Colored Girls-Really?

Let me start by saying that I do like Tyler Perry, and that I have also enjoyed some of his films. By all accounts, he is a talented, perhaps gifted film maker. But I take issue with the recurrent theme of his projects. Perry exposes segments of Black culture under the guise of those segments representing the entirety of Black culture. Virtually every movie has the obligatory examples of human nature at its most vile, represented only by Black characters. If an alien were to intercept his movies’ transmission, they would think that the Black community is comprised of vapid, conniving, thieving, incestuous, materialistic adulterers. Even the few characters of any redeeming quality seem to have some fatal flaw-obesity, low self esteem, addiction, or intellect bordering on retardation.




One might say that his movies tell it like it is, and shine light on topics long hidden by our community. To those, I say that there is so much more than what he tells. This man manages to leave out the story lines that could be told, in favor of the prurient and the lascivious, the adulterous and the darker corners of the human psyche.



It could also be argued that no one wishes to see cutesy, warm, uplifting story lines. I agree, but there should be some sort of balance in the portrayal of any subject matter. Uplifting movies do attract viewers and do make money. I site two examples off the top of my head; Sleepless in Seattle and Forrest Gump. Two more; Cooley High and Harlem Nights. The latter three did have scenes that were adult in nature, and involved some activities decidedly less than redeeming. But they also demonstrated positive values and morality in their less than perfect characters. A movie doesn’t have to be the Cosby Family to succeed at the box office.



Mr. Perry has made tens of millions of dollars, and is in the rare position of being able to choose his projects-he is a bankable artist. Yet when given the opportunity to produce for television, he gives us slap stick buffoonery, not seen since Amos and Andy bumbled and ebonic-ed their way onto the screen. His shows House of Pain and Meet the Browns are a modern version of Good Times for semi-intelligent adults. Both shows feature obese characters gyrating, dancing, and signifying to the point of making one viscerally ill. They expose their gelatinous bellies as though they were something to be proud of, in an era when diabetes and heart disease are killing us at a rate faster than Hispanic births-and that is reeeally fast. His characters are guffawing-us all the way to the gallows.



There are other directors that choose to specialize in certain genres. But even Wes Craven delves into different types of scary, instead of strictly horror. Spike Lee, another prolific director, also focuses on Black cultural themes. Yet you will discover a wide variety of subject matter; School Daze, Malcolm X, Summer of Sam, Girl 6, He Got Game, Clockers, and Katrina, to name but a few. And although Spike does cameos in some of his movies, I have yet to see him dress in drag (which would be really, really, scary).



And what the heck is Tyler Perry’s cross-dressing fetish about? I believe that it is indicative of his conflicted sexuality and subliminal desire to be both man and woman. I would surmise that a therapist would immediately connect his abuse as a teenager at the hands of both men and women, to way he mis-portrays our community. Tyler Perry is a prime psychological handbook example of self-loathing, projected upon an entire community. His views of relationships are clearly shaped by his abuse. It hasn’t escaped me either, that his oft reprised character Madea-the gun toting, knife wielding, trash talking grandmother-has yet to be seen in a healthy relationship with a man (or for that matter a woman). It appears that Tyler Perry cannot manage to create an upstanding role even for himself. Instead of crying like a woman on Oprah, he should have been talking like a man with Dr. Phil.



I for one, refuse to patronize or even view another of his attacks on our community (as well as himself). Tyler Perry's creative process seems as though he upchucks into a giant crock pot, seasons it with a little humor, then serves it up as soup for the soul. Sadly, Black women are standing in line like homeless people waiting for a free holiday meal. Before he next sits his butt into a director’s chair, he should first lye down on a psychiatrist’s couch. Perhaps then he will discover that his experience is not our experience, and that there are millions of healthy, loving, relationship stories available within the Black community.



Tnasiti speaks, all rights reserved.