From mammies to action heroines: Female empowerment in black popular cinema

Black oriented films are a neglected area of study given their continued popularity and heavy influence on music and films. Black women's representations onscreen were limited to the Mammy and the exotic other before the 1970s. The explosion of Black oriented films led to a new construction of the Black woman and an alternative image of Black femininity that influenced a new sub-genre of films featuring strong women. Pam Grier, Tamara Dobson, and Teresa Graves' onscreen portrayals of strong, liberated women served as the basis for the construction of another image of femininity in general, one that resulted in an influx of films starring strong women in action-centered storylines. This dissertation discusses the filmic constructions of Black women and their onscreen empowerment in Black oriented films which led to the creation of the action heroine who has become a mainstay in popular cinema from the 1980s onward.