Obsession: Intersection of Race and Gender

The best movies to see with friends are the predictable kind that you know you won't need to pay too much attention to. So Beyonce's new movie Obsessed seemed like the perfect weekend blockbuster to take a break from all of the stress that the end of the semester brings. Not to say that the movie was good by any stretch of the imagination (it was as predictable, melodramatic, and cliche as the reviews suggest), but it did spur some discussion among my friends about the intended message of the filmmakers, particularly to African American woman.

The movie is, for the most part, a 100 minute version of the trailer:

Man and woman are happily married. Another woman becomes obsessed with man after he is nice to her. She convinces herself that they have a relationship and begins stalking him. Nothing stops the woman until Beyonce (...I mean Sharon) steps in and for lack of a better word, beats her ass. The End.

The movie pretty much follows the template of the "crazy female stalker" genre, problematic in its own right, but with the ignored 'twist' of the white woman/black family issue. After hearing my best friend (who happens to be Pakistani and male) yell variations of "don't let that white girl take your man" for the duration of the film and noticing more than one moviegoer express satisfaction that Beyonce's character had "killed that white bitch" on the way out of the theater, I figured I must not have been the only one reading the apparent racial subtext. The movie seems to comment (without actually commenting) on a controversial issue in the black community: interracial dating, particularly white woman with black men. But, perhaps, more importantly, it seems to comment on the 'responsibility' of black women to fight for 'their men.'

No one can stop this woman. Not the police. Not the hospital. Not the man, himself. Until Sharon steps in. The intersection of race and gender is brought to the forefront. Black femininity is constructed as benevolent, but tough. While white femininity is developed as unstable and reliant on overt displays of sexuality. It seems pretty clear who the intended audience of the film is.

Maybe I'm reaching. The racial difference may have, simply, been coincidental. A product of the 'colorblind' America that I'm just not open enough to see. But I don't think so. It seems that the filmmakers are suggesting that black women must play a greater role in combating the 'obsession' of white women with black men. They must not only forgo school and remain at home to raise children (all things that Beyone's character does to show that she's a "good woman"), they must take the lead in ensuring that 'their men' stay 'their men' by whatever means necessary. The blatant sexism of the climax of the film, a "catfight" between Beyonce and Ali Larter's characters, highlights the use of specific racial constructions to comment on the a 'role' of African American women.