My Film Review: For Colored Girls Is An Excellent Movie Don’t Listen To The Critics!!!
Today, I saw Tyler Perry’s controversial feminist drama For Colored Girls and I loved it! I think the criticism of For Colored Girls is clearly by people who don’t understand black feminism.
The movie asks the question, what does it mean to be black and female in a racist and sexist world?
Black women must negotiate between the discrimination they experience in relation to their race and gender.
Now, for people who are not black, they may never understand the struggles that black women experience.
Black women and other women of colour are often still invisible to the white female in North American society.
Black feminism is very important because automatically the word woman in North American culture still refers to the white heterosexual woman.
Women of colour are often displaced and their life experiences are viewed as unimportant or invisible in relation to the white female.
Black feminism was created because white mainstream feminism ignores women of colour.
Black women were tired of being treated as just token women at feminist conference and events.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, black feminism expanded due to the black women writers, artists, playwrights, and singers.
I believe Ntozake Shange was trying to make the black women experience visible and to speak out against the misogyny in the black community.
Ntozake Shange wrote the play in 1975 to give a voice for black women that are beaten, raped, verbally, and emotionally abused by black men.
For some odd reason, the black community has a problem exposing our dirty laundry! Black men we complain and get upset when black women challenge us about our male privilege and sexism. It is unfair for black men to tell black women they must be silent about misogyny!
Misogyny still exists in the black community and in order to heal we must acknowledge that sexism is a serious problem within the black race.
Some critics have complained that For Colored Girls is a man bashing film that is not true!
For Colored Girls is very powerful because it illustrated the strength, courage, and desire for black women to overcome black male sexism.
Some black men want black women to choose between their race and gender and I believe that divide and conquer strategy is abhorrent!
Black feminism is all about black females being able to acknowledge both their race and gender.
How can a black woman possible choose between being black and female when this is their experience?
What right do black men have to attempt to erase, deny, and degrade black women?
Another problem I have with critics is, in the feminist movement during the 1970s focused on white middle class women.
Ntozake Shange’s play is still important in the year 2010 because racism still exists in feminism.
Black women have a right to claim their space and have their stories told in the silver screen.
Most movies released by Hollywood revolve around white, heterosexual, women. Why can’t black women also have a space for themselves?
Should black women be content being the white woman’s best friend or sassy sideckick in a Hollywood movie?
It was wonderful to see black women in lead roles for a change!
I wish I can see black women in lead roles more than just once or twice a year!
Ntozake Shange first produced For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Was Enuf in 1975. Shange’s play is a black feminist classic. I understand some critics feel that Tyler Perry doesn’t have the credentials to make a movie about black feminism. However, I also believe the critics don’t understand how Hollywood works. The Hollywood film studios would never greenlight For Colored Girls with an unknown director. For Colored Girls required a director or a cast that has a huge fanbase. Tyler Perry’s fortune is $500 million dollars and it continues to grow.
The Good: I thought Thandie Newton’s performance was the strongest in the film. Thandie’s character Tangie is a young woman who uses sex to deal with her emotional pain. Tangie is promiscuous, but she’s also not very happy. Tangie’s younger sister Nyla is only sixteen she wants to become a professional dancer but she gets pregnant. Unfortunately for Nyla, she has a back door abortion and suffers the consequences.
Kimberly Elise her character Crystal is Janet Jackson’s assistant at a high-profile magazine. Meanwhile, Crystal is a victim of sexual and domestic violence by her war veteran boyfriend. Kimberly Elise’s facial expressions to convey her emotions is remarkable. I felt Kimberly’s performance was excellent she conveyed the pain of a woman in a bad relationship.
I thought Lorette Devine was very good as the nurse that helps poor inner city women at a non-profit health center. Devine shines because she brought some humour and comedy to the film.
I was stunned when Janet Jackson’s character Joanna learns she is infected with HIV positive because her husband is a homosexual!
A lot of people dismiss Janet as an actress but in For Colored Girls her performance is solid!
The bad: I have to admit, I felt that Ntozake Shange’s poetry turned into prose was awkward. I can understand the criticism but I think adpating a play into a movie is difficult and Tyler tried his best.
The ugly: It was very tough to watch the rape scene. I was horrified when I watched Anika Noni Rose’s character Yasmine get raped. I understand, the movie is based on Ntozake Shange’s play but seeing Anika’s character Yasmine get brutally raped was shocking and disturbing.
Global Comment Article: Is Eninem Being Attacked By The Mainstream Media Because He’s A White Heterosexual Rapper?
Eminem, Hip-Hop, Homophobia and Whiteness
In a recent interview with Anderson Cooper, Eminem posed an interesting question: Why does he [Eminem] seem to be the focus of intense media scrutiny when it comes to his homophobic and sexist lyrics? Eminem wondered, is it be cause he’s white? That is, do people pay particular attention to his lyrics (as compared to other, black rappers) because he is white?
“I felt like I was being attacked…. was being singled out. I felt like, ‘Is it because of the color of my skin? Is it because of that that you’re paying more attention?’
Eminem’s question provoked a bit of an outburst in the media that I think reveals some interesting things about how race is dealt with in mainstream white media.
From Jezebel:
Personally, I never really felt that Eminem was the brightest bulb in the bunch and viewed this as an explanation, though not an excuse, for his ignorance and lack of tolerance. This was crystallized in his 2002 single “Without Me” when he rapped his misunderstanding of basic bodily functions:
Cuz I’m back, I’m on the rag and ovulating
If you want to get technical here: that’s not how it works. But it could explain how he managed to have a child out of wedlock.
