This post will create a polarizing reaction for those of you who choose to read this. You may either agree with my sentiments about the misogyny of black women in media, or you may totally disagree and think I should just take a seat and stop all that nonsense about that whole reality TV mumbo jumbo BS. So I will take a deep breath, take a moment to assess what I am about to write, and keep hope alive that we’re still friends by the end of this post.
I decided to watch Tyler Perry’s new show The Haves and Have Nots on the Oprah Winfrey Network (otherwise known as OWN). I must admit that I came in with high expectations. I’m one of the few black women out there that has hope for what Tyler Perry can bring to the black community. His financial resources, Hollywood connections, and media clout in his industry is enough to create opportunities for so many budding writers, actors, and artists of color out there. I know I have lofty hopes for the guy, but call me a crazy optimist---that’s just how I feel.
However, Tyler Perry has reinforced black female stereotypes to an extreme in several of his plays, movies, and TV shows in a manner that sets all of us back several decades and puts us at a disadvantage to have our stories told from a perspective that represents US and not an archaic stereotype. I have the sense that Mr. Perry is only familiar with a small demographic of women which are the very women he illustrates in many of his films.
After all, Madea was based on a relative of Perry’s.
I will preface this first by saying that I do not endorse nor do I cosign on what Tyler Perry is doing. I will be frank in admitting that I was once a fan on Perry’s (as were most of us when he first came out) and I also loved The Family That Preys, which took on a different turn than his Madea comedies. There are many critics that believe The Family That Preys still represents hatred towards black women, with respect to Sanaa Lathan’s character. She mistreated her husband (a good black man) for a business tycoon (a white male adulterer) and she had little to no respect for her mother. Sanaa’s character also was a thief and a bad mother. She was just a horrible person all around, and for critics that was enough to lump her in with every other black woman. I disagree, I think Sanaa’s character was just a woman of low morals with major insecurity issues and was willing to sacrifice and compromise all of her worth for the almighty dollar. Frankly, I don’t lump her deceitful actions with the entire black community. It’s not that serious.
Now I will say Perry is not exempt from receiving some major vitriol from me, because his new comedy “Love Thy Neighbor” makes me want to gag with a spoon. First of all, the main character Hattie is the worst Mammy stereotype I’ve ever seen on contemporary television. I don’t know any black women around Hattie’s age who look like her. One could argue that it could be a southern thing…but I am from the south. I have NO family members or extended family members who are remotely like Hattie. My mother who was watching with me, was shocked at Hattie’s attire. My mother is around the same age as the protagonist on this new Tyler Perry sitcom, and could not believe she was wearing pantyhose knee socks rolled right below the knee! My mom was like, “I haven’t seen someone wear hosiery like that since I was a kid!” Tyler Perry missed the mark and then some on that character type.
Get it together Tyler!
Now having said all of this, here is my beef with the Tyler Perry hate on the interwebs. I find it fascinating how writers take an open letter to Tyler Perry, or lay out detailed accounts of why Tyler Perry’s shows diminish black women, and even seeing change.org petitions flying around requesting for TP to be removed from OWN.
But can I ask why Tyler Perry is receiving the backlash of this bitter criticism and not network executives that produce shows like Love and Hip Hop, Atlanta Housewives, Basketball Wives, and so many others that I refuse to name? I’ll be honest, I know little to nothing about these shows. I was subjected to watch whenever I went to the hair salon or if I spent time with family and they forced me to watch. I cannot sit through an episode of Atlanta Housewives without questioning to myself why this show is actually well-received and loved by so many women. I’m repulsed by the fact that every other scene involves someone pulling out a weave, throwing a ton of shade, or the B-word being uttered out of their vocabulary at least 10-15 times per episode. Somehow these shows get a pass in the black community, yet Tyler Perry is scapegoat for all things misogynistic in the black community. Again, I’m not exempting his content, but I just want us to see the bigger picture here and not look through a narrow one-dimensional lens.
BET for YEARS has been the bully when it comes to this kind of behavior. If we really want to be real about the hatred of black women, let’s take a moment to review the history of BET. We can first start with the music videos that allowed video vixens like Karinne Steffans to give birth to the term and earn crazy money off of a best-selling book. We can also talk about reality shows like College Hill back in the day (remember that show?) I was hopeful to see a black show about college-educated kids and as it turned out I saw some of the most brutal violence depicted on that show. There was an episode where a fight got so bad that someone was cut and they were bleeding profusely! Yet this series is actually the longest running reality show on BET’s network.
I think I hear crickets right now.
Here is my point, because there is one. I believe that Tyler Perry is an easy target because first of all he is a multi-million dollar mogul who has made his living off of encouraging black stereotypes. He is one guy and if we bully this one guy enough, then eventually he will change his mind and work to create positive strides in our community or just stop creating content all together. I think people are even more furious that he has managed to convince Oprah that what he is doing is okay and she’s a willing co-signer and that is very frustrating for many of us, especially black women.
Tackling a human being rather tackling a network is easy. It’s lazy, but it’s easy. So if you want to come off as being self-righteous in your effort to confront the issues of harsh stereotypes among women of color, then just attack Tyler Perry brush the dirt off your shoulders and call it a day. You’ve made your point and thousands of people will agree with you. However, if you really want to get your hands dirty and do the work while putting some elbow grease in it, then start a call to action on what is happening with reality shows. Contact VH-1 and Bravo TV and hit them below the belt.
Doesn’t sound that easy does it? There are organizations like Truth In Reality and the Bury The Ratchet Campaign who have worked to address these issues. I’m certain there are more bloggers, writers, journalists, activists, and the like who are totally on board with stopping the negative imagery illustrated on reality TV, but for some reason we are just not getting through.
Here’s the problem, some of us watch these shows and it’s our guilty pleasure. I will not judge you if you watch these shows, and to each is own when it comes to watching reality television, but I think there is a great deal of hypocrisy here when one chooses to demonize a person for what they do, yet they either support or look the other way when an entity (or network) does the same exact thing. The only reason TP is able to do what he does is because we accept the Jezebel, Sapphire, and Mammy stereotypes seen on these reality shows. These very caricatures are what Tyler Perry portrays in his new and older content.
So if we’re okay with black women pulling their hair, calling each other foul names, accepting terms in our lexicon like “ratchet”, and reinforcing the “ghetto” stereotypes on reality television, why should we hate on Tyler Perry for what he’s doing? He sees that we like it….so he’s just following suit.
With the junk that is on TV and the money generated to these networks because people watch it, can you blame him?
