- Jan 18, 2000
- 18,500
- 2,426
- 136
Kong: Skull Island - March 2017
- Thread starter SKORPI0
- Start date
Svnla
Lifer
- Nov 10, 2003
- 17,986
- 1,388
- 126
AznAnarchy99
Lifer
- Dec 6, 2004
- 14,695
- 117
- 106
madoka
Diamond Member
- Jun 22, 2004
- 4,344
- 712
- 121
On NPR. . .
The show interviewed Robin Means Coleman, a professor of Afro-American studies at the University of Michigan who specializes in studying King Kong.
Coleman said:
"King Kong was a metaphor for black masculinity. This is a big black man, a big black ape who is absolutely obsessed with ... white women."
More commentary from other sources:
Kong is often conceived of as the monstrous embodiment of the African-American experience, a powerful "primitive" being forcibly taken from the tropical realm where his hegemony is absolute and displayed in bondage as a figure of exotic amusement (though not, curiously, as a beast of burden, as were the historical African slaves). He escapes and asserts not only his physical prowess but also, potentially, his sexual prowess by abducting Fay Wray's Ann Darrow, the blond, virtuous personification of white American womanhood.
Clutching the object of his forbidden, impossible desire, Kong is chased to the pinnacle of the inescapably phallic Empire State Building (a freshly-built structure in 1933 whose appearance in an iconic piece of cinema helped allay scepticism about it from both potential tenants and from the wider public). There, his savage defiance of the democratic capitalist order (and of firmly-defended racial taboos) sees him executed summarily by biplanes.
It doesn't take a Ph.D. to see echoes of American's fraught historical discourse on race in such a tale. It evokes colonialism, the slave trade, Reconstruction, minstrel shows, Jim Crow, white supremacy ... miscegenation and urbanization[.]
The show interviewed Robin Means Coleman, a professor of Afro-American studies at the University of Michigan who specializes in studying King Kong.
Coleman said:
"King Kong was a metaphor for black masculinity. This is a big black man, a big black ape who is absolutely obsessed with ... white women."
More commentary from other sources:
Kong is often conceived of as the monstrous embodiment of the African-American experience, a powerful "primitive" being forcibly taken from the tropical realm where his hegemony is absolute and displayed in bondage as a figure of exotic amusement (though not, curiously, as a beast of burden, as were the historical African slaves). He escapes and asserts not only his physical prowess but also, potentially, his sexual prowess by abducting Fay Wray's Ann Darrow, the blond, virtuous personification of white American womanhood.
Clutching the object of his forbidden, impossible desire, Kong is chased to the pinnacle of the inescapably phallic Empire State Building (a freshly-built structure in 1933 whose appearance in an iconic piece of cinema helped allay scepticism about it from both potential tenants and from the wider public). There, his savage defiance of the democratic capitalist order (and of firmly-defended racial taboos) sees him executed summarily by biplanes.
It doesn't take a Ph.D. to see echoes of American's fraught historical discourse on race in such a tale. It evokes colonialism, the slave trade, Reconstruction, minstrel shows, Jim Crow, white supremacy ... miscegenation and urbanization[.]
13Gigatons
Diamond Member
- Apr 19, 2005
- 7,461
- 500
- 126
TRENDING THREADS
-
Discussion Zen 5 Speculation (EPYC Turin and Strix Point/Granite Ridge - Ryzen 9000)- Started by DisEnchantment
- Replies: 25K
-
Discussion Intel Meteor, Arrow, Lunar & Panther Lakes + WCL Discussion Threads
- Started by Tigerick
- Replies: 23K
-
Discussion Intel current and future Lakes & Rapids thread- Started by TheF34RChannel
- Replies: 23K
-
-
Facebook
Twitter