Do You Mean to Recommend Me to the Love of a Good Man?


So Lily Bart responds to Carrie, tongue firmly planted in cheek, in The House of Mirth after Carrie says urgently, "Lily, you must marry, as soon as you can" As if it was as easy as all that.

Was pretty easy for Leticia and Hank, though, in that way that things come easy when you're pounded to a pulp, so beat down by life that you have no defenses left. I finally saw Monster's Ball (again and again) this past weekend. (Have I mentioned that I love DirectTV, and its Blockbuster offerings at the push of a button?) I was curiously drawn to the movie, and not just because of the soft porn of the NR version, nor the fact that Billy Bob's kinda cute, nor the fact that I was tickled when he said "How ya mama nem?", but more by the movie's twisted take on the traditional fairy tale. Her prince wasn't on a white horse, sure, but he lived in a white skin, AND he did, without delay, get her a ride and new digs through no effort of her own.

Except for the humping, that is. Guess he was whipped. Quick too! Well you know what they say: "once you go Black... "(well, half-Black).


Happily ever after.

It occurred to me, after I overcame the initial shock, that NONE of the hoopla that I encountered surrounding Monster's Ball concerned the fact that this Black woman (well, half-Black) had won for a role in which she was, well, you know, doing it, not making love, but really doing it, hungrily, again and again. The fact that it was with a white guy (which comprised the hoopla I heard) was beside the point.


The fact that the Oscar-winning role was one that depicted an abusive, substance-abusing, scantily-clad Black single mom, who's a little, er...assertive, about her sexual needs, surprised me. It's the other stereotype, you know, not the maid-mammy, for which Hattie McDaniel won an Oscar however many years ago), but the ho. This is progress?

So my pumpkin says to me, after we watched some romantic trifle, he says to me, "So when are you gonna get a guy, mom?" Kids today.

As if it was as easy as all that.