The skin I fight in : race, sexuality and the politiced construction of the contemporary black action heroine

Abstract

This study interrogates the construction of the black female action hero in contemporary American mainstream action cinema, with specific reference to the films Catwoman and Colombiana, as well as the X-Men trilogy.

In order to explore issues around black female construction in action cinema, the study presents a critical overview of related frameworks of construction. By problematising black male construction in action cinema as well as challenging white female construction in action cinema, this study shows how black female construction in action cinema emerges as doubly problematic or compromised due to race and gender. Mainstream American action cinema often stereotypes black female characters because of their race and gender. Even after (or due to) the Blaxploitation era, such constructional issues persisted.

In light of the above, this study draws from relevant existing published scholarship in race and gender to respond the research aim articulated earlier. As such, there is no single conceptual or theoretical framework that dominates this study, but rather an interwoven conceptual and theoretical progression which includes (but is not limited to) hooks, Fanon, De Beauvoir and many others. In addition to key discussions on race and gender, this study further problematises the construction of the black female action hero by investigating how sexuality often and in problematic ways informs character construction.

Based on this conceptual and theoretical framework, the study provides an interrogation of the black female action hero in the selected films referred to above. In a detailed critical analysis, this study show how stereotypes of race and gender (such as the Jezebel), exaggerations of black female sexuality, castration anxiety, the male gaze, binary oppositions and exotification altogether contribute to how these films consistently objectify and disempower the black female action hero.