The Dead End of Blackness in B*A*P*S
I thought I'd start off my Filmic Forays with what I like to call, a bargain bin blockbuster. For all of those that haven't watched B*A*P*S, it's one of the few blips in Halle Berry's career that is more or less infamous now. Well, aside from Catwoman and her lackluster depiction of Storm (one of my absolute favourite superheroes) but we don't speak of that. Even with a 13% score on Rotten Tomatoes, it does have some humorous moments, but the rest left me with plenty to mull over.
In a nutshell, B*A*P*S presents us with the story of two black women being thrust from their working class and lower class settings, into white polite society. The white male character of Antonio almost grooms the women for joining the bourgeoisie, but we soon learn that he in fact has ulterior motives. On one level then, we as an audience are confronted with the struggles these individuals face in attempting to “code switch”[*] or basically fit in within these alternate societies. Most frequently, this is represented through a shift in the way they dress. Clothing then becomes an indicator of social status. We also see that in this film, the media plays a significant role in relation to the characters, especially that of Nisi, played by Halle Berry. Moreover, the use of humour in the film creates a sense of “the gaze”[†] and this further reinforces the impossibility of the black characters adapting to white culture perfectly.
At the start of B*A*P*S, during a close-up of meat being cooked, the hand that comes into the shot has long, blue nails that appear to make it hard to carry out the task efficiently. This hand then passes the plate on to another hand that has equally long red nails and as the camera pans up; we see Nisi. Immediately, these women are not introduced to us as whole people, but are cut down to their body parts. This is a popular trope in literature (Joseph Conrad’s Heart Of Darkness anyone?) for dehumanising black people. Their hands then, can perhaps signify their profession as waitresses and it seems to me that they can only be identified through their labour. As the shot pans out, we see that Nisi has an extravagant blonde wig on along with chunky gold earrings as well as gold teeth that configure her as a caricature of a black woman.
Now let’s kick the theory up a notch! Nisi has been portrayed as the ‘ratchet’ or ‘ghetto’ stereotype, that is to say, she looks like what comes to mind when people say those words. Following the teachings of Swiss semiotician Ferdinand de Saussure, these articles of clothing become signifiers of the women themselves. According to Saussure, the signifier (in this case, the clothes) can be interpreted as the material configuration of the signified (the women) and here we can say that the women’s signifiers serve to “other”[‡] them. These signifiers however can also point to a “reinscription or reconfiguration and projection of the subject as someone other than the authentic self.”[1] Regester goes on to say that invisibility can be defined as a perceiver creating his or her own conception of a black subject and enforcing it upon that subject. Simply put, their clothing points to their invisibility before they even speak. Perhaps then the characters in the film are constantly attempting to define themselves with their clothing despite the negative perceptions they reinforce, and that appear to be further circulated by the media. A sense of comedy is created through these signifiers in a later scene where the gold teeth set off metal detectors as the ladies enter the club. The problem is, whether comedy is the key to balancing these perceptions thrust upon the characters, or if we’re just meant to laugh at the ghetto chicks.
On a different note, according to Sika Dagbovie, there is a fascination with mixed-race bodies within the media because these bodies allow white audiences to engage with a more acceptable, muted version of blackness without having to fully engage with it. This, contends Dagbovie, can be seen throughout the real life career of Halle Berry who despite using the “one-drop rule”[§] to identify as a black actress is almost always labeled as interracial. Moreover, Berry herself notes in this interview that despite being the only woman of colour to win an Oscar in the ‘Best Actress’ category, she still faces difficulty in nabbing roles. Perhaps the stereotypical way in which she is dressed in the film is just another way for Halle to try to identify as a black woman, and this is translated through her character. Margaret Hunter reinforces this by noting that there is a contradiction in the position light-skinned people hold within their communities. Indeed, whilst they are heralded as more attractive, they simultaneously must face the “dilemma of ethnic authenticity” within their communities as often, they are also touted as not being ‘black enough.’[2]
Back to the media; its dissemination becomes important at the beginning of the film with the radio playing at the opening scene, first introducing the idea of becoming a video vixen to Nisi. In one of the next scenes, we see that the media is very much present in the home as well, with not only the same advertisement being played on television, but also being plastered in the magazine that Mickey is reading. This becomes metonymic of how “the American dream” is proliferated amongst the general public and how the increasing presence of the media within society facilitates it. The film however, implies that for black women who are not from a certain background, the only way they can attain upwards mobility is through the exploitation of their bodies and ironically within the media as well. Nisi then attaches superstition to the media by claiming that her mother told her that good things come in threes and thus these successive adverts must contain a deeper meaning. She even goes a step further by equating the media to some sort of higher power by exclaiming that hearing this advertisement is a “sign.” For Nisi then, any form of media can be utilised as a utensil for elevating herself.
