In the film Black Girl, Diouana portrays a typical "subordinate" in terms of gender, race, and class, bringing out how severe the problems about sexism, racism, and classism have become at that time.
Her gender of female restricts her from having a wide choice of careers. The social norm around her makes her to believe that women should live for making babies, or raising babies if making babies is not enough for her to make a living. When I was watching the film, I was curious that if she likes children so much then why doesn't she choose a real career about children, such as being a teacher in kindergarten or a nurse in children daycare center? I guess that is very possibly because of the social's restriction on women working outside but not on men like her husband working as a public letter writer in front of their house. In addition, grown up in a colony by Portugal, I totally understand the feeling of Diousana on how the hierarchy of race and class works in such place. In her employer's house, she is considered as a servant instead of a worker-anyone can feel free to order her to do anything, scold at her, or even kiss her, which is not in an admiring case but an "rare animal show" case. However, the saddest of all is that these scenarios still exist in nowadays as sexiam, racism, and classism are not totally eliminated yet.
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