Note on the Theatergoing Experiences of Minorities and Women

The content of theater and films of the early twentieth century misrepresented a large proportion of Columbia’s population, especially women and minorities, as well as indoctrinating the entire theatergoing population into norms that keep these groups in a narrow lane within their society. In the case of women, the content of some films aimed to undermine those in support of the suffrage movement, like “Oh, You Women,” a satire shown at Columbia’s Ideal theatre in May of 1919 (“At the Ideal”). Films like these teach women to act correctly based on societal standards, which at the time took the form of not meddling or attempting to earn a “man’s” right. Just like women, minorities were also taught their place in society through shows’ messages. More specifically, the largest minority group, African-Americans, who made up around forty percent of the population of Columbia between 1910 and 1920 (Moore 277), faced ridicule through minstrel shows. Although shows like “West’s Big Minstrel Jubilee,” shown in Columbia in October 1904 (“At the Theatre”), provided a gateway for African-American music to enter popular culture, the white actors in blackface who performed these minstrel shows portrayed African-Americans as dumb, lazy, and subservient. In regard to the theatergoing experience, African-Americans differed from women in that they not only faced content-based indoctrination, but they faced physical segregation from the rest of the population as well. In fact, only two of the seven theaters open in both 1917 and 1922 were listed as colored in their respective city directories. Not only that, but of twenty-two news sources consulted, none contained an advertisement for a “colored” theater, as Shauntel Foreman and Dominique Thompson’s “Note on Black Theaters” predicts. In addition to segregating theater audiences, entertainment meant for white men and women created a misrepresentation of the minority population. Outside of minorities, white women, half of the majority population, faced sexist as well as racist indoctrination in their theatergoing experience. Film and theater reinforced social hierarchies of both race and gender through content as well as segregationist admissions policies.

Works Cited (but not linked)

Moore, John Hammond. “Suburbs, Streetcars, and Skyscrapers.” Columbia and Richland County, University of South Carolina Press, pp. 276–299.