History or entertainment. . .It can't be both
I love Kerry Washington's portrayal of Olivia Pope on ABC's Scandal . I loved the way she delivered the line, "I love pussy" in Spike Lee's She Hate Me. I even like the lost girl looking for her mother's love in Lift . But trying to give more credence to her role as Broomhilda von Shaft in Django Unchained has me scratching my head. She said this to the Los Angeles Times : Washington, though, describes herself not just as a feminist but also a womanist — a term coined by Alice Walker to define black feminism. And the actress sees the role of Broomhilda, written by Quentin Tarantino but derived from a German fairy tale, as a womanist role in that it allows the black woman to embrace a fantasy that historically wasn't available to her. "I know it's not the most feminist idea to be a woman in a tower wanting to be rescued, but for a woman of color in this country, we've never been afforded that fairy tale because of how the ...