By Emma Russell
Shirley Bennett is one of the principal characters of the sitcom Community. Desperate to change her situation in life after her divorce from her cheating husband, she decides to go to Greendale Community College to earn a business degree in order to better herself and support her two sons. Shirley befriends her Spanish class study group, whom she spends a lot of time with so she can earn good grades to successfully get her degree. When brought up in conversation with the Mammy stereotype, Shirley seems to perpetuate it. Physically, she meets the attributes. Shirley is is a visibly overweight, middle aged, African American woman and she spends more time with her study group (mostly compiled of white members) rather than her own children; however, her actions deviate from the Mammy stereotype entirely. Shirley is ambitious, and she has wants and desires, not just for herself but her for her family as well. She loves her children and does not push them aside for her community college study group, but she also does not let the fact that she is a mother take over her entire identity.
Community is one of my favorite tv shows, but I always preferred the other characters over Shirley. I was never particularly interested in characters who based their personalities off of being housewives and mothers until I realized with Shirley that’s not the case at all, and I too was stereotyping her based off her appearance and the fact that she had children.
The above image is from season 3, episode 11 of Community, called “Urban Matrimony and Sandwich Arts” where Shirley and her ex-husband Andre decide to get remarried while Shirley also creates a business proposal with Pierce to open Shirley’s Sandwiches. At this moment in the episode Andre is mad at Shirley for being late to the rehearsal dinner due to her business proposal meeting with the Dean. He berates Shirley saying he does not want to “Mr. Mom” anymore and wants everything to “go back to normal.” Shirley is having absolutely none of it. While she later states that she loves being a wife and mother, she tells Andre “I’m sorry Andre, but normal went out the door the day you did.” She stands up for herself, she puts her foot down and says if they are going to get back together things will not be the same as before. She is in school now, earning a business degree so she can open her own store to support them as a family. During their vows, when Andre talks about wanting to get back to his stereo store, “Do you accept that 10 years is more than a little awhile and iPod aren’t going away and maybe it’s time to let somebody else take the lead?”
During this episode Shirley also puts Pierce in his place, schooling him on business matters when he tries to take charge in proposing the business idea, but has no facts to back anything up. When she asks him questions about possible margins and revenue projections he puts her down by calling her “sweet innocent Shirley.” Shirley goes to leave in anger before Pierce admits that he was fired and does not know what he’s talking about, but that she does and he wants to invest in her. Feeling bad for Pierce, Shirley agrees and jumps right into business like demeanor, saying “First thing we need to figure out is our overhead.” She takes charge, removing his materials and starts immediately working on a plan.
In both scenes Shirley puts her foot down. She is a strong independent woman who does what she likes and will work to support the family she loves, by bettering herself and is not afraid to share her knowledge and prove that she knows what she is talking about.
Black Men & Women 