I Think I'll Pass

Why I'm Not Watching Tyler Perry's Straw. . . .Just Yet

Women whom I love and trust have watched Tyler Perry’s new movie Straw and have raved about it. Right now, the movie sits on my Netflix “Watch List” but I don’t think that I will watch it anytime soon. Even though I also love Taraji P. Henson, I think I’ll pass at this moment.

You see, I have been a woman raising children by myself. My circumstances have never been as extreme as the woman that Henson portrays as I have ascertained from the trailer but I have had some harrowing moments. I remember one moment when I was losing much blood from an abortion and my parents had to tend to me and my children while I recuperated. My children were young and, thankfully, did not understand the concept of an abortion. However, I do remember my mother wondering out loud about the sex of the aborted fetus (not necessarily a great memory).

I remember another moment sitting in a dark house waiting for the electricity to be cut back on because I was late with the payments. As I have read people discussing Straw on the internet, I saw one commentator write “She was just trying to cash her check!’ and I remember that feeling so well. You see, running around to get the money to pay the electric bill is exactly what that is: running around from bank to bank, check-cashing place to check-cashing place; taking off from work to be at the electric company during business hours!

Being poor is actually very expensive!

Finally, at the end of running around, I hope and pray that the electric company cuts the electricity back on before the kids get home from school because I did not want them to witness the house without the electricity on.

So, I think I will take a pass on Perry’s new Netflix movie Straw.[1] When I reminisce about the moments of raising children, going back to school, attaining a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, and Ph.D., I am thankful to have gone through those experiences but I don’t want to watch movies that take me back to some of those times.

I would ask, however, that filmmakers such as Tyler Perry, consider making movies about Black women who are loved well. Can we get movies about Black women who succeed in life after the struggle? Can we get movies about Black women who succeed after suffering the trauma? Can we get movies about Black women who thrive in healthy marriages and relationships and then go on to conquer other mountaintop experiences?

As I look around, I see that the world is on fire. There is no shortage of inspiration which includes political conflicts, international conflicts, and global issues in which Black women could be involved. What would the story of the fictional mayor of Los Angeles in a battle with the President of the United States over immigration look like right now? That could be a story! How about the fictional Black woman state attorney general of Maryland with the supporting spouse suing the Supreme Court for the release of her wrongfully deported client? And yes, she should have a smoke show spouse who loves and supports her. That’s a movie I would watch.

However, even as I write this, I know the problem. Mainstream America gets off on trauma porn. No, let me clarify: mainstream America gets off on trauma porn against Black women! Black women’s stories are only good if we suffer. How dare Black women be loved! How dare Black women survive! How dare Black women thrive! How dare Black women survive! And God forbid, how dare Black women be the recipient of romantic love from supportive partners.

As the last election showed us (and even as Coca Gauff smacked Aryna Sabalenka’s ass and yet Sabalenka demonstrated her misogynoir[2]), the world still hates Black women. Misogynoir is real and apparently, the only stories the mainstream wants to see about Black women are the stories that keep us in a certain place.

Well, I will just have to keep living my story out loud and in public!

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[1] I did watch Tyler Perry’s Netflix series She The People starring actress Terri Vaughn and was left disappointed. While Vaughn runs and achieves the position of Lieutenant Governor of the State of Mississippi, she tries to model an “asexual” lifestyle in front of her children which I found very problematic. Perry’s characterizations of Black women follow the tropes of either a “Lady” or a “Jezebel.” There is no in-between. For a good breakdown of Tyler Perry’s work and its problematic nature for Black women see Tamura Lomax’s Jezebel Unhinged: Loosing the Black Female Body in Religion and Culture. Durham: Duke University Press, 2018.

[2] In the post-match interview, Sabelenka could not admit that Gauff beat her “not because she played incredible. Just because I made all of those mistakes.” She also went on to say that if Iga Swiatek (a White competitor) was in the Semifinal, she would have beat Gauff. Sabelenka would not give Gauff the proper credit that she deserved. “Misogynoir” (pronounced mi-soj-uhn-nwar) is a term coined by Moya Bailey that describes the anti-Black racist misogyny that Black women experience. Misogynoir articulates the uniquely co-constitutive racialized and sexist violence that befalls Black women as a result of their simultaneous and interlocking oppression at the intersection of racial and gender marginalization. See Moya Bailey’s Misogynoir Transformed: Black Women’s Digital Resistance. 1st ed. New York: New York University Press, 2021. P. 16.