FOR COLORED GIRLS

[Queen of Prosperity]

Hello guys, Have any of you seen for colored girls? Im not a big fan of tyler perry and his semi degrading story lines especially toward black men but my friend asked me to go see this movie with her last night and it was just like the other movies toward black men but WAY MORE GRUELSOME! The black men in this picture were savage, the scenes in this movie could also be equated to the suspense in a scary movie, I could barely breathe once the drama started. My heart was beating hard watching this movie the drama was intense. lol Dont wanna spill the beans so If you have seen it let me know what you think!

[Diamond]

I thought the movie was really moving and good. I didn't look in it that deep as you did. I know that all black men are not like that, nevertheless all men! I just take it with a grain of salt.

[satori]

I would like to see it. When I was at a drama competition in high school, one of the contestants was doing a piece from the story.  her character was talking about how her guy dropped her baby out of the window. it might be the scary roles of the males are more from ntozake shange writing them that way, than tyler perry interpreting them.

[Heavenzsun]

It started out hopeful and and moved steadily in the direction of misery, sorrow, anguish, and despair. It was painful to watch. All of those hopeful women with smiles on their faces and pep in their step vigor and passion in their voice and love filling their open hearts.... only to be left broken, let down. bitter, resentful, heartbroken. O the pain!

That movie was painful to watch. I thought it was going to be good when I saw the camera work in the begining and the hopefulness of everyones situation. But then it became more and more tyler perryish. thank godi never have to pay for movie tickettes. 

[Queen of Prosperity]

It started out hopeful and and moved steadily in the direction of misery, sorrow, anguish, and despair. It was painful to watch. All of those hopeful women with smiles on their faces and pep in their step vigor and passion in their voice and love filling their open hearts.... only to be left broken, let down. bitter, resentful, heartbroken. O the pain!

That movie was painful to watch. I thought it was going to be good when I saw the camera work in the begining and the hopefulness of everyones situation. But then it became more and more tyler perryish. thank godi never have to pay for movie tickettes.

Yeah it was moving and good but as heavenzsun said it was so tyler perryish and it just got sadder more miserable and more heart wretching as the movie went on my heart was hurting for those women ALL of them there was not a healthy relationship at all in that movie dont get me wrong it was good but good in a twisted way words cant explain.

[naskat]

I usually don't respond,as I like to read everyones responses and interpretations of ideas. However, I left this movie feeling empowered! Yes, it was gruelsomes, but it is REAL. Through abuse, we come to love ourselves within, to define ourselves, to come out of the coma of being a victim. I did not see the movie as bashing black men, because the scenes in the movie are what happen in everyday life, that we as black people try to push under the carpet. Yes, I am, my cousin is,my grandmother was, and my mother was a survivor of verbal abuse, and sexual abuse(cousins). This resulted in a lot of hypersexual activity in some of the females in my family, and living in marriages of demanding men. Right now I have decided to leave my husband because I know I am worth more than the darts of verbal, and emotional abuse he shoots at me. I am breaking the generational chain of abuse in my family.
No, I am not a feminist, but I have realized we all have to take responsibility for our lives, and that our vibrations attract certain people in our lives. For instance, the mother realized in the end that she had to get up, to keep moving, but that she had some sort of responsibility for what happened. There is a lesson in the loss of a child. I left my husband because I saw my son looking terrified and in dispair when my husband raged.Thats when it finally clicked for me, that I had to get out!I am responsible not only for me, but for the mental health of my son.
Also, the violence in this movie is to a lesser degree to what I have seen as a child, and adult coming out of abuse. But, through abuse we rise up, and become the people we are meant to be on this earth,I took a risk, and I know I am here for a bigger reason outside outside of myself.Furthermore, the violence in this movie was not depicted to an extent as in horror films, where you actually see a person's arm being ripped form their body. I think he displayed the violent acts of the movie without actually seeing the acts. Yes, violence ids horrible, but for once I feel someone let the cat out of the box, whether people felt it was men bashing- yes we date black men and some are violent to us. But, it is where we realize our part in it,not being a victim, and rising above it.

[Diamond]

I like!

