Where are my Brandy fans at? I had to make the screen caps
by hand for the ending of the episode for her first appearance on Drop Dead Diva. I am going to talk about the whole episode so everyone who
did not watch 3:11 Ah, Men of Drop Dead Diva please go watch the episode and
then come back and join us.
***SPOILERS***
The way that black women are portrayed in entertainment (TV
and movies) in interracial relationships is very interesting so I want to talk
about the episode in detail of course but first I want to use Elisa (Brandy’s
character) on the show and how she acts towards Parker as a framework of the
post.
Brandy/Elisa is presented a woman who is very care taking of
everyone around her since her father passed away and she became a nurse to help
him but in retrospect her physical appearance isn’t one that is completely
frumpy Mammy. Throughout the whole episode she looked very lady-like and put
together.
At first Parker is like: “she is my crazy ex-girlfriend from
eight years ago” but I think through her actions and very demure way of acting
makes him feel protective over her through the episode and then in the end when
he offered her a job, I wasn’t surprised in the least.
I think that I love this portrayal of Brandy because she
wasn’t ever portrayed as an evil ex-girlfriend/secret baby mama (it just felt
like a woman who had lost her parent who needed help). Plus, by the end of the
episode I felt like Brandy/Elisa still loved Parker because she hugged him even
though he offered a friendly handshake. I loved that vulnerable moment.
I love this character because it makes it feel like black
women are capable of the kind of longing that other women are even for bad men.
I have longed for guys who aren’t good for me as well, I don’t just jump on
that “F#$K! MEN!” bandwagon and I feel like media makes black women the poster women for
that kind of response anyway and I’m not down with that.
Very good observation, the character was written that way, so perhaps someone understands how a women of colour needs to be portrayed. We are so rarely portrayed in a positive light, especially in a negative situation.
ReplyDelete"We are so rarely portrayed in a positive light, especially in a negative situation."
ReplyDelete^^That is what got me so much about Brandy's character on the show and what I wrote about in part 3: "Secret baby" versus "Baby Mama Drama."