With a 41 million dollar opening weekend and a total (so far) take of 65 million dollars - it's not that I'm hating' on Tyler Perry and his character Medea, but where is the balance?The fact that a Black man had to dress as a mammy character in order to find success is also troubling to me.
Many say that we should not knock Mr. Perry's hustle and that we should support a Black man who has found a certain level of success.
But how does Mr. Perry differ from those in the past who "succeeded" by subjugating others from their own race?http://americancivilwar.com/authors/black_slaveowners.htm
When will Mr. Perry represent a side of Black life that is not in keeping with the Step-n-Fetch model?
Or is Mr. Perry from the Bob Johnson School of Hustle?
7 comments:
T.Perry is following in Bob Johnson footsteps. It's like someone who says they sell porn because there's a market for it. Everyone who does this kind of stuff always tries to take the high ground but that high ground doesn't include morality nor responsibility. It doesn't include someone denigrating his race or himself because the people who watch and support it or of low morals themselves. It's all ish and will always be ish.
The thing that troubles me is I would bet 85% of his audience is African American. So if he doesn't have to appeal to the masses why does he feel he has to offer ish to his own. It makes me remember the movie Malcolm X where Elijah Muhammad tells Malcolm if he offers his people a glass with ink in it they will drink it because they are thirsty but if he offered them a clean glass they will see and choose for themselves.
So are we that thirsty for Black Entertainment that we are willing to take a transvestite grandma as long as they have a part where they are centered around the Black Church? We can feed pigs shit if we want but some also eat the pig and thus they end up hurting themselves.
Dude, your concerns about balance are premature. Tyler Perry is on the vanguard of possibly further opening up the mainstream film industry to stories/entertainment other than that those who currently control the industry understand and can relate to. In other words, he's still trying to establish a sustainable foothold in the game, not maximizing the balance of content offerings.
The barriers to getting major distribution for any content are immense, and even worse for the more intellectual, high-brow content you seem to imply that you'd rather see. Additionally, his ish sells, which is ultimately the arbiter of what gets put on; not the desire of intellectuals.
I question your whole premise that Tyler Perry is subjugating others from is own race. I'm not a huge fan, but I saw his first Madea picture and it was pretty funny and the whole family watched and enjoyed. From what I recall it was good, wholesome, family entertainment that included characters and situations that were particularly relevant to the majority of Black folks. It's my understanding that his tv product on TNT/TBS is also family friendly. He IS doing comedy in these content offerings similar to that previously done by Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence, etc. Why he gets the "Step-n-Fetch" tag from you seems unwarranted. Would you also decry the buffoonery of Adam Sandler or Will Farrell for practicing their art form if you was an aspirational White man.
You've had previous blog posts that deal with pretentiousness and bourgeois attitudes. I think you are guilty of that thinking here. Perhaps you would like to see a movie that explores the ethereal or esoteric value of The Sierpinski Triangle, but some of us want to simply be entertained with content that we can relate to.
You also get in a dig at Bob Johnson, who I don't really care for personality wise, but whose accomplishments, like Perry's, are really quite remarkable. I think both these guys should be lauded for what they've been able to do. Bob was serving up what his audience wanted and what was economically viable in the marketplace. If you think BET would have received the financial backing, distribution, and marketplace success serving up Fredrick Douglass biographies you are trippin. I have enjoyed a late night booty video on BET many a night (sadly, I don't think they run those any more). There have been other ventures with higher brow ambitions and so far they have failed. To a great extent these mass appeal efforts have forged the way for other types of content offerings e.g. TV One, etc. Had it not been for the success of their forerunners, namely BET, these initiatives would be significantly more difficult.
If still you insist the content they are putting out does not meet your standards, you can look at it this way: the porn industry is typically on the vanguard of developing or adapting new technologies and avenues of distribution, which mainstream media subsequently adapts. Perhaps Bob Johnson and Madea are your porn, but don't lose sight of the larger prize they are helping to achieve - greater access to a very closed industry and to the development and distribution of ideas and content from non-traditional players.
Still not enough? Both Tyler Perry and Bob Johnson have developed significant enterprises that employ a lot of Black folks in nice, over-paid jobs. Don't hate!
@ Freeman - Yep
@ DPizz - What I'm saying is that there is no balance to the images that always seem to be associated with Blacks in America.
Rosanne, Mama's Family, and even The Family Guy are all seen as lampooning a certain type of white culture and NOT representative of ALL.
I'm just asking for some balance to the foolishness.
So you all are blaming B. Johnson and T. Perry for this lack of balance, as if they are in control? You are shooting the wrong people. They don't control access, distribution or market demand.
No one is going to finance and put on the positive ish you all are talking about until the market is proven. And guess what, thanks to BET, B. Johnson's is now attempting to launch another channel for under served audiences, this time, I believe, with more of the types of content you snobs would approve of (side note: Tv One is opposing this channel with the FCC).
Overriding all this is the market place. You all are assuming that the so called positive images you want to see will be successful in the market place. There have been other urban focused channels with the goal of providing "higher quality content". So far, the audiences have not chosen them and they have failed! The BET audience has already spoken. They liked the content you all disparage. Where is your outrage against the audience? Was Bob sticking them up at gunpoint to watch his shit? I think there is demand for the positive images you guys want to see, but the people you need to finance and distribute this probably do not and they will need the market proven and their risk mitigated. To some extent BET has done this? Now you're getting another channel with higher quality content (I think). Every struggle typically makes progress incrementally.
Lastly, I really question whether you guys have actually seen any of the Madea movies. I say this because I had your same attitudes prior to actually seeing one of the movies. As I mentioned, I did watch the first one with family, during the holidays, several years ago and everything I remember about the movie was pretty positive. I could be mistaken, but from what I remember the themes and values expressed in the movie are positive ones, ones I do not believe anyone would not want to expose to their family.
I think you all are just snobs, thinking you know what's best for audiences, when, so far, they have made their choice.
@ DPizz - Ne-ga-ro please...
Snob? Moi?
But you might be on to something.
Maybe I've done too much in the 'hood without the desired reults and have become jaded.
Maybe I'm just begining to hate the hood.
Maybe I'm sick of the media saying that the lifestyle I see, all too often, as the norm or that it's one to aspire to.
Since a medea (sic) influence can be shown to have on impact on the masses - I'd just like to see a more possitive one.
But yeah, I have to watch Medea almost weekly. One of the old ladies I visit thinks that it's a treat for me to drink lemonade and watch Tyler Perry movies.
So I'm pretty sick of Medea.
To follow-up on my prior comments, see today's headline from Variety which illustrates exactly what I was saying: "Lionsgate, Tyler Perry continue deal
Director planning 'Bad,' 'Married' sequel" (article here: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118000821.html?categoryid=13&cs=1&nid=2562).
Basically, Lionsgate is agreeing to do 2 more of Tyler's pics; however, these pics are Black, middle class character dramas, that will likely have the more positive images you guys desire to see.
Please believe this was only enabled because of T. Perry's success with his Madea franchise, which I believe you have incorrectly mis-characterized as "step-n-fetch it" type material. However, even if that is true, it has forged a path for other types of content. Like it or not, until someone other than the current gatekeepers of the industry, has financing and distribution control this is one of the only paths to get to where you want to go.
Not to go to deep...let me just say I love the character Madea. It doesn't come off to me as a "step-n-fetchit" character model. But more like a super-inflated comedic version of the Madea's most black families had many many years ago. Some of the things this character says and does were actually witnessed by me growing up in the house with my Madea. Of course she wasn't nearly as out of control as the T. Perry character....still I find it humorous and not denigrating in the least
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