In Defense of Tyler Perry...

After creating the Youtube playlist, “Black Dating and Marriage Videos,” and viewing/organizing most of the vids, I realize that I have learned so much about the unique mixture of gender roles, stereotypes, media representation, and their effect on the Black community/state of Black Marriage.


Why so much negativity about Tyler Perry's work?

I always wondered why so many Black people were hard on Tyler Perry yet the same people either completely ignore (or completely worship), Hip Hop artists who promote misogyny in their music videos.

Could it be homophobia? Maybe they don’t like the fact that he dresses up like an old lady. *shrugs*

Could it be that the concept of Male Privelege (something that exists in our society almost subconsciously) is overtly exposed to audiences through Tyler Perry’s characters and stories?

Possibly it is...


Here is something interesting that I found out about myself:
I trust Tyler Perry.

Yes, I know it’s weird! But when he cast former porn star, Kim Kardashian, in his upcoming film, “The Marriage Counselor,” a lot of people were very angry. They felt as if he had finally sold out and strayed away from his commitment to make movies that uplift the Black community. Well, my 1st thought was, “Either he is losing his mind or he has a master plan.” Yes, dear friends, I actually trust Tyler Perry. ;) You know what that means! Just kidding... :-P

I’m not saying that I would marry him and live happily ever after. No. I’m saying that I trust him to bring me the same content consistently, and to do it from the heart. I’ve seen all of Tyler Perry’s movies except for 'For Colored Girls' (the play he adapted to film) and 'Precious' (the film which he only endorsed). I know the type of artist he is. I know where he’s coming from and I can usually predict where he’s going. Some see him as a money maker but I see him as an artist, a writer, a film-maker. His artistic process surely requires deep thought and almost an emotional purging.

Tyler Perry vs. Spike Lee

As far as the Tyler Perry/Spike Lee debate, here are my thoughts: I personally have never liked Spike Lee’s films, although I can agree that they are great artistic pieces. I guess I never really bought what he was selling.

1.) Sexuality

One thing I did notice however were his extremely graphic and unforgettable sex scenes! There is all kind of art! The sex scenes were uniquely Spike Lee! Whereas Tyler Perry’s movies most often don’t have sex scenes and display underlying themes of Christianity. In my honest opinion, that is the major difference seen strictly from this movie-goer’s eyes.

Check out these articles about Spike Lee’s sex scenes:

* From NYDailyNews.com
“Actresses Still Steaming Over Spike's Sex Scenes”

* From TheBlackActor.com:

“Spike Lee and those chi chi's”

“Spike Lee - What's with the va jay jays?”

“Spike Lee’s She Hate Me”


She Hate Me

She Hate Me

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Movies & Actors at Flixster

2.) Socio Economic Status - “The Class War”

An accusation that Spike Lee makes about Tyler Perry’s films is the “coonery and buffoonery” statement. All it took was a simple Google search of these two men’s biographies to find out where the class issue comes into play. Spike Lee was born and raised in a wealthy family whereas Tyler Perry was born and raised in impoverished circumstances. So I think it’s fair to say that their perspectives may be slightly different. Some see the world through rose-colored glasses and some see the world through lavender colored glasses… so maybe their socio-economic background acts as a filter for their artistic expressions.

* From Biography.com

Tyler Perry's Biography

Spike Lee's Biography


Daddy's Little Girls

Daddy's Little Girls

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• 
• 

• Gabrielle Union,
• Idris Elba,
• Louis Gossett Jr

Diary of a Mad Black Woman mastermind Tyler Perry turns the familiar Cinderella tale on its head with this story concerning a successful female (more...)

80% liked it

PG-13, 1 hr. 35 min.

Director: Tyler Perry

Box Office: $4.8M

Released: Feb 14, 2007

DVD: Jun 12, 2007

Movies & Actors at Flixster

More links:

From Essence.com

“Sound-Off: Is Spike Doing the Right Thing?”

Tyler Perry on Criticism


Spike Lee On Tyler Perry's Movies/Shows: “Its Coonery and Buffoonery”

Black Dating and Marriage Videos

All you need is a cup of hot cocoa, your pajamas, and maybe headphones... Then you can sit back and enjoy all of the drama, madness, humor, and warm fuzzies of my youtube playlist, "Black Marriage and Dating Videos." <--To watch on Youtube click here.

Movie Review: "The Help"

"The Help" What have we learned from watching?

The Help

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Why I went to see “The Help”:

When I first saw the advertisement for "The Help" I was on Facebook. I briefly glanced at it then said to myself, “Now why would anyone make a movie like that?” I just shook my head, clicked onto something else, and said to myself, “Definitely won’t be seeing that!”

It was just that simple. I didn’t know whether the movie was a comedy or a drama, and I didn’t even want to find out! Why not? Well from the cover I could see the implied racism with the two Black women standing in their maid uniforms while the two White women dressed in their Sunday best, sat on a park bench looking a little bit ditsy. The secondary status of the Black women is obvious and as if we needed some extra help, the title reads, “The Help.” Hmm... They pretty much spelled it out for us... The phrase, “the help” is most often used in a derogatory way to express the secondary status of domestic workers in relationship to their employers.