Cooper also bought into Eminem’s self-proclaimed street smarts (he dropped out of high school after three attempts to complete the ninth grade failed) that manifested into a love of vocabulary, as the rapper discussed his talent for wordplay. He believes that “orange” is a one-syllable word.
Huffington Post’s response, while less caustic, is no less aggressive.
Eminem went on to say that while he throws around the word ‘fa**ot,’ he has no problem with anyone and each parent needs to be responsible for their own kids.
50 Cent recently made comments that were construed by some as anti-gay, and he did not get a free pass because he is black.
Eminem’s speculation–is this happening because he’s white–could be taken many ways. In the context of hip-hop and Eminem’s career, however, I think it’s fair to point to Eminem’s song “Sing for the Moment”, where he confronts the situation of white kids listening to and modeling themselves on a white guy who is so heavily connected to “black music.” In the song’s first few lyrics he raps:
These ideas are nightmares to white parents
Whose worst fear is a child with dyed hair and who likes earrings
Like whatever they say has no bearing, it’s so scary in a house that allows
no swearing
…His thoughts are whacked, he’s mad so he’s talkin’ back
Talkin’ black, brainwashed from rock and rap
He sags his pants, do-rags and a stocking cap
His step-father hit him, so he socked him back, and broke his nose
His house is a broken home, there’s no control, he just let’s his emotions go…
Eminem has always been well aware of his position as a white rapper in a black dominated art. His first hit, “Slim Shady”, mocked people who were shocked by his whiteness, and while he is definitely no anti-racist advocate, he certainly demonstrates a clear understanding of what effect his whiteness has on his popularity, his acceptability, and the middle class reaction to his class and race infiltration of their world through music.
As such, it is possible to interpret Eminem’s question as a critique–more specifically, as a critique of the racism of the media. That is, mainstream white focused news doesn’t pay attention to certain issues unless they can sit condemnation on them or they are connected to the issues.
An example is Kat Stacks and how black feminist blogs and black blogs generally were discussing the situation for weeks—whereas there was limited if any coverage on white mainstream media. But when a black man inflicts violence on a white woman [OJ Simpson on his white wife] or when black people supposedly vote against pro-gay legislation, the media then supports attacks against the black community for being “socially conservative.”
The white mainstream media seems to be aware of the critique in Eminem’s question and has chosen to represent the critique as defensive posturing on Eminem’s part rather than to actually acknowledge it. Jezebel’s headline stated, “Eminem: I was singled out as a misogynist and homophobe because I’m white.”
Huffington Post’s headline was not much better: “Eminem on ’60 Minutes’: If I Was Black I wouldn’t be Called Misogynist, Homophobic.” Other headlines ranged from personal blogs quoting major media’s headlines to the San Diego Buzz’s completely misleading “I’m attacked because I’m white.”
By positioning Eminem’s critique simply as a statement rather than a question, by focusing on speculation around Eminem’s skin color rather than the follow up “is that why you’re paying attention?” the media has managed to divert the potential spotlight of a critique from itself back on to Eminem.
The media no longer has to answer to the racist way it ignores communities of color until something scandalous or relevant to itself happens. It does not have to confront the irony of never presenting homophobia, sexism, or violence in the black community in a complex or even consistent manner–but feeling perfectly free to lecture black people on their “tolerance” of various -isms. It doesn’t even have to answer to the question Eminem posed–does mainstream media only pay attention to him because he’s white?
Interestingly, one of the few posts/articles that actually confronted Eminem’s question in a way that left the integrity of his question intact is Davy D from Davy D’s Hip Hop Corner (the other, which makes an argument similar to Davy D’s, is at Clutch, a site that caters to black women). Because Davy D doesn’t back away from the critique that is inherent in Eminem’s question, he comes to some vastly different conclusions than mainstream white media does. After outlining several historical cases where black rappers were and continue to be intensely targeted and even boycotted by the mainstream white community (including Eminem’s own mentor, Dr. Dre of the infamously Congressionally targeted NWA), Davy D concludes:
When Def Jeff and Turbo B got clocked all of rap was called into question. When Buju Banton was called all of Jamaica and its culture was called into question. When Em was called out it began and stopped with him. We didn’t make the connection with Eminem being a white man born in the US who may be part of and ultimately influenced by a culture that includes everyone from conservative politicians to overzealous Evangelists who routinely bash the gay community. Bottomline in spite of his hard upbringing there are major institutions in this country that have afforded Eminem a few privileges he himself might not recognize and certainly didn’t acknowledge during his interview.
Compare the responses from the black community to Huffington Post’s defensive, “yes we did call out 50 cent!” (which Jezebel also asserted), and you get an alarming refusal to self-reflect and a disturbing lack of historical knowledge on the part of the white communities’ own protests. The group on the brunt end of targeting and attacks always remembers things that the attacker quickly “forgets.”
Eminem is not a “good guy” in the traditional sense. He certainly deserves the critiques of homophobia and violent sexism as well as the pointed assertion of white privilege. He is a complex guy, however, as is hip-hop. And he is capable of using that complexity to continue the scathing critique of white mainstream media that the hip-hop community formed decades ago. That mainstream white media is so deft at deflecting that critique through racism with a heavy does of classism thrown is is depressingly normal and sadly, not surprising.
Gayblackcanada 