An examination of the stereotype of the hyper-sexualized black man and how that stereotype is subverted in Shirley Clarke's 1967 experimental documentary film Portrait of Jason
5. Perhaps most famous example is Tom
Robinson from To Kill A Mockingbird
“Last Taboo: Why Pop Culture Just Can’t Deal
With Black Male Sexuality”– Wesley Morris,
New York Times Magazine, 2016
“I know the fantasy exists. It renders black men
desired on one hand and feared on the other.”
D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of Nation (1915)
Maine governor Paul LePage: drug dealers come
to Maine for business and “half the time, they
impregnate a young white girl.”
Link: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/10/30/magazine/black-male-sexuality-last-taboo.html
6. Emmet Till
14 year old boy tortured and
murdered for allegedly whistling
at a white woman in 1955
Murderers acquitted, woman
later admits to lying about
accusation against Till
7. Claude Neal
Florida farmhand accused of raping and killing Lola
Cannady in 1934
Authorities move
him from prison to
prison to avoid lynch
mobs
Eventually found
by a mob, mutilated,
castrated, and lynched
8. Created in San Francisco
“You look at a colored boy and say you’re
humble? Who’s any prettier than the
white of Carl’s eyes?” [1:42:20]
Photo by Thomas Alleman from his 2012 collection “Dancing
in the Dragon’s Jaws,” which depicts San Francisco’s gay
scene in the 1980’s. Retrieved from: https://thebolditalic.com/
9. “I hustle, I am a
stone whore. And I’m
not ashamed of it.”
10. Works for a woman who treats her black
servants like slaves
Tells her black maid Beulah to “peel me a grape”
Has a nude portrait painted of herself: “Hang it
anyplace you like, as long as you don’t hang it
over the free lunch counter”
When people find out what he does, they ask
him inappropriate questions:
“How big is it?”
“Do you please them?”
11. When people find out what he does, they ask
him inappropriate questions:
“How big is it?”
“Do you please them?”
Intersection of objectification because he is
black, because he is gay, and because he is a sex
worker
12. “I’m a male bitch because I go out of my
way to unglue people.”
In his night club act, he becomes a “girl
who wants to be herself.”
Describes his relationship with the big
blond blue eyed construction worker in
terms eerily similar to those of women
being constrained to a domestic setting at
the hands of men [1:07:30]
13. “I fell in love, oh dear. I thought I was a
real lesbian” [1:24]
Talks about how fortunate he is to be
around such a “beautiful woman who was
all heart and expression” [1:34]
14. All of these encounters are fleeting, and he
recounts many more like them throughout
the film
He is very loving and romantic, going against the
stereotype of male, and especially black male,
sexuality as brutish and utilitarian
15. Jason Holliday defies the stereotype of black
male sexuality, not by avoiding it, but by
subverting it
Shows full awareness of the
stereotypes
Sees and portrays himself as
femme
Loving, romantic view of sex