Well, a week after first becoming aware of the movie, I started to hear people talking about it. One of my Facebook friends said she thought it should be a movie that every black person sees. Also, the month before it came out, Viola Davis was featured on the cover of my favorite magazine, Essence. So basically this movie was brought to my attention over and over again in many different ways. I was getting the idea that it would contain important lessons about my history, African-American culture, so I went to go see it!



Background Info:

“The Help” was first a best-selling novel (2009) by Kathryn Stockett. According to Wikipedia, Kathryn Stockett was born in 1969 (she’s 42yrs old) and was raised by an African-American domestic worker. Although Ms. Stockett was born and raised in the deep south, she didn’t actually witness the Civil Rights Movement. Most likely, her earliest childhood memories are of 1973.


My thoughts and feelings while watching "The Help":

1.) Make no mistake. This movie is definitely about WOMEN. The men in it play tiny, unimportant parts. It is a story told about the lives of women through the eyes of a woman...and she covers just about everything a woman might experience in life.

What kind of women topics? Miscarriage, Domestic Violence, Marriage, Dating, Child-rearing, Fashion, Girl bullying, Family vs. Career... You name it, it's in there!

The Civil Rights theme is almost secondary to the Feminist History kinda theme...but they kind of move along together...as does real life.

2.) My only criticism is that there was so much going on, especially towards the end. At 1st it's easy to maneuver through, but towards the end, all of my emotions were conflicted. I didn't even know what I was sad about! :-(

I was being hit with such sentimental and emotional experiences, I probably said "Aww" 20 times! It is a tear-jerker, but really funny and heart-warming too!

3.) I’ve read a lot of the reviews but I am here to tell you that life in Mississippi is probably not a whole lot different than that today! I was actually surprised at how similar the movie was to my experiences living there!

4.) I did like the movie because I felt it was just funny enough not to cause anyone to have nightmares yet it didn’t gloss over the Civil Rights Movement like “Remember The Titans” did.

5.) One question I came away with, “Have we ever figured out how and why this type of hatred was able to exist? The movie doesn’t answer that question. However, it does show how delicate and unbalanced the Jim Crow situation had become and the lengths that many white people had to go to in effort to ensure that blacks remained in secondary status.

In the movie, all of the characters were being challenged. Blacks and Whites were being challenged to cross the line. It is as if boundaries were being set. It was almost like watching a dance occur, symbolic of the relationship between Blacks and Whites...they were carving it out and defining it.


Moving into the future:

Many criticisms that I’ve read about this movie suggest that it leaves the Blacks in secondary status as domestic workers, therefore doesn’t really support any real change. My opinion: If you look at the movie from the historic point of view you might walk away with that, but I challenge you to look at the movie and consider it from a present-day point of view. How do your thoughts change? Consider the fact that we still have minority race domestic workers who are treated as 2nd class citizens. Even worse, we now have domestic workers who are not even citizens!

So the question again is, “What have we learned?"

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Movies Like "The Help"

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Flixster

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Movies To Watch With Your Fiance

Movies to watch when moving from a dating relationship to getting engaged! Watch each movie before getting engaged or in the beginning stages of your engagement.

I originally created this list back in November 2009 and emailed it to the guy I wanted to get engaged to... I told him he had to watch the entire list before we got married! He was psyched about the list, but we still didn't get engaged and we're not together today. :-( He wasn't ready to commit.

The guy I wanted to get engaged to was actually not an American citizen. He was born and raised in the city of Nairobi, which is the capital city of Kenya (a country in Eastern Africa). He moved to the United States in 2001, at the age of 20 (4yrs before I met him in 2005). So, this was my attempt at infusing a little more American culture and ideology into him.


Movies To Watch With Your Fiance

1. He’s Just Not That Into You – romantic comedy unlike other romantic comedies, about the world of dating and finding “the one.”

2. The Time Traveler’s Wife – romance/action film about an off/on relationship

3. Rachel Getting Married – drama about dysfunctional family preparing for oldest daughter’s wedding

4. Father of the Bride – lighthearted family comedy about a wedding

5. My Big Fat Greek Wedding – lighthearted comedy about a wedding between two people from different cultures

6. Kissing Jessica Stein – a romantic comedy about a straight woman who tries to have a long-term romantic relationship with a woman.

7. Miss Conception – comedy about a woman in a long-term relationship who tries to fufill her desperate need to have a child after she finds out that she only has 1 egg left

8. The Notebook – romance drama about a love that transcends boundaries/obstacles

9. Tyler Perry’s Daddy’s Little Girls – romantic comedy about a man learning how to become a father to his 3 children while falling in love with a woman who is learning how to allow herself to love a man

10. My Best Friend’s Girl – comedy about a woman and man discovering what they want out of romantic relationships

11. You’ve Got Mail – romantic comedy about two people at odds who unknowingly fall in love with each other over the internet

12. You, Me, and Dupree – comedy about a newlywed couple whose marriage suffers after an annoying friend moves in with them

http://www.flixster.com/movie-list/movies-to-watch-with-your-fiance

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