Book was fantastic. Thank you for thread.
Disclaimer: white woman reading book by another white woman on a very emotive subject.
I understand the 'white woman acting as saviour' notion, but I find it difficult to see how else the maids would find a voice. If they had lived in New York in the 60s, then they would have been able to approach the white publisher and be listened to, but if this had been the case they would not have had the lives and stories that they had.
I felt they did speak in their own words (albeit those of a white author) in the novel, and ultimately they saved the white woman as much as she saved them. What would her lot have been without the idea from Aibileen's son and the maids agreeing to talk to her?
I see the book as ending with three women who are more financially and emotionally free because they helped each other.
Unless the 'white saviour' comment is about the author rather than the character of Skeeter.
Perhaps I am very naive. The book is about a set of circumstances extremely far removed from my own.
I loved the humour and ironies in it ('Miss' Myrtle, the fictitious upper class cleaning advisor, as the rich white woman is the only one allowed to speak about domestic issues, but in reality a figure who would never lift a hand in her own home. And this authority really being voiced by a maid).
A very clever read. 