I don’t think Sinners subverts as much as people think. Annie’s role centers on protection and sacrifice, not true desire. She gives her lover a magical necklace, prays for his safety, and ends up dying by his hand. That’s Mammy labor. The sex scene isn’t intimate either; he turns her over and uses her body, no tenderness. This isn’t radical representation. It’s the same trope of the fat Black woman as a tool, not a fully realized person. We deserve more than spiritual servitude and emotional disposability.
Mammy archetypes aren't sexual and cater to the service of others outside the community (mainly white people). Annie had sex with her husband and worked to uphold the spiritual health of her own community which a Hoodoo practitioner does as part of their work. The sex with her estranged husband is intimate, and she initiates it, reminding her man of why he loves her so much even within their grief. In return, Smoke protected her, loved on her, deferred to her wisdom and knowledge while backing her up when anyone challenged her. Guess what? Smoke did the same thing for her. They mirrored one another as a true partnership. What you should sit with is your negative projection onto a full-figured dark-skinned Black woman having agency and an attractive partner, along with the obvious fat phobia you hold tight to. Because if a mammy is what you saw in her and nothing else, then you are part of the problem passing on these tone-deaf takes about Annie. The self-ingrained hate is real with what you typed out.
Great read! Well done.
I don’t think Sinners subverts as much as people think. Annie’s role centers on protection and sacrifice, not true desire. She gives her lover a magical necklace, prays for his safety, and ends up dying by his hand. That’s Mammy labor. The sex scene isn’t intimate either; he turns her over and uses her body, no tenderness. This isn’t radical representation. It’s the same trope of the fat Black woman as a tool, not a fully realized person. We deserve more than spiritual servitude and emotional disposability.
Mammy archetypes aren't sexual and cater to the service of others outside the community (mainly white people). Annie had sex with her husband and worked to uphold the spiritual health of her own community which a Hoodoo practitioner does as part of their work. The sex with her estranged husband is intimate, and she initiates it, reminding her man of why he loves her so much even within their grief. In return, Smoke protected her, loved on her, deferred to her wisdom and knowledge while backing her up when anyone challenged her. Guess what? Smoke did the same thing for her. They mirrored one another as a true partnership. What you should sit with is your negative projection onto a full-figured dark-skinned Black woman having agency and an attractive partner, along with the obvious fat phobia you hold tight to. Because if a mammy is what you saw in her and nothing else, then you are part of the problem passing on these tone-deaf takes about Annie. The self-ingrained hate is real with what you typed out.