Tyler Perry’s “Why Did I Watch This Film?”

24th October 2007

Tyler Perry’s “Why Did I Watch This Film?”

posted in Arts and Music, Fat Bias, Feminist Topics, Pop Culture |

I’ve never watched a Tyler Perry film before. There’s just something about fat-lady drag slapstick comedies that somehow manages to both disgust and offend me.

But Perry’s latest film, “Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married” is garnering rave reviews, even beating out films starring George Clooney (swoon) and Cate Blanchett to rake in more than $21 million.

The film focuses on eight married college friends, who take a trip to the snowcapped mountains of Colorado for their annual couple’s retreat. The drama completely hinges on the marital problems of the four upscale couples.

Yet, Perry seems to lay the blame for each couple’s problems squarely on all four women, who are portrayed as the sources of their husbands’ miseries. As we see in the trailer below, Diane is overworked, Sheila is overweight, Angela is over the top, and Patricia is overly perfect.

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So, the general message of the film seems to be, if only the women would “open up,” or “lighten up,” or “put your husband’s wants over your own,” and, of course, the classic “lose all that weight,” wedded bliss would be theirs.

This is, despite the fact that three of the men have cheated on their wives, and the only man who remained faithful is mocked as “gay” by the others. But it is assumed, of course, that the women probably drove their husbands to fuck around on them.

Somehow, it doesn’t surprise me that Perry, who has made his fame from mocking women (i.e. Madea), would degrade other women for wanting such novel things such as careers, independence, and even more shocking, respect.

What’s even more ironic is that Perry’s film is, albeit stereotypically, a chick flick.

Probably Perry’s saddest characterization is in his portrayal of Sheila, as played by Jill Scott in a fat suit. Sheila fears her marriage with Mike is in trouble, and blames most of this to her 80-pound post-marital weight gain. Mike, played by Richard T. Jones, is, quite frankly, a dick, whose entire dialogue consists of fat jokes aimed at Sheila.

But in case Mike’s fat jokes fall short, Perry emphasizes just how truly fat Sheila is in a scene aboard a plane. After a white man (one of the only white characters shown) complains, Sheila is asked to leave the crowded airplane “because someone her size has to purchase two tickets.” This, of course, leaves Mike with Sheila’s good friend Trina, with whom he is having an affair.

At her husband’s direction, Sheila then obediently rents a car and drives from Georgia to Colorado, arriving a full day late. Mike immediately launches into a tirade of fat jokes, while Sheila laments to her friends she can save her marriage if she can just lose 50 or so pounds.

*Spoiler alert*

The second part of the film shows the couples a year later. Mike and Sheila have broken up; he’s since married Trina, but resents her excessive spending. Mike secretly confesses that he misses Sheila, when who should appear but a newly slim and svelte Sheila, with her new fiancee Troy.

In losing weight, Sheila miraculous seemed to find a backbone. Yet Perry portrays Sheila as glowing and happy, not because she ditched her arrogant, narcissistic, self-absorbed husband, but because she’s lost weight.

While it’s refreshing to see an all black cast in a movie that isn’t based on tired black stereotypes, it’s disheartening to see that degrading successful women, making fun of fat people, and using gay-bashing as an impetus for male bonding still results in box office gold.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 at 4:44 pm and is filed under Arts and Music, Fat Bias, Feminist Topics, Pop Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On October 24th, 2007, JeanC said:

Drats, I was rather looking forward to seeing this movie, it looked good in the few trailers I’ve seen. Oh well, there are other movies I can spend my money on.

posted on October 24th, 2007 at 4:54 pm

2 On October 24th, 2007, Deniselle said:

Nice analysis of the movie. But yeah, it’s a disappointing premise, and of course people will eat this up.

I’m a bit confused, because they say fat black women are more accepted, yet I see black comedians mocking fat women (Eddie Murphy, too, with Norbit and The Klumps), while on white shows, the “sassy fat girl” is often the only positive fat female character. Maybe that has more to do with “black women aren’t sex symbols”?

posted on October 24th, 2007 at 8:02 pm

3 On October 25th, 2007, Arielle said:

Thanks for the analysis. As a woman–and especially, as a feminist–this movie makes me want to scream! I completely agree with you on every point you made. In this film, the weight issue is infuriating…as is the complete portrayal of women in general.
Hopefully the box office numbers are high because people wanted to see what all the hype was about, but were as disappointed and annoyed as we are with the product at the end. One can only hope I guess.

