audiences are comfortable with a black-hispanic (Will Smith’s Hitch) or black-white relationship (Sanaa Lathan’s Something New), but not a black-black relationship. (Since Steve is a male, I can understand why his focus is on black males and their sexless existence on the screen. As a black woman, I wouldn’t mind seeing more black females having intimate relationships on film. Hell, I just want to see more black people on film and on television!!!!!
The always astute and savvy Lynn Emery, echoed some of my sentiment, and commented on my blog:
Hmm, made me think as well but my reaction may be atypical. My first thought was, “Hell, at least they’re getting roles. A lot more than AA female actors and I’ve been counting.”
And what about the lack of AA women as love interests when AA actors do get to be “involved” in a movie or TV? Sorry, maybe I’m wrong, but I’m not stressing over the fact that AA male actors feel sexually minimized because they’re not able to love up white women on screen (’cause it’s white women getting the roles, such as opposite Wesley, Will, is my point).
As for his comment about female slaves “not all of it was rape,” well, that just hacked me off big time. When there is a dramatic imbalance in power (slave vs. master) even if the woman says yes to survive I hardly call that a romantic liason. Can she really say, “Sorry, I’m not feeling you?”
Oh and then he says “power is a power aphrodisiac”. Say what? Surely he can’t mean our female ancestors were turned on by Massah wielding the whip? Slave is a whole lot different from say a female employee mooning over her powerful, successful boss.
I better stop cause I’m about to get real mad up in here. Maybe I’m just too touchy about the tendency of AA men to think us AA women have it “easier”. Sounds like the “blaming the victim” syndrome has survived slavery, I mean where male slaves became hostile towards female slaves for “giving in”. Look, the bottom line is all AA actors need more acting opportunities and well-rounded roles. I just hope more production companies owned by Blacks or at least with diverse staff make that a reality.
So what do you think about the roles of black men, black women and our sexuality as portrayed in popular media – and most of all, what sort of impact can we have on our portrayal, if any?
Wow, where to start. First of all, as a black woman I don't want to see a black man on the big screen having sex with a white woman. I would not go to see that movie, nope, no way. Does that make me a racist, maybe, I see enough of that in real life without having to go to movie to watch it.
Second, we live in a society were sexuality is a tough topic to discuss. Especially when you get into the sex scenes. I just want to watch black people on the big screen in great movies.
Third, when I think about some of the roles that black woman have been in recently where they have been in sex scenes, the first that comes to mind is Halle Berry in Monster Ball. I didn't understand this movie at all and she won an oscar for this…she has a wild sex scene with Billy Bob (in all actuality it really wasn't that great) but hey…folks loved it ( which I do not understand). Halle palyed in some great movies and this is what she gets an oscar for, not good. The same goes for Denzel Washington when he won an oscar for the bad cop movie. The other movie is Something New with Sanaa Latham where she is end up dating a white guy. The sex scene in this movie was pretty explicit as well. It was okay…but I would prefer to see great acting. There are enough rap videos with young woman (mostly black) shaking their behinds for the world to see. I don't need to see that on the big screen too.
Four: The statement that was made is that Black men are not being portrayed in a sexual manner in movies and TV… I don't know if I agree with this statement. I know that the author referred to Shaft and Superfly, those movies were considered to be degrading at best and we want to go back to the old timey pimp and drug pusher roles of the 70's. I guess I just don't get it(although I have to admit that I did like Shaft).
Sharon, I'm feelin' you. My grief over the brothas not screwing the white and other nonblack women allowed to act opposite them is limited.
I think the black man and the white or nonblack chick is fairly taboo in popular genre fiction too. The black guy has to die.
To look at a best-selling popular recent genre paperback, Morrigan's Cross by Nora Roberts has made the NYT list. There are six main characters and one was black. But the black dude was the only one killed and replaced by a white women. The rest of the white characters are paired off in romantic relationships in the rest of the trilogy.
Apparently in romanceland, the Negro had to die.
Monica, thaks for responding. It is sad that in this day and age that the black characters are always the first to go. That is why that it is so important that black people continue to write books and make their own movies.
I can't really comment on the dearth of black males getting play in movies because I really can't recall the last time I saw a movie with a black male lead. I can certainly piggyback on two topics though. Its highly unlikely that you will see an A-List actor like Will Smith or Halle Berry with a black lead. Why? Because that makes it a 'black movie' and those stars asking price is much too high to risk appealing to only 12% of the population. Personally I don't mind seeing black men make love to white women or vice versa, but many black women aren't down with it.
You also have to factor in something Vanessa Bell Calloway said a while back. She stated that she was slated to play the girlfriend to a well-known black actor, but he had her cut from the movie because he didn't find her attractive. Now, I've always assumed that the actor was Wesley Snipes, but then I despise Wesley Snipes, so I could be wrong about that. But its very possible that the actors themselves, wanting a broader appeal prefer to be in movies with non-blacks. After all, they understand 'percentage of the gross' as well as anybody.
As for blacks and sexuality, don't even get me started on that topic. I think many blacks, especially religious ones are VERY uncomfortable with sexuality whether it be on the screen, or in books for that matter. Black women in particular are so busy trying to live down the 'Jezebel' stereotype that even a hint of sexuality is enough to make them run for the hills. Take the hoopla over the sex scene in Monster's Ball. I'm amazed at the number of people who totally missed the point of that scene. Black folk were literally foaming at the mouth over it. Yet, in History of Violence, the sex scenes were far more graphic with nary a peep from anyone. So, its not surprising that white folk are uncomfortable with black sexuality. Black folk are uncomfortable with black sexuality. So who would benefit from portraying such a thing? Not the studio, and ultimately, not the actor.
