American Horror Story
has done a good job including women of color in its cast. This season called “Coven” has made race a
prime theme with storylines that involve slavery and voodoo. However, the biggest (pun intended) development
is the casting of Gabourey Sidibe, who is estimated to weigh as much as 350lbs,
in the role of Queenie. Gabourey is best
known for her best actress nominated role as Precious in the film Precious (2009). Queenie and Precious
share many similarities such as their love for food and inner strength. The character of Queenie in American Horror Story: Coven is both
enabling and constraining because it demonstrates that there are places for powerful,
obese African American women in our society.
The importance of this cannot be understated. According to Blanton, “Black media play a significant role in determining
the content of blacks’ view of themselves.” However, Coven
does so by centering her character around stereotypes relating to food, size, racism,
and the phenomenon known as the angry black woman.
Somehow, the narrative about race
in America has shifted. A Rasmussen poll from July has framed Blacks as more
racist than Whites. Historically, Whites have oppressed racial
minorities and we don’t forget that watching Coven all the flashbacks and call
backs to slavery. The other black
character on Coven, Marie
Laveau, tells Queenie, “Their power is built on the sweat of our backs. The only reason you and I in this country is cause
our great-great grandpas couldn’t run fast enough. You’ll never be welcome here
and those witches are the worst.” Marie
wants Queenie to leave the Coven and come live with her own people. Marie comments, “Livin over there in wonder
bread land. They probably feed ya Shake N Bake and watermelon for dessert.”
Queenie tells Marie, “They don’t care that I’m black. I just think that they just don’t like me.” Marie objects, Ohhhhhh. They care plenty.” This was not the first time Queenie’s race
had been brought to her attention. Madame Marie Delphine LaLaurie, the show’s resident
racist, earlier told her that the girls at the coven were never going to see
her as their sister because was black.
This seemed to bother Queenie, although it shouldn’t have, because
Blacks are more racist, right? Let’s
look at how this representation of Queenie’s race is both harmful and beneficial.
Queenie attacks the witches in
the coven for their whiteness, but the racial attacks are not reciprocated. This is harmful because it supports the
results from the Rasmussen poll that claim that Blacks are more racist than
Whites. Queenie didn’t know there were black witches. She
tells the girls, “I grew up on white
girl shit, like Charmed and Sabrina the Teenage Cracker.”
In one example of Queenie’s attacks, Zoe,
a coven member, cites how the number of witches have dwindled and how they need
to watch each other’s backs going forward.
Queenie retorts, “Look, I’ve been taking care of myself for a really
long time. So I’m not sure I need some white girl sorority sisters to cover my
ass.” Zoe is quick to correct her that
it is a coven, not a sorority. Queenie’s drawing attention to race makes it
appear as if she is the only coven member that it matters to and is the reason
that she does not like them. Queenie’s
framing as a racist is beneficial in the sense that it gives her a sort of
agency and she escapes finger pointing of blacks as “eternal racial crybabies
who love to scream racism at every slight or failure (Hutchinson).” She is self-aware. She is equal to the other
witches. She is free to be blunt and
speak her mind and is not subservient.
In our culture, fatness is not
synonymous with blackness, but Coven
found an easy way to go there using food.
When Queenie and Marie Lavue meet for the first time Queenie asks, “You
doing some kind of voodoo with those fish heads?” Marie is making gumbo. Being from Detroit (go figure) and living in “wonder
bread land,” Queenie has never had gumbo.
Marie states, “And I know you didn’t cross the line and break the truce
for no bowl of gumbo.” I am sure that line was meant to be cute, but you cannot
overlook what it suggests especially after having watched Marie give Queenie a
taste from a large wooden spoon. Gumbo =
Soul = Black.
Queenie
= fat = will eat anything. However, gumbo talk set up was fodder to introduce the
Shake N Bake gem. “Black people are
engaged in an ideological warfare with between race, identity, and food
(Williams, p. 170). Unfortunately, Queenie’s
backstory involved her working at a fried chicken joint and fighting over fried
chicken with a black man. According to
Sparky, “Seriously, it could have been
anything in the world and American Horror Story chose to have Black people
fighting over chicken.” Aside from being
stereotypical, the story created a viewing rupture by linking Queenie to Precious
who ran down the street with a bucket of stolen fried chicken. Queenie’s relationship with food shields her
from racial attacks since it is a lot more convenient for people to attack her
based on her weight. Queenie told Madame
Delphine, “My problem aint food you dumb bitch.
It’s love. Dr. Phil says that
kids from broken homes use food to replace love. It’s comforting.” That quote ties things together nicely. Black =Broke Home = Overeating.
Why does being a strong black
woman come with drawbacks? Nichole Perkins
writes, “The Strong Black Woman is a supposed to be positive, a counterpoint to
the negative representations of black women that permeate American culture.” She references the role of Queenie being a
human voodoo doll who doesn’t feel pain although she can inflict it on
others.
The problem with this power is that Queenie usually it when she is angry. For example, the girls try to get information from butler and he won’t oblige. Queenie kicks his chair and then she takes the hot spatula to her face (which burns him) and says that they will wait for him to wake up to kill him so that he can feel the pain. She threatens to eat one of her sisters, threatens to slap Madame Delphine, threatens to throw a plate at her head, and lifts up her hand to strike her although she does not follow through. Madame Delphine seemed to be trying to correct her racist ways and she and Queenie were beginning to get along. However, after meeting with Maria Lavue, Queenie decides to deliver Madame Delphine to her. Madame Delphine looks so betrayed as she says, “No. You don’t know this woman. What she’ll do to me.” Queenie’s response, “Yes, I do. That’s the reason I brought you here, you dumb bitch.” Shortly thereafter, Madame Delphine gives Queenie a knife to cut Madam Delphine. Yes, she literally cut a bitch.
The problem with this power is that Queenie usually it when she is angry. For example, the girls try to get information from butler and he won’t oblige. Queenie kicks his chair and then she takes the hot spatula to her face (which burns him) and says that they will wait for him to wake up to kill him so that he can feel the pain. She threatens to eat one of her sisters, threatens to slap Madame Delphine, threatens to throw a plate at her head, and lifts up her hand to strike her although she does not follow through. Madame Delphine seemed to be trying to correct her racist ways and she and Queenie were beginning to get along. However, after meeting with Maria Lavue, Queenie decides to deliver Madame Delphine to her. Madame Delphine looks so betrayed as she says, “No. You don’t know this woman. What she’ll do to me.” Queenie’s response, “Yes, I do. That’s the reason I brought you here, you dumb bitch.” Shortly thereafter, Madame Delphine gives Queenie a knife to cut Madam Delphine. Yes, she literally cut a bitch.
American Horror Story Coven is a very intriguing show that is not
afraid to tackle racism and body image.
The casting of Gabourey Sidibe is undermined by the fact that she comes
off as an unsympathetic character mainly because she is given many stereotypes
to work off such as being angry, loud, racist, and a fat chick that eats too
much. She stands out literally and
figuratively. The thing to remember is
that while her representation is constraining, it is also very enabling for the
sheer fact that she is allowed into the space with a bunch of tiny white actresses
and her character is given agency by being able to stand on its own without
having to be someone’s victim.
Williams,
Psyche A. Sucking the Bone Dry.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/earl-ofari-hutchinson/why-so-many-believe-black_b_3557793.html
http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2013/11/the-problem-with-queenie-on-american_1.html
