I recently saw the new Charlyne Yi movie because I am always up for a good love story and the added bonus of supporting a woman of color’s screenwriting debut. But the hybrid-documentary, “Paper Heart,” was totally disappointing. The sometimes subversive nature of the film’s portrayal of a dynamic woman not looking for love was overshadowed by her inability to be more inclusive when exploring perspectives on love from couples and singles in the US.
Considering that our culture is full of films about romance where women are preoccupied with being loved by men who are off tending to their expanding careers, the film starts with great potential. It’s Charlyne’s career we see expand. She is the comedian/musician making a film that documents her entrance into film making as much as it explores her existentialist questions about love.
Our journey with her takes us to Tennessee, Georgia, Oklahoma and Arkansas — to name a few. From scientists to divorce judges, biker clubs and a kitschy Elvis impersonator/wedding officiator, interviews on love from white folks are copious. While her interracial romance with Michael Cera is a central subject of the film — it's anyone's guess whether they are acting or not — people of color and their love experiences are dramatically underrepresented.
There are no interviews from black couples at all. Perhaps the most troubling, is a scene filmed in Atlanta on a playground filled with black children where the prominent black female voice exclaims her love for batterer/entertainer Chris Brown. Her own parents, her father of Korean, Irish, German, French and Native American descent and her mom of Filipino-Spanish ancestry, only make cameos and brief commentary unrelated to their love and partnership. Latino couples and their narratives on love are largely absent. This is a stark contrast to the extensive interviews she conducts of mostly monogamous, straight white couples or the testimonies of lost love from white men that fill the film. To her credit, she does make an attempt to represent a gay couple who make a plug for gay marriage. But they are also white and male, reinforcing the notion that gay marriage is a white, middle class issue.
Let's face it: the racial composition of actors in a cast matter. Diversity matters in a context where whites have monopolized a vast majority of the narratives on love in Hollywood. Yi’s myopic representations on love in this film raise a question Feministing’s Samhita has helped me grapple with as her former student: What do we get (materially, tangibly etc.) when we get diverse representation of decision-makers in the media or public life? The notion has been that we need to elect women and people of color, appoint them to the Supreme Court, train them to be filmmakers and producers because the assumption was these actions would produce change in these various settings. But more and more it seems that diversity doesn’t make much of a difference. While recent movies that model inclusiveness may escape me, Rebecca Walker’s recent book “One Big Happy Family ,” is probably one of the most diverse representations of modern love. This non-fictive project represents prison marriages, open marriages, sperm donation, interracial adoption, egalitarian partnerships between men and women and love that spans the decades to name just some of the ground covered. This book doesn’t just account for love but partnerships and romantic relationships that work, that is, are functional and healthy.
I will say, despite the film’s inclusiveness shortcomings, “Paper Heart” helped me think about a few things that have been occurring in our political context. The film’s red state tour really helps complicate the scenes that have filled the media in the past weeks of angry, disruptive conservatives railing on elected officials. Yi really brings out the softer side of taxidermy loving, gun-toting folks in the deep South. Also, in romantic scenes with Cera and Yi, I couldn’t help but think about the coverage of the homecoming of the two Asian-American female journalists and their interracial relationships. Does interracial romance have political implications? That is, does it say something about our overall ability to come together across racial lines? Is the race of the people we love and date separate from our politics?
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The fact that (as I worried) there is no representation of a lesbian couple reminds me of the end of a South Park episode where gay rights/parenting were the main topic. At the end of the show, there's a rally where the kids talk about that episode's lesson and a lone woman's voice yells out "what about the lesbians?" and is answered "nobody cares about lesbians." Roll credits. Matt and Trey aren't always great when it comes to sensitivity, but that's exactly how it feels so often...lesbians just don't count (unless it's porn...for men...and they're not really gay...and they look the "right" way...and they're NOT in love. Ever.). Yeah.
Anyway, back on point, I really want to see this movie, but now I know not to get my hopes up for any kind of diversity -- racial, or otherwise.
I was really disappointed in this film as well. As you said, diversity was severely lacking. And also the "joke" that one of the bikers made about beating his wife (Yi seemed to find this hilarious) combined with the young girls gushing over Chris Brown pretty much turned me off to this movie.
Aside from all that there was just a falseness and lack of depth to this movie that left me a bit cold.
This saddens me. I was looking forward to this movie and now I'm not so sure I'm going to see it
growing up, I had a hard time finding couples that where like my parents (White guy with Latina). Heck, at 19 my heart jumps when I see paring like that since they remind me of my parents. It didn't help, that I didn't know a lot kids in my school that had the same heritage as I did. Somethimes, I wonder does Personal has to be political? Can't I find someone attractive and not worry if there is something subconscious about it? Or Can't I find someone UNATTRACTIVE and not worry if there is something subconscious about it? It a shame since people were talking how great this movie was.
Gothicguera, I can say that from my perspective, personal does have to be political. I'm a black woman, so I represent the most un-liaised race of women on the block, which has to do with a societal view of black women as unfeminine or unattractive. I wish more people would question how they connect with other people, and if those romantic choices are informed by societal views that need to be challenged. That would certainly help to ameliorate black women's situation, as well as older women, Asian men, and any other group whose otherness makes it hard to find a date!