Ethan Freedman
Queering Relationships
October 3, 2023
Prof. Adam Thomas
Interracial marriage was legalized in 1967 in the case of Loving vs. Virgina with Richard and Mildred Loving bringing attention to the nation that love knows no domain and is unbound by the constructs of man. While there are plenty of documentaries, the case has been dramatized in Loving directed by Jeff Nichols and starring Ruth Negga and Joel Edgarton. One sees how the pair's love prospered with and as a part of the civil rights movement, growing to be influential in present day American interracial relationships – whether acknowledged or not. While a lot of time can be spent focusing on the role the case has played in the history of love and the legalization of interracial marriage, the film offers insight into an alternative experience where drama can be inverted into a realistic thriller. Notwithstanding wonderful sentiments, the film can be viewed as a realistic thriller for the Lovings lived a life of perseverance through moments of adversity and threat by the world around them – that when conveyed in the medium of a film allows for fear to be felt.
Richard Loving dreamt of building a home in Virginia in a plot of land not too far from Mildred’s Childhood home, and asked for her hand in marriage to bring it to fruition. The film depicts the two lovers roaming around their hometown at car races, restaurants, and walking down, however there are plenty of eyes who spot them. With the knowledge of racism and the context of the film, this is the part where the monster learns of the newcomers. After they got married in D.C., Nichols establishes a wonderful scene of the couple going to sleep in their home, with the camera metaphorically checking each room with the audience. Fear becomes present when the audience cannot save the couple from any possible moment of disaster and before you know it – their door is barged down by the police.
I am not sure who has experienced this feeling before, however, viscerally and effectively, one can empathize with the fear that can be felt from unwanted intruders in the safe, relaxed space of your home. Now imagine the fear when the people who are meant to protect you are the ones inflicting harm. Some more than others know this feeling, yet the lovers lived this life for years after being expelled from their state of Virginia.
Mildred was pregnant before they were married and into the beginning of their ban from Virgina, but she wished for Richard’s mother to help with the birth of their first child. Pregnancy is a vulnerable state and the reality of it is that some bodies are more vulnerable due to systems of power, the environment and culture around them, and identity constructs. Because Mildred was unable to live in Virginia and Richard’s mother was in Virgina, the two partners had to devise a plan on how to get her back into the state while close to the date of her first born’s arrival..An elaborate pickup was devised where she was transferred from Richie's car to his friend who volunteered to help. However, the film depicted this scene with a car, petal to the metal, heading down the road towards them. Any car going enormous speeds at you would bring in fear, but with you and your pregnant partner in the car already feeling the anxiety of breaking the law to safely birth your first born is new levels for a realistic thriller.
Some might be wondering how any of this is realistic in present day America with notions of interracial marriage legalized already? In Calderon ‘s (2022) “A Scoping Review of the Physical Health and Psychological Well-Being of Individuals in Interracial Romantic Relationships,” one can learn about impacts of being in romantic relationships and whether or not interracial relationships benefit from typical occurrences of relationships. Typical relationships would stem from the category of cisgendered, white, heteronormative relationships. What was found is that interracial relationship success was born out of outward external perceptions and that this success was gendered. We also learn that race is capable of informing a partner's physical and mental well-being of the attachment in their partnership. In other words, the film is conveying some of the real life insecurities and adversities capable of lowering the psychological and physical wellbeing of agents in interracial relationships. From the world around them and the agents who walk it forming judgements and inflicting aggressions to the environment of the home, even the historical trauma felt through scenes of the film represent an aspect of the fear brought on through the telling of their courageous story. More importantly – fear that could have been felt by the lovings themselves, and shown by the actors in the film.
Loving is a film about how interracial relationships came to be legalized in America and through it, one can see the adversity taken on by the Lovings to get to modern day legalities of marriage. In being about interracial relationships, this was a film about race and we are constantly seeing how race influenced the perceptions of validity of the Loving’s matrimony. The mental and physical wellbeing of the partnership was viscerally affected by understandings of race and the pervasion of racism during the 1960’s. While the film celebrates their journey and how it situated the present possibilities of others in this nation to experience a similar path to love, it is not without creating and instilling moments of fear through scenes within the film that they could convey the truly terrific story of the Lovings and the adversity they faced.