Interestingly enough, I found a huge mixed audience for Something New. There were a lot of black women there, of course, but surprisingly there were almost as many single white women. Of course, Simon Baker has immense appeal from his tv show, and the movie was heavily promoted Thanksgiving weekend during Pride and Prejudice, but I was still surprised. I didn't see Hitch at the theatre, but I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't have similar audiences. Will Smith has enormous appeal, and he does well in romantic comedies.
So, black males are in a quandary. They can be with black women, and risk not having a hit. Or they can be with non-blacks, get a hit, but not really have any sexuality in the movie. Given that their salaries are based on their ability to 'open' a movie, it goes without saying which option they're more likely to choose.
Dang, wrote that long post and forgot to comment on something Lynn Emery said in response to Barnes' 'not all of it was rape' statement. There are times when I'm convinced that some black men are actually envious of the fact that black women were accorded the 'advantage' of being sexual playthings for white males. Its the only explanation I can find for claiming that a sexual relationship between an owner and a slave anything but rape. Even in today's prison system the inequity of such liasons are understood. Sexual relations between corrections officers and inmates are automatically classified as rape. Even if the inmate was the aggressor, simply because most sane people understand that where there can be no dissent there can be no consent.
Yet, we still continue to hear this nonsense and its companion 'The only free folk in America are white men and black women.' Oh yeah, there's all types of freedom in being a rape victim. Yet this comes up again and again in the dialogue between black men and black women. And they wonder why black women are angry. Black women are the least free, the least liberated group in this entire country, yet black men have the audacity to make such an absurd claim.
Black women carry a heavy burden and when a black male adds to it, instead of standing by our side to share our load, it makes it even more bitter.
At least Steven Barnes is a good role model as far as marrying a black woman (and no light, bright, and as close to white woman as he can get either) and standing beside her to support his family.
Roslyn said "Because that makes it a ‘black movie’ and those stars asking price is much too high to risk appealing to only 12% of the population"
And that makes me makes me think of something else:
Although it's been proven that black consumers can deftly support a movie, book, etc…look at the popularity of Tyler Perry as more proof – Roslyn's point is sound…when one makes their living based on the success of their consumable, should we do so focused only on one audience?
My answer to this may have been very different before becoming an author. Then, I would have felt very comfortable saying that powerhouses like Will and Denzel should say to hell with the studio because they have enough drawing power to get the blacks plus crossover.
But now…I don't know.
My books are obviously, very obviously targeting African American tweens and teens. But I haven't been shy about wanting my book to crossover because I truly believe it will appeal across racial boundaries.
But I'm no fool. My publisher will probably use the low-hanging fruit method of marketing and go primarily for black teens.
My feelings about this are mixed.
And so, as it relates to our current discussion, as movie consumer, I want to see black actors doing what any other actor would do in a scene. And naturally that consists of being intimate. I'd like to see an increase in black love on screen in all movies not just those flatly categorized as a "black" movie.
But as a producer of a creative product, I understand why the actors end up taking the studio's way to success.
I'm thoroughly depressed now because the reality of this quandry feels bleak.
First of all, why in this day and age are we still in the dark ages when it comes to I/R sexuality and not just onscreen? In fact, why are we still in the dark ages when it comes to sexuality PERIOD? The personal shouldn't always be political and yet interracial love/sex/desire/etc. tend to push ALL the wrong button and suddenly everyone has an opinion about a matter that is none of our business.
Doesn't it shock anyone save me that with all the hate and violence in the world today (and even onscreen) we're still tripping over portrayals of I/R desire? Call me crazy, but no wonder we're going to hell in the proverbial handbasket. So what if white men lose their cool if Mekhi Pfifer kisses Julia Stiles in 'O' – get over it. Oh wait – few black men I know had an issue over *that* film and yet were pissed off as all get-out over 'Monster's Ball'.
Speaking of said film, I'm highly offended that some people choose to view Halle Berry's role as meaning that she's sexually available to white men – that's a typical male sexist attitude – that black women can't and shouldn't own their own sexuality. Talk about ignoring the rest of the film over a part that lasted less than thirty or so seconds. I guess Ms. Berry playing a crack whore was acceptable then (of course – after all 'Jungle Fever' was made by Spike Lee – which makes it all right). Go figure.
Frankly, I want to see more black people doing the wild thing (without something bad happening at the end) – with each other and with folks of other colours. As a black woman I'm tired of black female characters being relegated to the sassy best friend or the hot-to-trot ghetto girl with the heart of gold. I want to see black women get the hot hunky dude of whatever race without being forced to feel guilty about it. And unlike some black females, I don't have issues if a black actor kisses or does the wild thing with a woman of another race. Why should I? I don't see it as a rejection of who I am as a black woman. He's an ACTOR for pete's sake – let him do his job without making it all bloody political. And if said black man just so happens to be dating or married to a woman of another race, that's fine too. His choice has NOTHING to do with me as a person.
Bottom line is that RACE AND SEX DO NOT BELONG IN THE BEDROOM (or wherever one chooses to have sex). Sexuality is already complicated enough, why throw more dynamite on it?
Until we as AA consumers start demanding it, it's not going to change. Someone mentioned the Tyler Perry movies…after the success of his movies, I'm surprised that other studios didn't jump on the bandwagon…some of my favorite movies have all black casts…such as The Best Man…Love Jones…Love & Basketball…Brown Sugar. I would love to see the Wills & Denzels paired with an AA actress.