The Forty-Year-Old Version follows a teacher and minor playwright as she approaches her 40s, following her struggle as she considers success, opportunity, and staying true to herself. What was undoubtedly one of the largest themes in Forty Years was the idea of "Poverty Porn," especially in relation to race.
We see the buildup to this early on. Radha, a black woman, writes a play with the desire to simply tell a black story. It is set in a city undergoing gentrification, but the main focus is on the characters. When she tries to sell it to a white producer, however, she is given an ultimatum. Whether he believes her story won't sell as-is, or simply wasn't interested himself, he forces her to either sell out and change her story to fit his narrative or to find someone else to produce it, which is not an option for her if she wants to break out of her slump. To make things worse, Archie tells her that her next play will be "hers," and she just has to get through this obstacle to get there.
She becomes understandably frustrated by this, and continuously more so as she is faced with challenges such as not being able to get a black director, and her cast is upset with her for stereotypical portrayals that she was forced to include. It was heartbreaking to see these things happen during her process, especially when considering Archie's role. Not only was her best friend pushing her to give up something she held so dear for the sake of opportunity, but he acted as if she was obligated to destroy her story because he used sexual favors to get her the opportunity in the first place.
To cope, she decides to switch to rapping, making a song called "Poverty Porn" about how whites often exploit black struggles. They don't believe that telling an everyday black story for the sake of telling an everyday black story is worth anything, even though everyday white stories are acceptable. If the black population wants some representation, there better be something heavy there - slavery, gang violence, neglect. In this case, white producers (and audiences), embodied through Whitman, make it clear that a black couple's struggle is irrelevant if a white person isn't along for the ride and/or it isn't tragic enough.
I loved that this idea was explored in this movie because it reminded me of a paper I read on JSTOR while researching for my project in this class. The paper, "Is Viola Davis in It?" by Kellie Carter Jackson, talks about the diversity of roles for black women in film. The point she was making in the paper was a bit different than in the movie, but it nevertheless centered around the idea that viewers expect to see black stories in a certain way, referencing the "single story" by Chimamanda Adichie. In this movie, this was portrayed as whites overriding black authors to tell 'authentic' black stories.
Like Whitman didn't want a black story unless it centered around white people in some way, many modern viewers don't want to see black stories unless they are focused on overcoming racism or slavery - such as Harriet or The Help. In other words, viewers today often don't want black stories unless they are centered around white people in some way. When I was told Forty Years was a comedy, I was not expecting such a strong message, but I'm glad it was there. This movie really got me thinking about black stories and black roles in a way I don't think any other movie this semester has, and I'm thankful for that.
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