Whatever you do, don't call "The Help" a "chick flick." Yes, this movie, one of the surprises of the 2011 summer season, is about women. But it's more about segregation, domination and eventual celebration of a degree of independence.
It's also a bit misleading about one corner of racial relations at that time, which will become a lasting impression in many people's minds.
Based on Kathryn Stockett's best selling book, "The Help" is a two-hour-and-17-minute snippet about life in segregated Jackson, Mississippi after World War II. I say snippet because although it is a thoughtful, moving drama, it is unfair to judge post-war Jackson on just this aspect of its life and population at the time. After all, the city was teeming with returning heroes from WWII and slowly preparing itself for a more integrated society.
But Hilly Holbrook (played by Bryce Dallas Howard) wasn't ready for that new world. The pretty young mother likes society as it had been for generations. And she wanted to rule it as her neighborhood's queen bee, just as she ruled her obedient maid, Aibileen. Aibileen cleans the house, practically raises Hilly's young daughter and does anything else the Southern belle snob tells her to do.
Emma Stone is Skeeter
Enter Skeeter (Emma Stone) fresh out of Ole Miss, yes James H. Meredith's Ole Miss, and trouble starts. She, Aibileen and Minny (Octavia Spencer) scheme to upset Hilly's little empire and eventually get some respect among the white female bosses the maids serve from week to week.
In the movie, as in some households of that day, Aibileen, Minny and the other maids who serve the neighborhood, don't even have last names. Some in real life didn't have Social Security numbers either because they didn't want that tax taken out of their pay every week. Their insensitive, sometimes harsh, treatment by Hilly and her social climbing friends was not uncommon in the 1960s. But it was not necessarily the prevalent practice, although there are no statistics to say one way or the other.
Well-Crafted Drama
"The Help" is well-crafted drama. Watching the movie, we certainly pulled for Aibilene and Minny to muster the nerve to assist Skeeter with her brave book expose, even though it could cost them their jobs. Celia (Jessica Chastain) treats Minny much better than the other housewives do, to Minny's early disbelief. But Celia is portrayed as a bit flaky and leaves some doubt as to how she would behave if the snobs ever accepted her into their inner circle.
I won't mention her name, but an African-American lady served our family for three generations and helped raise two generations of the family's children. She was as close to a member of the family as a non-member could be. As far as I remember she was never referred to as "the help."
As in the movie, the children loved her. But so did the adults. She was a guest, and sometimes a worker, at family weddings. She mourned with us at family funerals.
I remember only one occasion when her race was mentioned in a derogatory manner. That was in private by a new inlaw. He was promptly called down.
Not All Domestic Workers Treated Badly
The point is not all African-American domestic workers were treated as Hilly and her little band of social climbers did. And flaky outcasts like Celia were not the only ones who treated them decently.
Many middle class families needed, but could hardly afford domestic help. Some had an ill member who required assistance, some needed help because both husband and wife had to work. The Aibilenes were appreciated and they appreciated the work.
In the real world, domestic workers like Abilene and Minny had no other choice but to do house work because they lacked education or training. Most of them were probably treated better than their brothers and husbands working in companies.
As most moving drama must, 'The Help" leaps from the specific to the general. It revives some old stereotypes and perhaps creates a couple more, casting too wide a shadow in the process.
The movie is destined for a long life on DVD and Netflix and is well worth seeing, keeping in mind that it is fiction, not a documentary.
Sources:
"Change begins with a whisper The Help"
"Synopsis - Kathryn Stockett, Author of The Help"
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