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    Hardly Heartwarming: Constructing and Depicting Womanhood and the White Savior Trope in Contemporary Film

    Cover for Hardly Heartwarming: Constructing and Depicting Womanhood and the White Savior Trope in Contemporary Film
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    Creator
    Deutsch, Gabrielle Joan
    Advisor
    Fox, Pamela
    ORCID
    0000-0001-9284-5075
    Abstract
    This thesis looks at the white savior trope in two post-2000 popular films, The Blind Side (2009) and Precious (2009). More specifically, the thesis examines the role of the mother, mothering figure, or maternal caretaker within these films. Through contextualizing these films as deeply embedded and coming out of a society where white supremacy both historically and presently impacts opportunity, treatment, perception, and the way someone is gazed upon, this thesis turns to disparate constructions of black and white womanhood and motherhood within these films. I examine how maternal figures in these films, despite the way these films are marketed as “heartwarming” or progressive, are used to propagate white supremacist and racist ideas and reinforce rather than question the racial hierarchies. Ultimately, this thesis attempts to disrupt mainstream white feminist readings of these films and through demonstrating the ways in which these films foreclose the possibility of black motherhood.
    Description
    M.A.
    Permanent Link
    http://hdl.handle.net/10822/1059473
    Date Published
    2020
    Subject
    Motion pictures; Motion pictures -- Research; Film studies;
    Type
    thesis
    Publisher
    Georgetown University
    Extent
    69 leaves
    Collections
    • Graduate Theses and Dissertations - English
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    Georgetown University Seal
    ©2009 - 2023 Georgetown University Library
    37th & O Streets NW
    Washington DC 20057-1174
    202.687.7385
    digitalscholarship@georgetown.edu
    Accessibility