I usually don't respond,as I like to read everyones responses and interpretations of ideas. However, I left this movie feeling empowered! Yes, it was gruelsomes, but it is REAL. Through abuse, we come to love ourselves within, to define ourselves, to come out of the coma of being a victim. I did not see the movie as bashing black men, because the scenes in the movie are what happen in everyday life, that we as black people try to push under the carpet. Yes, I am, my cousin is,my grandmother was, and my mother was a survivor of verbal abuse, and sexual abuse(cousins). This resulted in a lot of hypersexual activity in some of the females in my family, and living in marriages of demanding men. Right now I have decided to leave my husband because I know I am worth more than the darts of verbal, and emotional abuse he shoots at me. I am breaking the generational chain of abuse in my family.
No, I am not a feminist, but I have realized we all have to take responsibility for our lives, and that our vibrations attract certain people in our lives. For instance, the mother realized in the end that she had to get up, to keep moving, but that she had some sort of responsibility for what happened. There is a lesson in the loss of a child. I left my husband because I saw my son looking terrified and in dispair when my husband raged.Thats when it finally clicked for me, that I had to get out!I am responsible not only for me, but for the mental health of my son.
Also, the violence in this movie is to a lesser degree to what I have seen as a child, and adult coming out of abuse. But, through abuse we rise up, and become the people we are meant to be on this earth,I took a risk, and I know I am here for a bigger reason outside outside of myself.Furthermore, the violence in this movie was not depicted to an extent as in horror films, where you actually see a person's arm being ripped form their body. I think he displayed the violent acts of the movie without actually seeing the acts. Yes, violence ids horrible, but for once I feel someone let the cat out of the box, whether people felt it was men bashing- yes we date black men and some are violent to us. But, it is where we realize our part in it,not being a victim, and rising above it.

[curtisduncan]

I knew when I saw the poster for that damn movie that it was going to be some feminist bullshit. It had Whoopi Goldberg on the film post and Whoopi doesn't star in Black films unless they are feminist films. It turns out the movie was derived from the feminist play, "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf written the feminist author Ntozake Shange. Of course it is anti-man film, it is a feminist film. What do people expect? It was written by a Black feminist so it is going to be anti-Black man film particularly. Tyler Perry's latest film is just perpetuating the mind control, psychological warfare program/philosophy known as "feminism" that was created by the Rockefellers and the CIA to break up the family and enslave women!

[Queen of Prosperity]

A bit depressing -- always seeing Blacks struggle. However, all of the women in the movie struggled and experienced drama based upon their own actions and decisions - they chose the men they were with. That's what it comes down to in the end.

Ole girl who got raped invited ole boy over way too early. Always meet in public for at least a few weeks. Always! Niggas can't be trusted! Period!

Damn D I cosign everything you said to a t, as far as that girl I couldnt help but think "dumb broad" I could tell when he was walking her home that he wasnt interested in anything but sex hell the nigga barely said anything to her as she danced down the sidewalk he just looked and listened in a sly fox type of way, any man thats interested in you is not that damn silent as you talk about your life's passions. Then after dinner he hit her with the "maybe next time we can save money and have dinner at your house" I would automatically black listed his ass lol. And yeah no one comes to the crib for a while you have to be deeply trusted.

Ole girl whose kids got dropped from the window should have left ole boy long ago. The signs were on the wall. He was a time bomb waiting to explode. I know, I know -- easier said than done. Some low level chakra shit right there, damaged cords attached -- just can't leave

.

I know right she should have left his ass a long time ago like phylicia rashad told her when she was acting like she just couldnt go on with life she said you have to know that you were halfway responsible for what happened to your kids and she should have been left, I mean he was calling her a hoe in front of the kids and everything talking about marrying her at the same time smh lol. But yeah it shouldnt take the killing of your kids to leave a motherfucker the verbal abuse would have had me long gone. lol

Janet's character admitted she saw everything -- how her bisexual/homosexual husband scoped other men. Duh!!!! Writing is on the wall. What are you waiting for?

lol it took contracting hiv for her to leave his gay ass like i said earlier this movie had nothing inspiring or positive about black women except for one part when loretta devine left her man frank I give them kudos for that damn it made me think of my older brother and his babymama that dude done had ten girlfriends and she still lets him back in they been together for twelve years three engagement rings no marriage three kids WTF. Ill be glad when she do what loretta devine did lol.

Entertaining movie but a bit too depressing. The movie didn't do anything for Black women's sexuality seen in a positive light. Nothing but promiscuous, give it up easy, easy rape candidate, and lustful women. Sad! I wonder do Tyler look at all angles of a film.

