Not sure I agree with this interpretation of the movie, nor do I think this was Spike Lee’s intent:

“Jungle Fever portrays the relationship between a black man a white woman as doomed to fail in contrast to the potentially successful relationship between a white man and a black woman. The ‘success’ of one relationship and the ‘failure’ of the other suggess that one type of interracial relationship (when the man is white [dominant partner] and the woman is black [exotic Other]) is more acceptable than another.” — Diana R. Paulin, “De-Essentializing Interracial Representations: Black and White Border-Crossings in Spike Lee’s ‘Jungle Fever’ and Octavia Butler’s ‘Kindred’” in Cultural Critique

HOWEVER, it brings up the very interesting point: are white male/minority female couples the most accepted form of interracial dating? I kind of think so. Why? Well, maybe this is a vast generalization, but there’s kind of a historical precedence for white guys being able to do and get whatever they want without ever getting shit for it. Want to get educated? College was made for white guys. Want a sammich? Someone will make them one. Want to wage war? Sure! Whenever they feel like it. So if they want to date someone of a different race, no one’s going to stop them. That’s totally NOT the case for non-white men and definitely not for women. Black male sexuality is totally feared, Asian male sexuality is totally ridiculed, and women — white or otherwise — don’t get much say period.

Also, there’s the double standard of “dating down”. White women aren’t supposed to date non-white guys because it’s a downgrade. Those who do are whorish and looked down on (Angie in “Jungle Fever” gets a pretty shitty rep). White men, on the other hand, have been sticking their junk in just about everyone since just about always (whoo, colonialism!), and their behavior is very much still encouraged. It’s not a downgrade if you’re pumping the colored gal full of yummy Aryan spermies!

Maybe my theory is totally wrong and white guys have just as tough a time as everyone else when they cross colorlines. From my personal experience at least, I don’t think this is true. My white boyfriends/fuck buddies/whatever have all done substantially less thinking about the matter of interracial dating/tension than … well, just about everyone else. Which is why, even if white men think that their experience dating interracially is no easier than anyone else’s, they still need to consider their romantic relationships in the context of the rest of their white, male privilege. If they undoubtedly have it easier in every other respect, what makes sex and dating exempt? It might not be easy per se, but it is probably EASIER on them than others.

This is probably coming off as very bitter, crazy liberal, DOWN WITH THE WHITE MAN right now. But this is all more of an intellectual observation than anything else. I’m not bitter, nor do I hate white guys, as evidenced by my prior dating history and the fact that my best friend at Harvard is both white and male. Though he’s gay as well, which kind of brings up a host of other considerations.

Oh, and I’m aware all of this is very heteronormative, but analyzing interracial gay couples would make my head EXPLODE right about now + I do not know nearly enough about the research on the subject to voice an informed opinion.

Back to writing the actual paper instead of musing over random stuff!