Black Women Get to Kick Fundament

Image by gdcgraphics via Flickr. Naomie Harris looking happy.

Image via Wikipedia. UK actress Naomie Harris looking downward. Maybe her shoes are untied?

I’m not sure if I’m allowed to say…um, you know.. the other word for fundament (or butt), but anyway, there is a cute little encouraging piece out about how Paula Patton gets to go toe-to-toe with Tom Cruise in the latest installment of the Mission Impossible franchise (which is a huge deal obviously since black womentypically do not get to be action heroes and less often get major starring roles in big blockbusters) called “Ghost Protocol.”

Cover of Cleopatra Jones.

The piece elaborates (for those uninformed of history), black women were pretty much banned from action roles for quite some time, with the exception of “blaxploitation” flicks like “Cleopatra Jones” and “Coffee” and “Foxy Brown,” which were titillating and possibly fun (depends on who you ask) but ultimately denigrating.

And then there’s Naomie Harris, a UK actress, who’s been hired to update and revamp the role of Ms. Moneypenny in the upcoming Bond flick. Good for her! Hopefully, she’ll be able to throw a few judo tosses and bullets at James Bond and get a recurring spot. And hopefully this is the start of a trend.

Here’s the link to the full piece from The Grio:

• http://www.thegrio.com/entertainment/black-women-take-the-lead-in-big-screen-action-movies.php