For Colored Girls Essay

When Alvin Ailey’s Cry premiered in 1971, Judith Jamison was praised for her tour-de- force 16-minute solo. An original New York Times review expressed that “She looks like an African goddess”. Cry - originally a gift for Ailey’s mother - was dedicated to “all black women everywhere, especially our mothers”. This work, one of Ailey’s greatest successes, evokes an emotional journey, as the performance depicts the struggles of African American women suffering the extraordinary hardships of slavery. Through self- determination, these women overcome their tribulations to attain justice and emancipation. [insert argument here]

“For Colored Girls” is comprised of seven women who represented a different shade of the rainbow. The colors are brown, red, yellow, white, green, orange and blue. Their costumes and make-up transformed each of them and were symbolic of the color their character embodied. The ensemble acting made all of their roles of equal importance, without one dominating the other. These women together formed a bond through their various adversities, gradually taking them from strangers to acquaintances. From an objective view, the audience is allowed to simply observe the events as they take place (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2011, pg. 82) chronologically. Throughout the movie during some of the conflicting and traumatic scenes, one of the women recites a

“U.N.I.T.Y” addresses the social issue in the hip-hop culture and other cultures of violence and disrespect towards women, making it an important piece in the hip-hop as literature movement. Although Latifah is specifically speaking to black women, most women can relate to the oppression of women. Women and men need to have unity, support each other; not disrespect one another.

When we watch movies, we watch them for entertainment. Some people don’t sit back and compare the things happening in the movie to real life situations that are happening amongst society today. It’s a movie. It’s make believe. That’s what I always think when I sit down to watch a movie. Tyler Perry started out producing plays and later released his first feature film in 2005 called “The Diary of a Mad Black Woman.” The Diary of a Mad Black Woman has its twist of emotions throughout the movie. Whether it’s humorous or gloomy, shameful or happy, repulsion or infatuation. The movie shows them all. Tyler Perry has targeted many women and men in different circumstances showing just how painfully exhausting it is to overcome the intolerable.

They are happy to speak to us, perform for us and even wow us. hooks acknowledges this point saying, "it is easy to place Livingston in the role of benefactor, offering these 'poor black souls' a way to realize their dreams." (3.) Even while criticizing those who condescend, hooks herself condescends by simultaneously dismissing any agency or valid desire of the stars themselves. Not only does Livingston provide them this particular opportunity to reach a larger audience, but they very conscientiously want and take it. The audience may exploit the stars by viewing the film with a 'dominant' or 'condescending' curiosity but the black drag queens featured choose to be documented.

As stated in Webster's II Dictionary, a woman is defined to be an adult female human. In today's society being an African American woman is a rigid task to live up to. It means to reside to what their ancestors have left behind, which means to be stronger than ever. Rosa Parks was strong, Harriet Tubman was also strong, and Jezebel was even stronger. So what exactly does it mean to be a woman? It means to stand up for what is right, even if that means sacrifice, it means to be strong whether it be physically, emotionally, or mentally. African American women are perceived to be the backbone of the family, meaning that even though the male may support the family financially, that the women have the emotional and mental part in the bag.

I think that Hooks, while doing this unintentionally, she provides white people with pleasure by watching the movie and ridiculing it. Hooks goes on to say that when she was watching the movie with, “a black woman friend, [they] were disturbed by the extent to which white folks around [them] were “entertained” and “pleasured” by scenes we viewed as sad and at times tragic” (154). The “white folks” that were viewing this documentary most likely do not identify with the LBGTQ community and were criticizing the attempts made by Livingston to bring to life the issues with drag & ball culture. Had society not had been so cruel, and rather accepting, this wouldn’t have to be a “secret” to the world. Instead, the people in this documentary are allowing the camera to be their platform in which they display their struggles to the outside world. I see homophobia as a reason why some members in the LBGTQ community feel outcasted or unwanted in the

When a black woman lowers her life standard, she invites outsiders to pose judgement on the entire group. These unethical behaviors of black women is capitalized off of by mainstream media. Shows such as VH1’s Love and Hip Hop keeps the negative stereotypes of a black woman alive. The black woman who rises above all adversity gains value and respect amongst the

