Movie Review

The most recent movie I have seen is "Madea goes to Jail." This movie is funny, but it also tells story. It portrays the real black family in America. Yes, it is an all black cast and in my opinion, it tells the truth about blacks in a way that most black people can relate to. When I read gender into the movie, I noticed that the strong black woman, Madea, is everything that the media says is not typical for an older black woman to be. They also showed a young black woman who was dealing with an issue of prostitution and drugs. She was a very smart young woman. She was in college, making straight A's, etc. So, in my opinion, they collided two images together; the older strong black woman and the younger educated blck prostitute. Throughout the movie, they show the struggles that each had to endure and how one overcame them, while the other tried to avoid them. "Madea goes to Jail," is a very powerful movie. It was advertised with laughs and on black channels, kid's channels and sometimes on game shows. It was not advertised on the Soaps because of the predominantly white community that watches it. I believe the portrayal of black men and women in this movie, were great images for the black community. Usually, the black woman is shown as meek or quiet, but in every one of Tyler Perry's Films there is one black woman that is the REAL essence of THE black woman.

In response to the readings, a couple of topics stood out to me throughout the chapters:
1) In a culture which holds the two-parent patriarchal family in higher concern than any other arrangement, all children feel emotionally insecure when their family does not measure up to the standard.

My response to this is, first, the beginning of this statement sounds as if the "two-parent patriarchal family" is in the wrong for being held in "higher concern than any other arrangement." I am a Christian and with my spiritual upbringing, I believe that the "two-parent patriarchal family" is the plan that God had for every family. When statements were made in the Bible such as, "the man shall head his household as Christ heads the church" and "the man shall find HIS wife." Of course, these are paraphrased, but they were not put in the Bible just to decorate the pages. I believe that the man is the head of the household and he needs to be. Now, the second part of the statement does not have any reign in the majority of single-parent households, which are predominantly black. I am a product of a single black mother household. My mother worked her behind off to keep us on top of our grades, in school, off the streets and away from our father's drug addiction. So, personally, I did not "feel emotionally insecure when [my] family did not measure up to the standard." I believe that if hooks would focus on the black families in America, she would see the truth about single-parent households.

2)Total Bliss: Lesbianism and Feminism

Honestly, I do not believe in rights for lesbians or gay individuals. My spiritual upbringing has told me that men should not lay with me and women should not lay with women. End of story.

3) If women and men want to know love, we have to yearn for feminism. For without feminist thinking and practice we lack the foundation to create loving bonds.

I chose this statement because I disagree. Yes, feminism is important. Yes, Women's rights are important. BUT "if men and women want to know love, we have to yearn for [GOD]!" The Bible says, "God is Love..." , "God is the way, the truth and the light..." , etc. I am a young Black Woman and I appreciate all of the knowledge thrown my way about women, men, feminism, everything, but I have also been faithful to my God for 20 years and I will continue to be faithful for the next 100 or so years, God-willing. So, with all this "feminist thinking and practice...to create loving bonds," I disagree. "All things are possible through Christ," I repeat "through CHRIST." Not through feminist thinking, women's rights, men's rights, African American rights, etc, but "through CHRIST."