You've probably heard of her. She's one of the few naturals in Hollywood who's been criticized for not being feminine. Also, the movie "The Help" for which she was nominated for an Oscar has caused quite a stir. Another movie that confirms how "happy" Black people were in the good old days when they barely had any rights.
She has a SAG award for her excellent leading role as a maid in the film The Help. She also received an award for her excellent acting in the same film. However, there has been a lot of criticism of the film and Viola's role in it. According to critics, the film does not realistically portray the life of the black community in America in the 1960s. Davis is accused of contributing to the stereotyping that black women were happy with life in a time when they had hardly any rights. A point that is sometimes made by a politician who is lagging behind and something that was not Viola's intention at all.
She took on the role because it was close to her heart. Her mother's generation and her mother's mother lived this life. The actress has experienced it all herself and she has a responsibility to these important women in her life.
About the movie
The Help is based on the book of the same name by Kathryn Stockett (published in the Netherlands under the name Een keukenmeidenroman). The story mainly revolves around two African-American housekeepers, Aibileen (Viola Davis) and Minny (Octivia Spencer), who work in a white household in Mississippi in the 1960s. The housekeepers cook, wash and take care of almost the entire upbringing of the white children. They are barely paid and the ladies have to deal with racism on a daily basis. Novice journalist Skeeter (Emma Stone) is ashamed of the way her white friends behave towards their housekeepers and decides to open up about the work of the black women. Aibileen and Minny are prepared to tell their story.
The art
Viola Davis knows how to leave a crushing impression with few words and meaningful looks. It is therefore right that the actress has been nominated richly and eventually won prizes.
The criticism
However, the criticism of various critics, such as Melissa V. Harris-Perry, leaves a slight mark on the film. Harris-Perry is a professor of political science at Tulane University and now even has her own show that is broadcast all over America on NBC. According to Perry, this film idealizes the good old days, when blacks could only serve as help and had no rights. In The Help, just like in Driving Miss Daisy, for example, the life of black housekeepers is viewed from a white perspective and that is precisely the problem according to Harris Perry.
From the white worker's perspective, the black women always seemed happy and submissive. The black woman's life only seems relevant to a white life. The maid's own family and emotional life is irrelevant.
Melissa Harris-Perry believes the story is historically inaccurate and finds it disturbing that the suffering of the black workers is used to make a happy story out of it. However, the Professor does know of one positive point from the film: Viola Davis. She only finds it a pity that such a great actress as Davis is reduced to playing a housekeeper.
Fortunately, the film is not just criticized. Jimi Izrael, a journalist, author of The Denzel Principle and adjunct professor at Cuyahoga Community College, believes that people should not be so difficult. According to him, Hollywood is a machine that combines art, business, propaganda and entertainment. He believes that people should not go to the cinema to be educated or to be spiritually strengthened. “The people who are looking for that should go to school or church,” says Izrael, “because they expect more from a film than they reasonably should.”
Izrael sees Viola Davis' nominations as an opportunity to gain more appreciation for the beauty of dark skin, full eyes and lips. According to him, it is a step in the right direction to let a new aesthetic theory penetrate Hollywood.
Viola Davis
That's exactly what Viola Davis wants to achieve. Hollywood needs to start appreciating the talents and beauty of black women. There needs to be equal opportunities for black actors to break into the acting world.
Black actresses are often undervalued in Hollywood. They are given small roles, never the big roles they deserve, which makes them go unnoticed.
Davis' goal is to produce films about women of color, so that these actresses have the chance to become great. Davis already has a film in mind; a film adaptation of the book The Personal History of Rachel DuPree. This book has an African-American woman in the lead role and the film therefore offers an opportunity for an African-American actress to break through.
Davis, herself inspired by Merryl Streep, feels it is a calling to guide and help black actresses where possible. She feels that if she does not act now, the colored actresses will always remain the backdrop for the great white Hollywood actors, while they can do much more and are worth more than that.