Miss Ever’s Boys is a flashback, or reminiscent style movie that deals with the issue of racial inequality, race and gender intersectionality, and the African-American’s “double consciousness”.
The movie begins with Eunice Evers, played by Alfre Woodard, as a testifying nurse in a Senate hearing who worked as a nurse during the Tuskegee Study, testifying and recalling the happenings of the past. The disaster starts as a simple plan to provide care and treatment for the population suffering from syphilis. A group in Chicago has agreed to fund the treatment plan, and Dr. Brodus (black), and Dr. Douglas (white) hire Eunice as the head nurse for the job. Excited to help for the greater good, she brings in a huge amount of patients to get checked …show more content…
Intersectionality is the theory that oppressive institutions, such as race, gender, and class, are all interconnected, and cannot be observed separately from one another. And in Miss Evers’ Boys, there is a clear picture of the connection between racism and sexism. Eunice was powerless against the flow of the syphilis study. She worked in an environment where all her superiors were white or black men. And even after the cure, penicillin, became available, she was chewed out for sticking her nose into whether or not the men would be given that treatment. As an African American woman, Eunice is clearly disadvantaged; her retorts and opinions are easily shot down, and in order to hold back her clear distaste to the unfair treatment to her patients, she repeated the phrase: “Doctor knows best.” This paired with the statistics and overarching belief that “doctor is to male as nurse is to female.” It’s a statement that puts herself on a lower level than a man. This creates a problem in the movie, because Eunice Evers doesn’t believe in her own beliefs, but instead in the rules that are given to her by the doctors, which ultimately results in the black woman nurse becoming the center of the ethical dilemmas raised by the Tuskegee Study. The person who in fact had the least amount of power to resist or question the study is …show more content…
Because of this nonobjective presentation, it is therefore much easier to see the events of racism and sexism present in this movie. The fact that the movie depicts a real life event, shows that inequality will always exist in a society: social structure is inevitable, and structure is almost always inequality. Firstly because of social conflict, the winners (the government) and the losers (the blacks involved in the study). And secondly, the interplay of power, prestige, and privilege. In which I touched upon: racism; which is still a heated debate topic in today’s society, in the fact that the study was purely over African American males and the men were denied treatment, and African American double consciousness. And sexism in the lack of presence of women from this movie, which directly correlates to the attitude towards women affected by the syphilis study in real life as well. Because of their intersecting race, and gender, their rights are more readily denied, therefore it can be noted that inequality pertaining to gender as well, is still prominent in society
The movie begins with Eunice Evers, played by Alfre Woodard, as a testifying nurse in a Senate hearing who worked as a nurse during the Tuskegee Study, testifying and recalling the happenings of the past. The disaster starts as a simple plan to provide care and treatment for the population suffering from syphilis. A group in Chicago has agreed to fund the treatment plan, and Dr. Brodus (black), and Dr. Douglas (white) hire Eunice as the head nurse for the job. Excited to help for the greater good, she brings in a huge amount of patients to get checked …show more content…
Intersectionality is the theory that oppressive institutions, such as race, gender, and class, are all interconnected, and cannot be observed separately from one another. And in Miss Evers’ Boys, there is a clear picture of the connection between racism and sexism. Eunice was powerless against the flow of the syphilis study. She worked in an environment where all her superiors were white or black men. And even after the cure, penicillin, became available, she was chewed out for sticking her nose into whether or not the men would be given that treatment. As an African American woman, Eunice is clearly disadvantaged; her retorts and opinions are easily shot down, and in order to hold back her clear distaste to the unfair treatment to her patients, she repeated the phrase: “Doctor knows best.” This paired with the statistics and overarching belief that “doctor is to male as nurse is to female.” It’s a statement that puts herself on a lower level than a man. This creates a problem in the movie, because Eunice Evers doesn’t believe in her own beliefs, but instead in the rules that are given to her by the doctors, which ultimately results in the black woman nurse becoming the center of the ethical dilemmas raised by the Tuskegee Study. The person who in fact had the least amount of power to resist or question the study is …show more content…
Because of this nonobjective presentation, it is therefore much easier to see the events of racism and sexism present in this movie. The fact that the movie depicts a real life event, shows that inequality will always exist in a society: social structure is inevitable, and structure is almost always inequality. Firstly because of social conflict, the winners (the government) and the losers (the blacks involved in the study). And secondly, the interplay of power, prestige, and privilege. In which I touched upon: racism; which is still a heated debate topic in today’s society, in the fact that the study was purely over African American males and the men were denied treatment, and African American double consciousness. And sexism in the lack of presence of women from this movie, which directly correlates to the attitude towards women affected by the syphilis study in real life as well. Because of their intersecting race, and gender, their rights are more readily denied, therefore it can be noted that inequality pertaining to gender as well, is still prominent in society