The motif of media is carried on later into the scene in B.A.P.S where both women are sitting on an airplane. They are the only two black women within the scene but they become even more conspicuous through their outlandish outfits and large hairstyles. Nisi is wearing a bright orange outfit with diamonds embedded into her incredibly tall hairstyle. Mickey on the other hand is clothed in leopard print, which like the figure of Josephine Baker reduces her to animalistic imagery. Unlike Baker however, this imagery does not entice the male gaze, but rather creates a comic effect as her hair accidentally hits the face of the white businessman sat next to her. Whilst this is another opportunity (of many) to laugh at her, I like to think of it as an act of subversion as that kind of makes me feel better. Indeed, this can be interpreted as Mickey subconsciously engaging in the act of looking back since she pokes the eye of the man, thus causing him harm on the very body part with which he casts his gaze with. This becomes further allegorised as Mickey’s hair obstructs other people’s view of the in flight entertainment, thus causing them outrage. The screen becomes more important upon considering the psychoanalytic theory of the projection and screening of memories. Here, people unconsciously create memories in order to not only “project” or amplify, but to also “screen” or conceal their own desires. Graham Richards argues, “Blackness is, in itself, a great facilitator of projection” precisely because we “see things in the dark.”[3] Here then, blackness is equated to the screen onto which people can project their own presumptions and anxieties. The passengers of the plane are unable to carry this out as Mickey’s hair creates a barrier between them and the screen. On the other hand however, this can be interpreted as nothing more than comedy being used to appease and assuage the racially charged, phallocentric male gaze. Yeah, this interpretation is a lot less comforting since again, her appearance and body become reduced to mere comic relief. For example, any desire for Mickey as a black female body is instead displaced into laughter. This then reduces anxiety of the desire for her leading to miscegenation. This sense of comedy is also supported by her hair obstructing the screen in the plane.
Once again, the omnipresence of the media is apparent through the books they are reading. Nisi’s book is entitled, The Beverly Hills Book of Etiquette and again, this implies that she is attempting to assimilate herself into a setting that she is not familiar with. Why? To achieve the elusive American dream of course! The media determines how she must mould herself for a chance of acknowledgement. Her book differs entirely from the nature of Mickey’s magazine and this indicates to us that Nisi is the one who is more aware of cultures within the media that are not just her own. Sika Dagbovie argues that within popular culture, advertisers in particular endeavor to define what it is to be black and in so doing, there is an implicit effort to also regulate this blackness. For mixed-race celebrities then, “this means blackness is deemed acceptable only when it upholds stereotypical white preconceptions and desires.”[4] Even the way in which the women interact with others seems to be anchored within the realm of popular culture and this is most evident when they see LL Cool J at the airport. Moreover, their first exclamations are in regards to what they have read about him in magazines such as “Right On” and what they have seen of him in videos.
The act of “gazing back” that I mentioned before begins to become precarious as Antonio scouts the two women and immediately they take off their wigs whilst in the limousine. Maybe they are removing those signifiers that reduce them to stereotypes. Their behaviour however, sort of undercuts this brief moment. Soon, we see them relinquishing some of their agency from under the gaze when Blakemore takes them shopping. We are presented with a scene where the ladies are twirling in front of him with the outfits he is paying for whilst he is laughing and we soon see that Isaac is secretly photographing them. Moreover, we learn that Isaac has brought them into the mansion for the sole purpose of extorting Blakemore whilst painting the women as sexualised financial predators. Upon having Isaac’s plan exposed however, the two women object to remaining reified by ripping up the checks Blakemore hands them, and insisting that they are there out of their own choice. One must also note that they have relinquished some of their most distinguishing signifiers however, such as their nails and their flamboyant hair. So what exactly does their toned down appearance mean, that they have successfully assimilated? I’m not so convinced. Is this new aesthetic who they really are? I doubt it. Have the white male characters succeeded in more or less taming the women by changing their signifiers? Hm, maybe. Throughout the film, I struggled with what the true identities of these two women were. I think this is because they too struggled to maintain some semblance of agency as the film progressed.
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To conclude then, we see that the media in both films propagates the idea that there is a gulf between white and black people. This is because it enforces the gaze upon them and reduces them not only to their social status, but their clothing and indeed, their bodies. With the character of Nisi, we see that she aspires to do more with her life and looks to the media for her opportunity to do so. Whatever her character’s attempts at emancipation may be however, they are undercut by the fact that all of the black characters in the film have been positioned very deliberately by white men. In fact, these black characters are reduced to nothing more than pawns to be utilised for the advancement and enjoyment of white people.
[1] Charlene B. Regester, African American Actresses the Struggle for Visibility, 1900-1960. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010.) P. 9
[2] Cedric Herring, Skin Deep: How Race and Complexion Matter in the "color-blind" Era, (University of Illinois Press, 2004) p. 24
[3]Graham Richards, Race, Racism, and Psychology towards a Reflexive History. (London: Routledge, 1997) p. 6
[4] DAGBOVIE, S. A. (2007), Star-Light, Star-Bright, Star Damn Near White: Mixed-Race Superstars. The Journal of Popular Culture, 40: 217–237. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-5931.2007.00376.x
GLOSSARY
[*] “Code Switching” in sociology studies refers to when someone changes their language to suit their surroundings. In race studies, it takes on the deeper meaning of when a minority will completely change their mannerisms, and clothing as well as their language to fit in with the dominant race. The sad truth is, micro-aggressions towards said minorities will ensue regardless.
[†] “The Gaze” is a term that most likely originated with Jean-Paul Sartre and was popularized by French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. It refers to the realization that one is being watched as an object. Feminist film critique Laura Mulvey coined “The Male Gaze” stating that art is configured through the male point of view.
[‡] “The Other” is a term that has become integral to Postcolonial thought. Think of the figures in Camu’s L’étranger, or Salih’s Season of Migration to the North for example. The Other is an individual or figure that is different from the self, and is excluded because of that difference. I think what’s so unsettling about The Other however, is that they bear more similarities to the self than one would like to think of.
[§] The “One-drop rule” was a legal (and obviously incredibly racist) form of classification in America by which individuals could be identified as black. Anyone found to be possessing even ‘one drop’ of black blood, or 1/32 of black ancestry was deemed fully black. This was regardless of appearance and needless to say, caused a great deal of confusion. Interestingly, even with countless people rejecting this form of identification, Halle embraced it here.