{"id":595,"date":"2017-02-08T20:00:30","date_gmt":"2017-02-08T20:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/?p=595"},"modified":"2017-02-08T20:00:30","modified_gmt":"2017-02-08T20:00:30","slug":"evelyn-preer-as-a-vehicle-of-victimization-in-micheauxs-films","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/2017\/02\/08\/evelyn-preer-as-a-vehicle-of-victimization-in-micheauxs-films\/","title":{"rendered":"Evelyn Preer as a Vehicle of Victimization in Micheaux’s Films"},"content":{"rendered":"

This chapter is dedicated to the black actress Evelyn Preer, who appeared in many of Micheaux’s silent films. Her starring roles were often integral to narratives of victimization in relation to sexual violence, racial violence, abuse, and . In this chapter, her performances are likened to the silent film archetype of the suffering woman, or “embodiment of suffering onscreen”. While white actresses were also primarily used as vehicles of suffering in order to progress a plot, Micheaux wrote characters for Evelyn that revealed the \u00a0overwhelming influence that white patriarchy had over both black and white female bodies. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For example, many silent movies of the era often integrated elements of “the displacement of male lack onto women” through the physical and sexual abuse of the female characters on screen. In this way, males would “reclaim” some of their masculinity by inflicting pain onto female bodies. However, Micheaux would reveal this gendered oppression through the black female body<\/span> in addition to <\/span><\/i>addressing racial oppression through the depiction of different narrative elements, including but not limited to : cross racial white lust, the “return of the oppressed” through the awakening of a character to stand up to an oppressor, and explicitly defending oneself against white on black violence. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Micheaux also would employ some common techniques in regard to the depiction of women in silent film, such as playing with the virgin \/ witch archetype (or the innocent who becomes the villain) for the purpose of questioning how black female bodies are able to embody more than one dimension of suffering in their characters. <\/span><\/p>\n

However, these thoughtful and daring narratives were often challenged, and there is evidence that some have been cut out altogether. There is a particular instance in the film, <\/span>Within Our Gates <\/span><\/i>where an entire scene of a black man standing up to a white assailant was cut out. The only evidence we have that it even existed was found in Evelyn’s personal accounts. The scene is not in the surviving copy of the film. This is just one of many scenes that were probably cut from a number of films so that white supremacy could perpetuate its power through the distortion and censorship of media. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This chapter is dedicated to the black actress Evelyn Preer, who appeared in many of Micheaux’s silent films. Her starring<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}