Real Women: Black Women and Literacy in Feature Films By: Joanne Kilgour Dowdy

        The reading was able to identify numerous different feature films in which exposed the literate capabilities in different socio-cultural situations. The Author, Joanne Kilgour Dowdy recognizes the importance of not only reading about black women but also watching them in film to understand key concepts. Concepts as stated by Dowdy as fashion trends, social trends, politics, educational norms, religious mores, history, and family relationships. Films create a visual image that often times cannot be read or understood in a novel. One important topic that Joanne Dowdy identifies and exposes is the different literacy levels of black women in certain situations. These situations expose how black people communicate and interact in the white community. Often times these black women’s lived experiences play a key role in their different literacy levels.  

            White filmmakers, writers, and Hollywood have created typical black figures in which they believe convey the stereotypical black women. Characters of addicts, mammy’s, homemakers are among the most popular roles portrayed of African Americans. In the reading Joanne Kilgour Dowdy speaks about how black women are stuck in barriers based off of skin color, language, financial background, and educational preparation which all play a role in their literacy. In the movies she displays how these factors ultimately affect the different characters literacy and how it plays a role in their everyday lives. Through the movies she makes different points concerning the level of literacy and the different literacy’s black women have. Some need certain levels of literacy to function in a white dominant society, while others make it in life without much literacy at all.

 Another issue she identifies with is that literacy can be of book smarts and that of street smarts. Many characters in the movies she displayed were better off with street smarts that allowed them to be aware of the world around them and be able to handle different social situations. Other aspects identified showed that sometimes being literate in either books or the streets was not an advantage. The advantage often lay in the hands of white elite and those with economic power. Without the performances by black actress such as Woopi Goldberg, Halle Berry, and Angela Bassett black women would not be exposed to how black women fit in the white society. Films provide another resource of literacy for black women to reference to along with that of black literature and novels. The readings central theme conveys the point that it is important to view black women in the light of film. Recognizing how white storywriters portray us to the rest of the world plays a large role in how we perceive ourselves. These award winning films are being sold and distributed around the world and whether we know it or not are shaping the image of the black women.