Over For Me In '08
I have had enough of black men pretending to be black women. These kind of portrayals of black women has moved millions of miles away past comedic parody a long, long, time ago. I am really hoping that Tyler Perry will retire the Madea character and I never wish to see Martin Lawrence's Big Momma or Norbit's Rasputia ever again.
I have rarely found these characters funny and considering the startling lack of quality parts for black women, I am shocked that black women continuously support movies featuring these heavily stereotypical depictions. For me, these modern black mammy images are just as problematic as certain images of black women in hip hop music.
Please do not e-mail me or make comments defending these characters and these movies. You are welcome to your movie choices. I just want you to remember that if you support these kind of characters, then you are also supporting characters like Shirley Q. Liquor, who is monstrously unfunny, racist, and sexist! Check out Ms. Liquor's live performances on youtube. Ha, Ha, Hell!
Remember it's always a slippery slope. Black men making fun of black women moves quickly into white men making fun of us as well. You chose, I have.
6 comments:
Yay professor Tracey!
ITA. It's why I never went to see Norbitt. That character in the 'bathing suit' made me very angry.
I'm sick of my beautiful sisters and mothers being held up for ridicule.
Professor Tracey,
I'm with you on this. I've never been on the Tyler Perry bandwagon.
And
I love your blog!!!
Thanks, Ladies! I'm too much of a sports junkie to cancel my cable tv, but I will no longer spend my hard-earned money on movies with those tired chracters!
I actually like Tyler Perry's movies, even though he can be very heavy-handed with the abuse and has other issues. However, I thought Norbit was deplorable and offensive. It wasn't funny at all. I don't know what point he was trying to make by making the movie to start with.
I finally listened to Black Women's Roundtable this morning and was thrilled to hear that you had started blogging. Sigh...ya'll keep making me have to update my blog roll and I hate making layout updates.
I find the faux portrayals of black women you mention monstrously offensive. It is a case of black men taking the Mammy and Sapphire stereotypes, mixing them up, and running with them for laughs. Except I'm not laughing and all of the other black women who wonder why we are always treated like less than should look no further than how our community accepts and supports these images for a hint.
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