Tyler Perry Stereotypes

Perry’s films do reinforce the misrepresentation of typical African American behavior. Patricia Hill Collins, author of the book, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment, said, specifically about Black women, our stereotypical images are intended to make racism, sexism, and all other

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.

Reid covers three genres of African American film types such as comedy, black family film, and black action film whether it be independent and/or commercial films. Under the comedy genre, Reid evaluates three subtypes, which include Blackface Minstrelsy, Hybrid Minstrelsy and Satiric Hybrid Minstrel films. Blackface Minstrelsy was the only film subtype, I was familiar with in African American film history. Hybrid Minstrelsy and Satiric Hybrid Minstrel films were new genres learned from

Harris’s interest was the representational dialogic of racial difference within film and the real/representation dialect of cultural, gender, and sexual identity (Harris, 51). But the new images of black masculinity are problematic and limited. This was an operation of sorts, of “recoding masculinity from established, now historic, Hollywood codings of black men and black masculinity visualizes a more ambiguous, more discursive image, producing the meanings of an intricately constructed masculinity, more complexly dimensional than the submissive, docile Tom, or the morally corrupt, conniving, sexually threatening drug dealer” (Harris, 52). But these aggressive and politically charged black masculinities, now turned into these difficult ideological metaphors- they construct themselves from the existing “pop cultural and filmic representations of masculinity” (Harris, 52). Basically, Harris stated that black masculinity turned into a “fixed” culturally familiar/consumable construct; masculinity became reinforcement of singular, monologic meanings, only within different popular images. According to Robyn Weigman’s Feminism, The Boyz, and Other Matters Regarding the Male, Newsweek asserts, “Hollywood fades to black.” The primary images

While the 1970’s and 80’s marked a decline in movies featuring black actors and a lack of black directors, the mid 1980’s through the 1990’s invited a new generation of filmmakers and rappers, engaging with the “New Jack” image, transforming the Ghettos of yesteryears into the hood of today. A major director that emerged during this time was Spike Lee. According to Paula Massood’s book titled, Black City Cinema, African American Urban Experiences in Film, “…Lee not only transformed African American city spaces and black filmmaking practices, he also changed American filmmaking as a whole.” Lee is perhaps one of the most influential film makers of the time, likely of all time. He thrusted black Brooklyn into light, shifting away from the popularity of Harlem. By putting complex characters into an urban space that is not only defined by poverty, drugs, and crime, it suggests the community is more than the black city it once was, it is instead a complex cityscape. Despite them being addressed to an African American audience, Lee’s film attract a mixed audience. Spike lee’s Do the Right Thing painted a different image of the African American community, “The construction of the African American city as community differs from more mainstream examples of the represents black city spaces from the rime period, such as Colors…, which presented its African American and Mexican American communities through the eyes of white LAPD officers.”

She argues that black female spectators neither wish to identify with a white woman subject objectified by the “male gaze” nor identify with a black male perpetrator of this “male gaze”. hooks asserts that black men, unconcerned with gender, were able to “repudiate the reproduction of racism in cinema…even as they could feel as though they were rebelling against white supremacy by daring to look”, specifically at white women (118). By being allowed to look at white women, black male spectators were able to ignore inherent racism in cinema in order to participate in a form of the “male gaze”, hooks states. Because black female spectators were unwilling or unable to ignore both the racism and sexism of this “gaze”, hooks states that “black female spectators construct a theory of looking relations where cinematic visual delight is the pleasure of interrogation” (126). While black female viewers may not take pleasure in the film narrative, hooks argues that through the “oppositional gaze” they are able to take pleasure in resisting this narrative

The movie's success depends on using dated stereotypes: "angry black woman," "thuggish black man," and "innocent" white women. White men,

The films represent the community and sometimes can alter how society think they should feel. Ramsey discusses “guiltsploitation”, which addresses the guilt associated with not following a certain cultural norm (Ramsey,311). The message of many films suggests that to prove that one is proud of their Black heritage they must live in ghettos, do crack and rap (Ramsey, 311). This representation creates a different message to the past and present youth—can I climb the corporate ladder and still be loyal to my race (Ramsey, 311)? Films have the power to create an image in society that makes it difficult for the African-American culture to feel comfortable going against this social norm. This article suggests that many African-Americans may avoid education, or a different social class because of this inner