Arielle

posted on October 25th, 2007 at 1:02 pm

4 On October 25th, 2007, Charlotte said:

I’m really disappointed to hear this about a Tyler Perry movie. I usually enjoy his work. It’s sad that even when someone like Perry seems to break the mold as far as movie-making goals, they still need to fall back on old stereotypes.

posted on October 25th, 2007 at 4:18 pm

5 On October 29th, 2007, Kimberly said:

As a “fat” black woman I expected to hate this movie also. I hate with a passion the Norbit and Big Mama House movies. All of those characters are negative and portray large black women as buffonish. The Madea movies are different. Madea is actually a representation of the large black women many southern people were raised by. Full of wisdom, advise, spunk and don’t care what people think of her size!!! I must say I enjoyed the Tyler Perry movie. If you have seen his other movies you know that he typically protrays bad women AND bad men. Nobody is perfect in a relationship or in any of his movies. It is a big thing in the black community that black women are independant and don’t need a man or we can’t find a good man. Tyler is showing that there are some good men out there but honestly the black woman is so busy being independant and/or negative she can’t open up and see that she has a good man in front of her. And on the flip side he is showing that you can be a wonderful woman but if your man is a dick he is just a dick. As far as the weight issue there are men out there that want a woman to stay the same size throughout a relationship. Plus size black women are accepted in the black community if they are no bigger than 200 lbs or so. Anything over 200 is going to be picked at and called all kinds of names (lazy,sloopy,nasty,stinky) by black women and black men. So Tyler had to pad Jill Scott because without the padding she is considered a sexy woman.
I feel that Sheila (the character’s name) was gaining weight BECAUSE she was unhappy in her marriage. I have been there before when I am sad or depressed I turn to food as a comfort. Her husband would’ve been a dick and a cheater even if she was a size zero as we saw from him complaining about Trina. There she was “beautiful and slim” but he still found something to complain about and I guarantee that he was cheating on her. And when we saw Sheila again I feel her happiness came from her healing, her blessings from God, the loving of a truly good man AND her weight loss.
I also feel that the scene where she was kicked off the plane was accurate and showed the humiliation we fat people experience each day. And yes the “white” man complained about her and he was one of the only whites in the movie but can I please ask you to look at all the ALL white movies we have out there? Or the movies that have one token black in it that is a sterotype or lord forbid if it is a horror film is the first one to be killed. LOL!!!! I think Tyler wasn’t trying to diss white people he was just making a movie for his target audience – black folks.

Peace and Chicken Grease!!!! Kimberly

posted on October 29th, 2007 at 1:27 pm

6 On November 1st, 2007, Notblueatall said:

I saw this movie and I tend to disagree (although late). I get that the women were blamed, but some of them deserved to be. I mean, getting your tubes tied without telling your husband?! The Mike character was a dick, no lie, but Sheila was to blame, too for allowing this to go on…her friends should have stood by her long before the plane incident. And she was no thin/svelt at the movie’s end, she looked like she dropped 50lbs, but by no means skinny! I thought it strange that they made Jill Scott wear a fat suit, I had of course wanted there to be a fat-pride moment with all of the women behind their friend…didn’t happen, too bad. But the movie’s finale was more about the joy and self-love Sheila found ON HER OWN

posted on November 1st, 2007 at 4:27 pm

7 On November 1st, 2007, Notblueatall said:

I saw this movie and I tend to disagree (although late). I get that the women were blamed, but some of them deserved to be. I mean, getting your tubes tied without telling your husband?! The Mike character was a dick, no lie, but Sheila was to blame, too for allowing this to go on…her friends should have stood by her long before the plane incident. And she was no thin/svelt at the movie’s end, she looked like she dropped 50lbs, but by no means skinny! I thought it lame that they made Jill Scott wear a fat suit, I had of course wanted there to be a fat-pride moment with all of the women behind their friend…didn’t happen, too bad. But the movie’s finale was more about the joy and self-love Sheila found ON HER OWN as well as with the help of a “friend” the hottie sherrif. I’m not a black woman, but I am a fat woman. I am a proud fat woman who has lived on the abusive side of the fence. It all boils down to self esteem…if you don’t have it you will allow people to do anything to you. That is a crying shame, but until you can pull yourself up you will always find that dick in your life. I hadn’t seen a Tyler Perry movie before this one, but I though the film overall was a great portrayal of the lies we create in our own marriages and how the truth will ultimately set you free. We are all guilty of this in some form or another. I have advised some friends to see it because they are having marital issues…weight loss is so rarely permanant, but that sherrif saw Sheila for her and not for her fat! That seemed to me to be the point of it all. Though I have to admit I probably would have killed that guy long before she hit him with the wine bottle!