“At the time of my last meeting with Paramount Pictures in January 1990, a well-known, highly respected white director wanted very much to direct the film. [...] I accept that he is a very fine film director. But he is not black. He is not a product of black American culture—a culture that was honed out of the black experience and fired in the kiln of slavery and survival—and he does not share the

Tyler had a lot of success with his plays, but he wanted to take his plays to the big screen. Perry went to many major film companies with script of his play “Diary of a Mad Black Women” but they all wanted to tone down the religious tone of the movie. He then went to Lionsgate, where they decided that they could make a lot of money off Tyler’s urban audience. With that, they gave Perry a deal which included him having control over his own project. The movie “Diary of s Mad Black Women” grossed over 50 million, showing that urban black comedies are a good way to make money. With success, it led Tyler to do many more movies based on his plays that which had to grossing each time.

During the documentary a scene was shot at BET’s Spring Bling and a young male pointed out that women are determined to be b****** or women by the way they dress. Sexism is an issue that to society is not seen as important compared to the large number of black males incarcerated. The issue should be just as important if not more because one in four African American women is raped after the age eighteen. Most women who are called a b**** or another demeaning name think that it wasn’t referred to them, and either way is still unacceptable. Hip Hop is not being represented by men, which is why the decision of their lyrics is said the way that they

The abolition of slavery in the United States presented southern African Americans with many new opportunities, including the option of relocation in search of better living conditions. The mass movement of black people from the rural areas of the South to the cities of the North, known as the Black Migration, came in the 1890s when black men and women left the south to settle in cities such as Philadelphia and New York, fleeing from the rise of Jim Crowe Laws and searching for work. This migration of blacks from the South has been an important factor in the formation of the Harlem Renaissance. The period referred to as the Harlem Renaissance, was a flourishing period of artistic and literary creation in African-American culture and

Therefore, he has a mostly female audience. The audience for this movie is mainly for black women who have some Christin values. In the article does tyler perry have a problem with black men by the grio is explains how tyler perry might not have a wide male audience because of how he portrays them “They are all too often portrayed as drug dealers with a taste for blood, womanizers with no heart, abusive with no chance for redemption”. These chartizes are simply stereotypes, but he capitalizes on this because the black women can identify with that and say I know a man like that. Tyler does not have much of a white audience either, and Tyler knows this he believes it is because his movies are not in theaters in predominantly white neighborhoods.

These visuals may reconstruct and confirm racist pigeon-holes that dub black buttocks with terms such as “junk,” “bubble,” or “cake,” linking its physicality and location to ideas of black ghettos, and dictating “its value and the spatial location for women who possess this body type” (Durham 41). However, within these stereotypes, along with Beyoncé’s self-representations, exists “classed femininity,” where “shared racial history is less useful when attempting to delineate within-group distinctions, such as class” (Durham 40-41). “Black ghetto” stereotypical depictions, such as hypersexuality, are often performed to maintain southern black authenticity in hypermasculine demeanors in order to gain respect from their black and white counterparts. This is done when Beyoncé’s lower half is utilized in her musical performances “to mark authentic blackness rooted in the American South” (Durham 43). These “hood” roots assist in creating respect and visibility for these otherwise demeaned, diminished, and silenced bodies, although, this practice can merely be a facade as “both the street and the strip club are hypermasculine spaces where Black girls and women are economically and sexually vulnerable” (Durham

“…And this is for colored girls who have considered suicide but are moving to the end of their own rainbow…” (Perry: For Colored Girls, 2010). For colored girls was first written and performed as a play by Ntozake Shange in 1977. It was then called “for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow was enuf”. Tyler Perry adapted and transformed it into a movie in 2010. For colored girls is centered on nine women as they encounter their fair share of neglect, abuse, pain and harassment both physically and emotionally. They slowly but surely recover from such abuse and discover joy in themselves. The movie begins with the characters as strangers but at the end, they become good friends.