Discussion points for Jacqueline Bobo, "Black Women's Response to "The Color Purple'' "

A few points:
 In her article,  J. Bobo discusses the ongoing history of inaccurate and exploited portrayal of black women in the media industry. She utilizes S. Hall's ideas that social forces erupt from emerging of discourse. Bobo states that the critic plays a major role in how a film is perceived. Bobo illustrates that Spielberg's film"The Color Purple" caused African-American women to share a wave of "schizophrenic" reaction to the film, with it simultaneously being a work of a black woman, while being produced as a mainstream media product of a white male.
I wanted to address the following questions to the class...
1. Do you think that Hollywood deliberately glorifies stereotypes to boost box office sales?
2. Do you think that without the stereotypes "The Color Purple" would have the same success as it did? Does the American audience still accept stereotypes?
3. Do you agree with the notion that the viewer has a voice and an individual take on the material , or do you believe that the media fully control and manipulate one's digestion of the material?