Post for Week of 02.28 – Imitation of Life: Whiteness as Performativity

One reading of the film that I would like to pose is the performativity that is also tied to whiteness (in somewhat obvious way I argue). As we have brought up in the course multiple times “passing” positions itself on the performativity of passing for white. However, what is so interesting about the film is that while the struggle of “passing” that faces Sarah Jane is central to the film, there is an equal emphasis on Lora, the performer. What makes Sarah Jane’s position within the film so complicated and troubled is precisely because the constructions of race are drawn upon such rigid definitions (along lines of cultural, class, gender, and sexuality).  Drawing from what other people have characterized as publicity, Lora’s performances become equally tied to constructions of what it is to be a white woman and that such constructions of whiteness are equally performed and constructed.  If whiteness in the film is encouraged or situated within public spaces to be exhibited and performed, what can we make of this? As we theorized in class, it would seem that blackness in the film was tied to domestic or private spaces, whereas whiteness was something that was to be performed and exhibited. Other than the reading of Lora as a performer, Sarah Jane’s dance number where she is “passing” as white also draws upon this relation.  However, what also seems somewhat overlooked in the readings of the film is the character of Susie. In what ways is she also always already performing? She by far seems the most “fake” or constructed within the film, particularly with the banality of her personal life and seemingly forced interest in Steve.

Monica Garcia