blaxploitation re_alisma HEY I HAVE SUCCESSFULLY RECOVERED ALL MY COLLEGE PAPERS! IT'S STILL TOO BAD I THREW AWAY ALL MY HOMEWORK. Here's an incredibly short paper from a class in which I got a B-, which is the worst grade I've ever gotten. I don't actually think you want to see the one that starts off with Margaret Drabble's careerist intentions? 14 March 1997 Film Midterm-#5 Jack Hill's blaixploitation film Coffy (1973) is an action movie with an African-American woman as the title character and protagonist (Pam Grier). Coffy is out for violent revenge against drug dealers responsible for ruining her sister's mental health. She gains access to the drug and prostitute scene by using her sexuality as a guise for her deathly intentions against the unsuspecting men who lust after her. Such a role can be seen as empowering to African-American women or as demeaning female power for the gaze of heterosexual male viewers. Although the power of Coffy's sexuality is liberating because it is a purely female brand of power, it cannot be denied that this presence is mainly an exhibit for the pleasure of a male audience. On one level, Coffy is empowering to female sexuality simply because she is victorious. She seduces and then eventually kills almost every male character in the movie. Her sexuality is a superpower of cunning and deceit rather than brute force. Intelligence combined with innate female sex characteristics make Coffy unstoppable. Moreover, she is fueled by raw anger, an emotion that men often deny women. Finally, her power is elevated due to an exotic, dark sexuality that is clearly more potent than the sexuality of white women in the film. Coffy's character sends a liberating message to African-American women in the audience: if you're mad about something, you can vindicate yourself using your innate power of sex combined with a little cunning. The message is especially effective because African-American women are usually treated as powerless in this society. On the other hand, a heterosexual male audience can also gain pleasure by watching Coffy. She fits Amazon woman stereotype of a scantily clad, athletic mass of unbridled passion. The power that Coffy holds over the male characters in the movie is undermined by the gaze of the male spectator. The male audience holds domination over what Coffy represents by treating her as an object to be watched, and it is no matter how powerful she is. The domination is reinforced when the spectators view the people on screen as entertainment. If Coffy's sexuality is examined closely, we find out that the picture of her as empowered woman is imperfect. Although she uses her sexuality to trick the bad guys, she also flirts and seduces with the same ease in her true love relationships. It is a little unbelievable that her sexuality could be used haphazardly to get whatever she wants. The intelligent conniving that we assume an empowered Coffy to have would be more specific to the situation in her seductive ways. Coffy's sexuality is also presented as erotic, which is often an excuse for allowing the viewers to watch her sexuality more closely. The other prostitutes resent Coffy so she is set apart from the other women in the film. Coffy's power is unique. Male viewers don't have to worry about large groups of women out for revenge. The separation of Coffy from the others is also enforced by her race difference. Coffy is the most powerful, but she is also the one marginalized the most by the male gaze, and it is not a coincidence that she is an African-American woman. Coffy sends a dual message to the African-American female spectator. In concept, she is an empowering figure who uses her allure as a female to vent her anger as a female. However, her extreme power is also a vehicle to pleasure a male gaze, undermining any power she asserts. 111229 what's it to you? who go blather from