‘Happiness by a Thread’: about self-acceptance, love and empowerment

Was released in September the film Happiness by a Thread🇧🇷 Produced by Netflix and based on the book Nappily Ever Afterthe plot tells the story of Violet Jones (Sanaa Lathan)a very successful black advertising woman who, at first, was dating Clint, a resident physician – also black. In addition to dedicating herself to her work, Violet also put a lot of effort into her work. relationship🇧🇷 She worked hard to be the perfect girlfriend: ever demure, beautiful and well-groomed🇧🇷

Violet’s other concern was with her hair: artificially straight, the character always got out of bed hours before her boyfriend to comb the strands so that, when he woke up, she was already tidy and waking up “naturally” that way. At least, apparently.

When, during her birthday dinner, her boyfriend does not propose to her, Violet is frustrated and, when questioning him, she hears from her partner that she is “too perfect” and that she was never relaxed and at ease. This statement generates a internal conflict inside the protagonist. From that moment on, her life begins to change.

At first, Happiness by a Thread it looks like a cliché romantic movie and sugar water (we like it, too!), but it’s much more than that.

Contains spoilers!

In the childhood

Right at the beginning of production, a scene is shown in which Violet, as a child, walks in a club with her mother. On that day, her hair was gone straightened with brush🇧🇷 Her mother, an elegant woman with straight hair, had forbidden her to enter the pool, which was full of children – all white. If she dove in, she would ruin her hairstyle.

At the beginning of this scene, it is already possible to notice how Violet’s upbringing was: always taught to be “impeccable and perfect”, without being able to even play with his colleagues and make a mess. However, like every child, Violet didn’t care about her hair or what her mother would say, after all she just wanted to have fun. But, when she dived into the pool – under her mother’s disapproval-, her hair was curly again and all the children made fun of the girl, with racist insults.

This scene right at the beginning served to show how Violet’s life would be, from her first contact with racism: an exacerbated concern with her appearance, an obsession with external perfection – as long as it was standardized, and the denial of her natural hair.

Starting again

Violet goes out with her friends to drink and drown the sorrows generated by the end of the breakup and (almost!) engagement. Clint’s criticism messed with the character who, between one drink and another, ended up getting too drunk and going to the hospital where her ex worked. Arriving there, willing to get back together, Violet comes across Clint talking in romantic atmosphere with another woman.

Even more shaken to learn that her ex was already in another relationship, Violet returns home. In tears, but also smiling, she shaves her entire head in a moment of impulse, and gives birth to a new woman. The scene is striking and full of representation: it shows the release of the black woman, who is a victim of the flat Eurocentric pattern. Impossible not to get excited!

Of course, then comes the hangover and the character despairs when she wakes up in the morning and realizes what she’s done. Her mother, in a comical scene, faints when she sees her daughter’s new look, but her friends praise her. In the first few days, Violet starts to dress up old-fashioned and to wear a scarf to cover the head. The men at her work didn’t look at her anymore – which they always did when she dressed smartly and had straight hair.

But after a somewhat mistaken visit to a support group, the character decided to face her radical change head on and went back to getting ready as before and empowering herself.

post-change

Meanwhile, the protagonist becomes involved with will (Lyriq Bent), a black hairdresser who is a single parent and loves her for who she is. Violet, from that relationship, has no more ties and discovers how many things she stopped living for being attached to a pattern🇧🇷

The character’s mother did not accept the relationship well, considering that Will was “little” for her daughter, which ended up resulting in the separation of the two. During this hiatus, Violet is reunited with Clint and nearly marries the doctor. In one of the scenes, a problem: he asks the publicist straighten your hair for the engagement party. And she accepts!

But when diving into the pool at the party – making a allusion to the scene of her childhood -, the publicist realizes that neither there nor here: she didn’t need a man to feel complete.

Reflection

It is important to emphasize Violet’s approximation with Zoe (Dariah Johns), the daughter of Will. The girl never straightened her hair and at first it was even a laughing stock for the protagonist. But in a way, Zoe reflected what Violet could not be as a child: free🇧🇷 With that, the two approached during the course of the film, in a relationship of sisters or even mother and daughter.

Violet was empowered in her own way. She quit her job after being turned down for her idea for a beer commercial that gave women a voice. In the scene, the protagonist’s superior chose a sexist project with the excuse that she “sold more”, which made her uncomfortable. She also got rid of the standardization imposed on her hair, learned to love herself and freed herself from the rules of her family. And in the end, she taught that relationships afrocentrics can be revolutionaries – but they are not exempt from having big flaws🇧🇷

But most of all, Violet showed that love and prioritize yourself itself is even more revolutionary.