During the White Hollywood Cinema era, the Black African-American actors played the role of black stereotypes, and they also performed small parts in those films. D.W Griffith produced a racist film that had black stereotypes in it; the name of the film is Birth of a Nation. However, Oscar Micheaux made a film that responded back to D.W Griffith’s movie, which was Within Our Gates. He paved the way for other black African-Americans, which empowered them to speak out through their own films and movies. Spike Lee was influenced by Oscar Micheaux. He wanted to give the black community a voice just like Oscar Micheaux. Spike Lee turned himself into a revolutionary by the way he produced and directs his films. He is so fearless and always pushing

The United States has long been a country that has accepted that change is a necessity for prosperity and growth. However, each change within the nation's history was hard fought against those who resisted such change either through racism, bigotry, and blatant discrimination. African American cinema is enshrouded in history that depicts these themes of racism, struggle, and deprivation. Yet, this same cinema also shows scenes of hope, artistic spirit, intellectual greatness, and joy. Black actresses, actors, directors, producers, and writers have been fighting for recognition and respect since the great Paul Robeson. The civil rights movement of the 1950's and 60's was fueled by black cinema through films like A Raisin in the Sun.

Growing up, Perry suffered “brutal physical abuse from his father and severe sexual abuse from several adults” (Tyler ). Dressing as a drag queen to fulfill the role of his most reputable and recognizable character, Madea, a no-nonsense, thuggishly tough matriarch, Tyler Perry flirts with gender roles and challenges societal beliefs on masculinity within the black world. In Forbes’ most recent list of the world’s one hundred most powerful celebrities, Perry is highlighted at twenty-two, alongside Hollywood’s most notable celebrities, including his close friend and reigning champion of Forbes’ number one spot for five consecutive years—Oprah Winfrey. Despite his vast success, Tyler Perry still receives flak from judgmental skeptics who challenge his masculinity as a man of color. Due to his acting role as Madea, some skeptics believe Mr. Perry is less of a man as he dresses in drag for a character in his plays and is suspected to be homosexual. This not only points him out individually, but it also creates stereotypes grounded from this source of media to the African American males. Grounded with integrity, black culture must celebrate rather than condemn every aspect of its people.

According to Tukachinsky, Mastro, and Yarchi, prior to 1930, the role of Blacks on screen were seen involving mostly in criminality and idleness (540). That role still persists until the present, with Blacks usually have to withstand to “longstanding and unfavorable media stereotypes including sexually provocative females and aggressive male thugs” (Tukachinsky 540). 1970’s movies such as The Mack, Black Caesar and Coffy have reinforced this stereotypic image of the black community. The

In the final chapter of his 2012 book, Winn aggregates his analyses of these films and states that every one of them presents African Americans as being inferior to whites in all ways and as being a threat to white authority and society. Winn (2012) ends his discourse with a discussion in critical media pedagogy, and states, “By studying how racist ideologies affected specific media productions in the past, we can better learn how to consume, interrogate, and interpret current media and use that understanding to encourage change” (p.128). “Therefore, now, more than ever before, people need to be able to understand, question, challenge, and evaluate media for themselves. One way to address this need is through critical media literacy” (p. 129). Critical media literacy can help audiences understand how underlying ideologies can effect communications of institutions and shape their views of the world.

is no law saying that every film involving cross-racial relationships has to make some kind of defining statement about racism or race-relations in general, but there should be a rule against painting such broad character strokes using painfully obvious and patronizing stereotypes.” (Mendelson’s Memos)

Quentin Tarantino’s film Jackie Brown, released in 1997, challenges the pervasive stereotyping of not only blacks but specifically black women. Nowhere is the cinematic devaluation of African Americans more evident than in images of black women which, in the history of cinematography, the white ideal for female beauty has overlooked. The portrayal of black women as the racial Extra has been fabricated through many semblances in the history of American film. Film scholars and feminists alike have long been plagued with lament for the negativity and stereotyping that sticks with black women in American cinema. In this paper, I will argue that Jackie Brown highlights and stresses the racial variance of the female African American protagonist,