The Help Is Trending on Netflix. Here’s Why Twitter Users Are Begging You to Watch Something Else
A lot of people are watching The Help right now. In fact, according to *Entertainment Weekly,, the 2011 film is the most-viewed movie on Netflix amid nationwide Black Lives Matter protests.
It’s not hard to see why that may be. The Help, based on Kathryn Stockett’s 2009 novel of the same name, is an Oscarwinner that stars Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Jessica Chastain, Anna Camp, and Octavia Spencer! It follows a privileged young Southern woman (Stone) in the early 1960s who interviews the maids working for white families during the civil rights movement. How could such a film possibly be problematic?
Well, the film was written and directed by a white man, based on a novel by a white woman, and centers the story around white people—particularly Stone’s character, who is a prime example of a white savior. It’s understandable that many Twitter users have slammed The Help as a tool to educate yourself about systemic racism in this country, especially when the streaming service and other platforms offer better options by Black filmmakers.
“I beg of you: stop watching The Help, it will not make you better at facing your privilege or whatever,” Elamin Abdelmahmoud wrote on Twitter.
“I’m so sorry but the last thing folx need to be watching are bootleg ‘racial reconciliation’ movies like The Help," film critic Rebecca Theodore-Vachon also tweeted. “If you need a list of Black films, Black film critics are on here happy to suggest some really good ones.”
In fact, even Davis, who played Aibileen, has spoken out against the film. “Have I ever done roles that I’ve regretted? I have, and The Help is on that list,” Davis told the New York Times in 2018.
While the actor made it very clear her experience was positive and the people involved in the movie were great, the problem was that the plot focused more on white voices than black ones. “I just felt that at the end of the day that it wasn’t the voices of the maids that were heard,” Davis explained. “I know Aibileen. I know Minny [played by Octavia Spencer]. They’re my grandma. They’re my mom. And I know that if you do a movie where the whole premise is, I want to know what it feels like to work for white people and to bring up children in 1963, I want to hear how you really feel about it. I never heard that in the course of the movie.”
It’s precisely why members of the Black community and allies have come forward to explain that there are better anti-racist movies and television worth viewing. If you have a Netflix subscription and you’re really looking to delve deeper, Moonlight, 13th, When They See Us, and Dear White People are good places to start.
Originally Appeared on Glamour
