Just got back from seeing the Help. I thought it was, definitly, better than the book. I would

give it a A and a must see for all. I just wonder how its plays in the South?

Seems like a good movie. I would lke to read the book first. I think it should go over pretty well in the South. I live in North Georiga and not everyone here are bigots. In fact, I have not run into anyone who is.

On Lawrence O'Donnell's show she said it reduced the terrible suffering of African-American women before the civil rights movement to a kind of cutesy little cat fight. She seemed really angry and absolutely trashed it.

didn't live in that era or in the south. I know they didn't show any of the real shit that made the south what it was at that time. It showed a microcosm of a certain group of women on how they worked and put up with the prevalent racism at that time in order to hold on to their jobs.

propaganda it espouses. Melissa Harris Perry KNOWS. You might learn something from watching her, and reading, and possibly re-thinking:

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/melissa-harris-perry-breaks-down-the-help-ahistorical-and-deeply-troubling/


http://www.artscriticatl.com/2011/08/film-review-the-he... /

http://phillisremastered.wordpress.com/2011/08/11/choco... /

http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/...

that some 'white woman' was the conduit for change. But I'm trying to think of a major North American novel that doesn't do that and I can't right now.

:P

the eyes of loving, caring white people cause, gosh darnitall, some of them are trying to help.

One of the worst cliches there may be in film.

she was so bothered by the movie, i will respect her perspective and not bother with the movie.

As a white woman, I don't have the same perspective, but I trust her expertise. We don't need to keep the myths going. And, btw, despite the rave reviews, I only got a third of the way through the book.

i can go and chuckle in the movie, not understanding the insult. or, i can appreciate her effort in explaining the insult to her and respect that.

in the South during that time. The movie is not perfect, but it depicts what it was like for these housemaids in the South, in that era. I recommend it.

I just listened to the album:

well the black maids who rode the bus from inner city to our middle-class suburb. My granny employed an older woman who grabbed a brief intense moment with me while she was making a bed and my granny was in the kitchen with a friend. I was very young but remember the gist if not the exact words of how my granny was a good Christian woman BUT.....and to always remember it. The maid never came back. My daughter has heard the stories of my racist granny and we can't wait to see the movie this weekend. Don't you think there are many who could learn from a story about the past no matter whose eyes we view it through? I've read many reviews, all good. Here's a link to just one:

http://onmilwaukee.com/myOMC/authors/caseybuchanan/thehelp.html

such works as "To 'Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women's Lives and Labors after the Civil War" and other sociological studies that are pretty fascinating reading. I can't wait to see the movie!

memories of her mammy/maid, and only interviewed ONE other mistress/servant couple. She didn't do shit for research - and it's GLARINGLY apparent on this poorly written book. She offers no sense of the menace, threats, sexual abuse these women lived with. The very premise of the story - that these women would risk their livelihoods - indeed their lives - to tell their stories to a l'il ole white gal is beyond nonsensical.

maids in the south and in other places like South Africa. IF you read my post, I didn't say that Stockett did any research. I only indicated that there were people who were actively, intelligently documenting the black domestic worker and their relationship to their white employers and that real-time stories can still be found (outside of Stockett's fictionalized version).

I don't know for sure if the authors/academics of those 1940s, 50s, and 60s books works are white but the studies most certainly are out there. The book I listed is only one of several. Even a simple Google search tells you that.

Honestly, I'm pretty shocked Stockett didn't take advantage of the research but fwiw, I liked the story even knowing intuitively that the women domestics must have suffered more than she portrayed. I'd go further and speculate that the (spoiler alert!) "chocolate pie" episode occurred far more frequently than many employers would have cared to think about.

I enjoyed the book (although the editor in me was fritzing quite a bit over some questionable choices in focus and pacing and red herrings). And I love, love, love Emma Stone--she's not how I pictured Skeeter, but I'll take it.

FWIW, the controversy eludes me. I never thought of the story as "white woman guides black women toward civil rights". I just saw it as women of all colors helping each other out and helping everyone move forward, equally. I also didn't see it as an encapsulation or allegory of the entire civil rights movement--just a small, localized piece of it. :shrug:

It made me cry in places, though, and from the movie trailers it looks a little more cheery. I will probably see the movie, and I am reserving judgment.

I was born in 1963. My grandma was a domestic to a Jewish family until about 1967 when my grandfather made her quit. Her mother before her had been a "mammy" to a white family until the late 40s. It is indeed a complicted relationship. The kids my great-grandma raised loved her and treated her well until her death in 1972. She loved them but hated their parents. They came to see her anytime they had a problem and always showered her with gifts and money. She had such mixed feelings. She had witnessed a couple of lynchings in her lifetime. My grandmoher had a more equal relationship with her Jewish family. They encouraged her in sending her children to college and helped my grandfather pay for college for 3 out of 5 kids. Jews had problems of their own during that time in the South. This was in Tennesse, not the deep South. It wasn't quite Mississippi.

of positive publicity. As much respect as I have for Melissa Perry, I intend to see the movie.

it was praised to the heavens by Oprah & her book Club. Medgar Evers' widow Myrlie Evers-Williams liked the film. So not everyone feels the same!


I loved the book and will see the movie Monday evening.