posted on November 1st, 2007 at 4:30 pm

8 On November 2nd, 2007, T said:

People are so dramatic! Now this movie is women bashing? Get a grip. All I can say is, at least Tyler Perry got mainstream media to notice a film with an all black cast, because we (blacks) can’t help but notice all 15 films with all white casts that open every friday. And the crazy thing is that if society wasn’t so polarized all of this wouldn’t be a big deal because then, the masses (white ppl) would be able to understand the characters. But I’m sure they felt familiar with ghetto Angela, because, you know, that one loud black lady in the office represents the whole damn race. And once again, this wouldn’t be the case if they KNEW MORE BLACK PPL BEFORE REVIEWING A FILM WITH AN ALL BLACK CAST!!!!!!!!

posted on November 2nd, 2007 at 2:04 pm

9 On November 2nd, 2007, Rachel said:

Oh, T, do get a grip on your obvious paranoia. I mean, really, did you not even read my review of the film, or the comments below?

This isn’t an issue of race. Far from it. If the film had cast all white actors in the exact scenarios with the same storyline, it wouldn’t change the story’s very real misogynistic undertones. Just as black people can be an oppressed class, so can women.

I thought it was refreshing to see an all-black cast in a film that doesn’t regurgitate black stereotypes. But that’s no excuse to degrade women, gay-bash, and make fat-related jokes.

Tell me… How does perpetuating stereotypes and discrimination of other classes of people further the advancement of race relations?

posted on November 2nd, 2007 at 2:27 pm

10 On November 5th, 2007, T said:

Rachel said:

But that

posted on November 5th, 2007 at 2:02 pm

11 On November 5th, 2007, Rachel said:

If you don’t want to see it, you won’t.

posted on November 5th, 2007 at 2:04 pm

12 On November 6th, 2007, Elizabeth said:

Thank you for posting your review. I was looking forward to seeing this film, but now I will not waste my money on it.

posted on November 6th, 2007 at 3:14 pm

13 On November 6th, 2007, Rachel said:

Oh, please. Don’t take just my word for it. Although, reading an unfavorable review does dampen the enthusiasm, I’m sure. I wanted to see Knocked-Up until I read Amanda Marquette’s review in Bust Magazine, which emphasized how anti-choice and anti-feminist the film was. We’ve had the film for two weeks now from NetFlix and I still haven’t brought myself to watch it.

posted on November 6th, 2007 at 3:44 pm

14 On February 28th, 2008, Starrica said:

Yeah…some of your facts about the movie are off. Two of the four men cheated on their wives. The couples met up again 8 MONTHS (not a year later)- at Patricia’s award ceremony- and Troy and Sheila were not engaged, they were MARRIED when the couples met again.

However…I was disappointed about many of the cliche topics in the movie. At the beginning of the movie, the weakest character was Sheila. If a woman gains 50 pounds throughout her marriage and she hasn’t had children…there has to be an underlying issue as to why she’s gained all of that weight. I mean…you just don’t began to start overeating. Was she stressed? Was her husband emotionally abusive to her prior the weight gain? That, are a few of the other storylines in this film were weak and poorly fabricated.
However, I think this is a positive Black film. There wasn’t any foul language to take away from any of the characters’ class, despite many of their poor actions.
It is honestly a refreshing break from the typical cash-cars-hos “Black” family films.
I admire this film because, unlike many times in reality, there isn’t always a happy ending.
There aren’t many couples whom can bounce back after infidelity and divorce. The characters in this film, despite their weaknesses, were stronger than most of the general population. Cheating, secrets, and lies happen everyday. That is life. It is refreshing that there’s still hope alive for marriages and relationships after heartbreak.
It can be done. You just have to have it in your heart to “stick it out”.
Not Tyler’s best work, but it was enjoyable to watch. That is what movies are all about.
Good movies are never perfect.

posted on February 28th, 2008 at 5:02 am