LESBIAN MOTHERHOOD: A SPIKE LEE JOINT: From the New York Blade
 
When Spike Lee's new film "She Hate Me" opens on Wednesday, July 28, viewers will have the chance to see 19 self-identified lesbians, most of them women of color, on the big screen. This is a huge step, certainly, but is it a positive one?

Already causing a stir within the queer community, the film is sure to provoke viewers of all persuasions--but especially lesbians--with its over-the-top queer plotline.

"She Hate Me" tells the story of John Henry "Jack" Armstrong (Anthony Mackie), a buppie ruined by an Enron-type scandal, who agrees to inseminate his ex-girlfriend, Fatima (Kerry Washington), now a lesbian, and her partner, Alex (Dania Ramirez), in exchange for cold hard cash.

Soon, Jack finds himself in the enviable position of servicing wealthy (and gorgeous) lesbians. The film follows Jack as he impregnates 17 other women, while getting more deeply entangled in the lives of the glamorous-looking Fatima and Alex. Viewers, meanwhile, are treated to two lesbian sex scenes and a montage of Jack having sex with several women, which is played up for laughs as they navigate this unfamiliar territory. ...

Cavanah does praise the film's ending, which shows a reconciliation among the major characters, including Jack's father. She said the last shot "was one of those instances when a film refuses to bend to the director’s will and instead is true to life. Jack, his father and the two lesbians on the beach with their babies looked so much like what many alternative families look like, it could have been an ad for lesbian families."

Taormino agrees with this more progressive take.

"At the very end of the film, Spike purposely leaves the Jack-Fatima-Alex relationship ambiguous," she said. "It's clear that the three are all co-parenting the kids, and Fatima and Alex are very much a couple. But it's not clear what their relationship to Jack is. To me, the end is a radical vision of our future, a future where the heterosexual nuclear two-parent family is not the dominant model."

more

posted by Eve at 5:00 PM | link

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home