Anorexia and bulimia
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Camille Page:
The watermelon, seems to me, another image that has been misinterpreted by a lot of black commentary. The great extended family, Italian get togethers that I remember as a child, ended with the men bringing out a watermelon and ritualistically cutting it and distributing the pieces to everyone. Almost like the commune service. And I really dislike this kind of reductionism of a picture like, say, of a small black boy with a watermelon, him smiling broadly over it. Looking at that as negative. Why is that not instead a symbol of joy and pleasure and fruitfulness? And, after all, a piece of watermelon has the colors of the Italian flag: red or white or green. So, I'm biased to that extent. But, I think that some - if the watermelon symbolizes African-American culture, rightly so, because look what white middle class feminism stands for: anorexia and bulimia
The watermelon, seems to me, another image that has been misinterpreted by a lot of black commentary. The great extended family, Italian get togethers that I remember as a child, ended with the men bringing out a watermelon and ritualistically cutting it and distributing the pieces to everyone. Almost like the commune service. And I really dislike this kind of reductionism of a picture like, say, of a small black boy with a watermelon, him smiling broadly over it. Looking at that as negative. Why is that not instead a symbol of joy and pleasure and fruitfulness? And, after all, a piece of watermelon has the colors of the Italian flag: red or white or green. So, I'm biased to that extent. But, I think that some - if the watermelon symbolizes African-American culture, rightly so, because look what white middle class feminism stands for: anorexia and bulimia
Full Transcript
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The watermelon seems to me another image that has been
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misinterpreted by a lot of black commentary
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The great extended family Italian get togethers
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that I remember as a child
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ended with the men bringing out a watermelon
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and ritualistically cutting it
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and distributing the pieces to everyone
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almost like the communion service
00:00:19.285 --> 00:00:22.722
And I really dislike this kind of reductionism
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of a picture let's say of a small black boy
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with a watermelon him smiling broadly over it
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looking at that as negative
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Why is that not instead a symbol of joy and pleasure
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and fruitfulness
00:00:35.968 --> 00:00:37.679
and after all a piece of watermelon has the colors
00:00:37.703 --> 00:00:40.007
of the Italian flag red white and green
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so I'm biased to that extent
00:00:41.941 --> 00:00:43.466
But I think that um
00:00:43.709 --> 00:00:46.144
if the watermelon symbolizes African American culture
00:00:46.178 --> 00:00:47.908
rightly so
00:00:47.947 --> 00:00:50.473
because look what white middle class feminism
00:00:50.716 --> 00:00:52.878
stands for anorexia and bulimia
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Movie Summary
A young black lesbian filmmaker probes into the life of The Watermelon Woman, a 1930s black actress who played 'mammy' archetypes.
Actors
Camille Page
