- Insecure , a comedy about the daily lives of four African-Americans, returned for a fourth season on April 13 on OCS.
- Relatively confidential in France, the series deserves our full attention.
- Aurélie Louchart, author of Trop crépues? , an essay dealing in particular with the representation of black women in mainstream cultural productions, dissects with 20 Minutes the importance of Insecure in the world of series.
Issa and her group of friends are back for a season 4 on HBO and OSC since April and if you don't watch, you missed your serialization. Fortunately, in this period of confinement - which is coming to an end -, you have a few days left to focus on Insecure , signed Larry Wilmore and Issa Rae (also interpreter of the main character). Relatively confidential in France, this comedy on the daily life of a young African-American in Los Angeles has everything of a small nugget.
If it is a question of four black women in the United States, Insecure is not however an openly political work, unlike Dear White People , for example, whose title puts the racial problem forward. That said, a fiction whose intrigue depicts the life of an Afro-descendant woman in Los Angeles cannot ignore the question of racism.
The cliché of the "strong black woman"
From the title, Insecure , Issa Rae subtly tackles the stereotypes of black women. "In the United States, audiovisual works often use stereotypes," explains Aurélie Louchart, author of Trop crépues? , an essay dealing in particular with the representation of black women in mainstream cultural productions. “One of the most common clichés is that of the" strong black woman ": strong, who does not cry and has no fragility. "
We also find, among others, the figures of the angry black woman, of the sexually voracious Jézabel, and of the Mammy, which goes back in history to the period of slavery and which describes a woman entirely devoted to the white family, especially children. “The representations evolve but they are part of a historical continuity. We do not deconstruct clichés anchored in the collective unconscious in five days, continues Aurélie Louchart. By focusing on the insecurities ( insecure ), it seems unlikely that the designer did not think the "strong black woman. '"
Besides, the heroine does not hide her weaknesses, she is depressed, mistaken, annoyingly lacking in self-confidence. The other female characters, in particular her best friend Molly, reveal themselves in all their complexity, with their faults and their qualities. The designer does not fall into the trap of counter-stereotypes (creating a black woman who would never get angry, for example) to respond to the cliché of the "angry black woman". It shows women as they are, sometimes angry, sometimes seductive, sometimes disarmed ...
A daily life punctuated by micro-aggressions
The same goes for the Afro-descendant men in this series. "They are not confined to the cliché of the strong man either, Issa Rae shows their weaknesses, without ridiculing them," insists Aurélie Louchart. And through this gallery of characters, the series describes a daily life punctuated by micro-aggressions and racist remarks. Molly's difficulty in being considered at fair value in a law firm, the exoticization of Lawrence when he participates in a threesome with two white ...
"The series exposes situations of clear racism, but it invites the televiewer to make its own opinion", explains Aurélie Louchart. Throughout the plot, she asks questions through a simple look, a facial expression, a furtive image. Insecure avoids explaining everything. "The designer trusts the intelligence of the public," says the journalist, who regrets, however, that the series retains some of the flaws of many American fictions. "The characters who are not part of the middle class are notably portrayed with less subtlety than the others".
The lack of black heroines on the small screen
Admittedly, this comedy is not perfect, but it has the merit of bringing to light the conscious and unconscious racism which prevails in society through a black heroine as funny as it is touching. It is still rare to meet this type of character on the small screen.
According to figures advanced in Too kinky? (Hikari), which refers to several American studies, “women represent only 30% of the talking characters in the films. (…) Non-whites, themselves, constitute only 28% of the speaking figures in the United States, while they represent 40% of the country's population ”. By crossing these two figures, it is even more improbable to come across a non-white woman with dialogues in a work. And let's not even talk about the main role ...
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