I guess I have to
begin by admitting a potential bias as Claire is an old school friend
(although I think neither of us would dwell on the “old” part...)
but thankfully I found this a book that does require rose-tinted
glasses to review.
To apply
intellectual rigour to the lightweight output of mainstream Hollywood
is important as these are the movies that have a mass audience and as
such these have far greater cultural influence than many films which
would receive critical accolades.
It is perhaps no
great surprise to find that Hollywood is ultimately culturally
conservative, however it is interests to explore the ways in which
moments of seeming diversity or progressive portrayals are in fact
constrained.
Diversity is OK in
Hollywood, as long as you are middle-class and in the long run fall
into the basic pattern of the nuclear family. There are Black
families, but they are firmly middle-class, there are Gay families,
but not only are they also middle-class there is a strong binary
gendering of the familial roles adopted by the partners. There are
single-parents but their narrative resolution almost invariably the
establishment of a relationship (very often with the other biological
parent of their child).
Superficial
differences are accepted but underlining these is conformity. And
that message of conformity is all the more pervasive when clothed in
trappings of diversity.
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