Good Morning POU!
Foxy Brown, Cleopatra Jones, Black Lolita! Its the Queens of Blaxploitation!
Women have long been negatively stereotyped in American society, usually portrayed as submissive and passive while at the same time seen as disobedient and pushy. These contradictory representations are doubly imposed on Black women. The knowledge that we have about Black women during Slavery shows two main descriptions: a sexual object for the master’s pleasure or a ‘mammy’ figure that devotes all her time to her master’s family instead of her own. Unwanted sexual harassment caused Black women to take on the de-sexualized role of the ‘mammy’ to try and get away from the horrible sexual acts committed against them.
During the Blaxploitation film craze of the 1970’s women seemed to gain more control over their sexuality, lives and destinies, at least in the movies. The ‘strong Black woman’ representation was prominent throughout Blaxploitation films and featured heroines taking control over their lives, as well as the things and people that mattered to them.
The Blaxploitation movies provided alternative images of black femininity that signified empowerment and liberation for many African-American women who were tired of viewing filmic images of black women as either maids or seductresses.
Political activist and scholar, Angela Davis became the model for Blaxploitation heroine styles due to her status as the icon for Black Nationalism.
Black women received a jolt of empowerment. The depictions of them were sexy, strong, independent with a ‘take no mess’ attitude. This was quite contrary to everyone else having control over a Black women’s life, especially her sexuality. In these films the woman is represented as being in control of her own life, her own issues and especially her own sexuality. The heroines in the Blaxploitation films enjoyed a notion of freedom from control. They did as they wanted, reacted however they felt and had sexual relations with whom they chose, not the choosing of someone else.
Black women wanted to identify with being strong and independent. They wanted to be in control of their lives and the female protagonists of Blaxploitation films showed them that it was acceptable to do this. It was acceptable to take ownership of your own sexuality and if you wanted, use it to your advantage. The sense of free will, independence and agency reigned as observable, tangible elements of these women.
The Queens of Blaxploitation
Pam Grier
In 1967 while working as a receptionist, Grier was “discovered” at American International Pictures (AIP). While under contract at AIP, she became a staple of Blaxploitation movies, playing big, bold, assertive women, beginning with Jack Hill’s Coffy (1973), in which she plays a nurse who seeks revenge on drug dealers. Her character was advertised in the trailer as the “baddest one-chick hit-squad that ever hit town!” The film, which was filled with sexual and violent elements typical of the genre, was a box-office hit. Grier was noted as the first African-American female to headline an action film, as protagonists of previous Blaxploitation films were males. In his review of Coffy, critic Roger Ebert praised the film for its believable female lead. He noted that Grier was an actress of “beautiful face and astonishing form” and that she possessed a kind of “physical life” missing from many other attractive actresses
She also starred in Foxy Brown, Sheba Baby and Friday Foster – and a poster in every black barbershop in America. You can’t think of the era without thinking of Pam Grier.
Vonetta McGhee
Vonetta played love interest to Richard Roundtree aka Shaft aka the most acclaimed blaxploitation movie ever or at least its sequel, Shaft in Africa. She hit it big in the cult classics, Blacula and Hammer, going on to star in many other films. She had all the makings of an onscreen diva and the brains of a righteous thinking woman, saying “That label [blaxploitation] was used like racism, so you don’t have to think of the individual elements, just the whole.”
She also starred in Melinda, Detroit 9000, Thomasine and Bushrod.
Judy Pace
Pace got her first major break in Hollywood as the first black villainess on TV with her role as “Vickie Fletcher” in the hit ABC-TV soap-opera/drama series Peyton Place (1968). She became a familiar face in the 1970s on both the big and small screen, appearing in popular blaxploitation movies and popular television shows. Television shows on which she appeared include Batman, Tarzan, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, The Flying Nun, I Spy, The Mod Squad, That’s My Mama, Kung Fu, Sanford and Son, Good Times and What’s Happening!!. For one season, she starred in the drama The Young Lawyers broadcast on ABC. Pace also had a key supporting role as Gale Sayers‘s wife in the critically acclaimed 1971 ABC-TV movie Brian’s Song.
Notable Blaxploitation films: Cool Breeze, The Slam, Cotton Comes To Harlem.
Denise Nicholas
At the age of 16, Denise Nicholas appeared on the August 25, 1960, cover of Jet magazine as a future school teacher prospect at the National High School Institute at Northwestern University. She entered the Univ of Michigan as a Pre-Law major. While at Michigan, she switched her major to Latin-American politics, Spanish, and English. She subsequently transferred to Tulane University, where she majored in Fine Arts. Her acting debut was in a Spanish play presented by her language class. She left college early to join the Free Southern Theater (FST), during the Civil Rights Movement. After spending two years touring the deep South with the FST, Nicholas went to New York City and joined the Negro Ensemble Company, working in all productions during the first season of that theatre ensemble.
Her notable roles in Blaxploitation films include: Blacula, Let’s Do It Again, A Piece Of The Action, The Soul of Nigger Charley.
Tamara Dobson
At 6’2, the fabulous Tamara Dobson was THE baddest chick as the infamous Cleopatra Jones.
Dobson started her modeling career doing fashion shows at her school, Maryland Institute College of Art, where she also received her degree in fashion illustration. While studying, she was discovered in 1969 and began to film commercials and modeling. After school, she moved from Maryland to New York to model and act full-time. Dobson eventually became a fashion model for Vogue Magazine, in addition to modeling for Essence magazine. She was also in commercials for Revlon, Fabergé, and Chanel. Dobson is also recognized by the Guiness book of world records as the “Tallest Leading Lady in Film”, standing at 6 foot 2 inches.
Her notable films also inlcude: Come Back Charleston Blue, Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold, Norman Is That You?
Marlene Clark
Did you know? In 1968, Marlene Clark married Billy Dee Williams in Hawaii. Their marriage lasted only two years and they officially divorced in 1971.
You may remember her also from television. She portrayed Janet Lawson, the fiancé of Lamont Sanford (Demond Wilson) in the 1970s sitcom Sanford and Son.
Notable films: Slaughter, Ganga and Hess, Enter the Dragon.
Jean Bell
Jean (sometimes credited as Jeanne or Jeannie) was the second African American to be a centerfold for Playboy magazine, as Playmate of the Month October 1969. She was the first to be a cover model in Jan. 1970.
Did you know? Bell dated Richard Burton and helped him quit drinking and as a result was credited with getting him back together with Elizabeth Taylor afterwards. An Earl Wilson column in September 1975 revealed Bell’s three-month friendship with the actor. She visited Burton at his villa in Céligny, Switzerland, during her effort to help him “dry out”. With his assistance Bell acquired a place of her own in Geneva, Switzerland.
Notable films: TNT Jackson, Three The Hard Way, The Muthers, Trouble Man, Melinda, Black Gunn.
Also honoring Teresa Graves who was never in a film but was the first black woman starring in an hour long drama on network television during this era…..and because I wanted to be Christie Love sooooooooo bad!
References: Women of Blaxploitation by Yvonne D. Sims and Wikipedia