'
Co sign here as well I saw this movie at ten o clock at night and had to watch something comical on tv before i could go to sleep lol it would have given me nightmares

[dreamsun8985]

Great critique by: http://crunkfeministcollective.wordpress.com/2010/11/22/tyler-perry-almost-walked-off-wid-alla-my-stuff/

Tyler Perry Almost Walked off wid alla my Stuff

An open letter to my students, my close friend, and my mother:

When I left the movie theater after watching Tyler Perry Presents For Colored Girls I felt like Tyler Perry took something from me.  I went to see the film with a close friend and I was ready to feel some of the complexity of black womanhood that I had experienced as a child seeing the play with my mother, then taking my siblings to see it, then seeing it on my own last year, and having read the book.  I recognize that oftentimes details get lost in translation from play to movie (not film), but I don’t understand how Perry took a play that is all about black women’s agency and turned just about every female character into a helpless victim in the movie.

What’s worse is that Ntozake Shange’s play found a way to bring all Black women into the fold, but Perry’s film feels like an invasion in all of my intimate relationships with my students, my sister friends, and my mother (and her friends).  He took women who were so familiar to me and made them unrecognizable and now those of us who disagree with his representations are either arguing with women we care about or choosing to be silent, in pain.   Why, if he loves us so much and can greenlight films, wouldn’t he create the space for one of many talented black women filmmakers, like Gina Prince Bythewood or Julie Dash, to tell this important story with the delicate tenderness that it deserved?

Where was the joy?  What about finding my first blk man, Toussaint L’Ouverture, in the library and bringing him home to be my secret lover at the age of 8.  Why was this beautiful story wrapped in the sound of domestic violence and frightened children?  Why did it have to be told as a distraction, rather than as the powerful black girl story that it is?

Tyler Perry almost walked off wid alla my stuff

What about the complexity of a black woman who is dealing with the challenges of being lonely and alone, being exceptional and ordinary/reglar, being a desired object and a sexual subject in her own life.  The lady in red is hyperfeminine, but she is nobody’s fool in the play.  She made sense to me, she had a system; dare I say, a routine.  She knew what she wanted, she got it, and she was aware of the consequences.  But this Thandie Newton woman was unrecognizable because she was reckless and an empty version of a rude floozy.  I never read the lady in red as reckless, rude, or a slut because my For Colored Girls is not about external flat readings of black women.  My For Colored Girls is a myriad of inner voices whispering, singing, screaming to make us make sense to one another and ourselves.

This is mine/this ain’t yr stuff/

now why don’t you put me back & let me hang out in my own self

Who are these people?  This is the first film for and about Black women where I think Black men have every right to be angry about their representations. Who was the date/stranger rapist who begins undressing himself like he came through the window when he was invited in through the front door?  And what recently raped woman tells her story partially clothed to a male cop in a hospital room after completing a rape kit.  And where were the white people?  Yes, white people who symbolically represent the ways that white supremacy gets all up in our relationships and constricts our lives such that our reactions seem pathological.  Without some utterance of the ways that white supremacy is at the root of many of these stories just about every person in the film seems crazy and irresponsible for making “bad choices” even though we know their options are clearly limited.  Without them, let Tyler Perry tell it, Black men and women are the only ones directly oppressing Black women, and Black women are to blame for their circumstances.

Stealin my shit from me/don’t make it yrs/makes it stolen

Tyler Perry almost walked off wid alla my stuff

…it waznt a spirit took my stuff/ waz a man…trying to sell/tell our stories because he can only see us as a loyal and lucrative market segment.  In his warped profit-driven configurations Black women and White people were most likely to see the film, and since Black men were not his target audience he could comfortably blame the lion’s share of our oppression on them—and us.  This strategic move cleared the way for White people to absolve themselves of any institutional or cultural responsibility and for them to feel comfortable recommending the film to their friend$$$$.

But luckily I know Black women; I see them and feel them in all their complexity.  I have loved them for a lifetime and they have loved me back.  Shange’s For Colored Girls is about the LOVE that keeps us alive.  A sometimes painful love, an oftentimes delicious love, but mostly it is a deep love that we share with each other when it seems nobody understands or supports us.

I am looking past the stormy Perry cloud for my Shange rainbows and with time I will find a way to point out the rainbows to my students, my close friends, and my mother because I am keenly aware that it is the sharing of our voices and stories that keeps many of us from committing suicide and moving collectively to the ends of our own rainbows.

 

[W1ze]

I saw it, some things I really liked about it like the monologues/poetry, I didn't like that there didn't seem to be any redeemable male roles in the movie, not even the standard issue light skinned, male model/ ex con with a heart of gold. I skipped precious with good reason, but I saw this one, but like my wife who said," If white people made a movie like this or precious t wouldn't win awards so why s black womens misery so profitable?"

[W1ze]

Was liking Thandie Newton's character in this movie though, didn't think she had it in her to pay a part like that.