Why does race have to play a part in the title of the work?
Are we not just race baiting ourselves?
I do not knock the attempt to be about a african-american point of view, but why continue to make racial differences a key in a title or to play some role to make a racial difference point?
Are there really that many differences between the races to warrant us to continue to point them out based solely upon color?
because that's the name of the play, and no one had a problem with the name then....
6:30, solve world hunger...tell NO ONE!
Then why name the "play" that way...
My points still stands!
One needs to think about presenting race in titles and actions, just to kind of point out some difference that may or may not always be representation my race...
because it was aimed at black women who would understand the title. many women, including my mom, had gone through a situation like that which was experience in the play, and she loved it. and i dont think tyler perry, then a homeless man while writing the play, gave a crap about who was offended by the title. he was too busy trying to get food in his stomach.
6:30, solve world hunger...tell NO ONE!
Nice way to redirect the truth, the end result is clearly racist yet the writer "was too busy to get food in his stomach" then care that he was going to have a race issue as more people learn of his work.
It doesn't matter if someone is in the same race as those in the story, it is still racism to clearly not address that other people may or may not find your writings offense.
The title itself suggests that it is exclusive to black women, yet it was written by a man and dipicts stero-types that exist outside of the African-american only club.
How simple a thing would have been to take out the word black in one's title and open the story to try to include others into the experience...
Why don't you R-E-A-C-H a little farther for a reason to bash this film? The title is what it is because the entire theme of the movie revolves around a black woman's struggles. I suppose I can see how a white person would not "understand" the need to include race in the title but for you to care enough to post about it and try and insinuate that "black" being in the title is "racist" is just pathetic on your part.
Yes, the main character did go through experiences that were not necessarily confined to race but Tyler Perry's intention in writing this play and his subsequent plays was to give a view into black family life. Not just 'black' family life but church going, Christian black family life. That is his target audience and up until Tyler came along, there really were no films being put out that this group of people could truly relate to. People turned out in droves to see this film and although I'm not a Christian, I am really happy about it. I'm proud of Tyler Perry, his work, and the fact that he didn't change or tone down the title of his play just to reach a more mainstream audience.
Baba mi Ogun modupue
The whole point is to show the life of a BLACK FAMILY. I don't know if you realize it, but Caucasian families are so different from African-American and Hispanic families that there is no comparison. A mad White woman is a different kind of mad than a mad Black woman. Race is what you are, its not something that we aren't allowed to talk about. Caucasians will always be different than members of other races. That's how it will always be.
shareThe film is not racist at all or excluding anyone. Not too mention that their is very little representation of African Americans in American film. The only way you'll be able to see a movie depicting black culture is if it made by a black man, produced by a black man, and written by a black man. Read the trivia, it said Tyler Perry had to pay half the amount needed to make this movie. And yes, their are differences between white and black people. Just like their are differences between men and woman. If this movie was called "Diary of a Mad Woman" I would not have rented it because I'd assume it would be a chick flick (which it was). But because it said "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" I rented it. See, I'm a white kid and I live in a white Suburban neighborhood. At my high school of over 3,000 kids, there is only about 50-80 black kids. Growing up in an almost all white community I am COMPLETELY shut off from any sort of knowledge about other races and cultures. Movies like this give me insight into how other groups of people live their life. For instance, in the movie it depicts a church in a mostly black neigborhood-in the church it shows the preacher singing, a choir, the people in the pews dancing. If I went to church like that I would definitely feel closer to god (just watching that scene I felt uplifted). But here in my ALL white church we stand-preacher talks-sit down-preacher talks-stand up-sing-sit-preacher talks-preacher talks-preacher talks-stand up-sing-sit-preacher talks-kneel-drink wine-eat bread-kneel-preacher talks-sit-fall asleep-snore-parents yell-church ends. But after watching this film I realize that celebrating God doesn't have to be a DEPRESSING and BORING THING. You can show your love for God in a much more uplifting and enlightening way.
Side Note: When People like Tipper Gore try to censor movies, music, art, and books-BECAUSE THEY FIND IT UNFIT FOR VIEWING-Their really just cutting off our information. They don't want us to be informed about Middle Eastern people because then we might not so easily allow our "president" to kill thousands of them for ABSOLUTElY NO REASON. Maybe if we had a movie called "Diary of a mad Iraqi Woman" we wouldn't have been so accepting of the idea. One more thing, if the Government had censored the hip hop group Public Enemy (for possibly too much vulgar language), I wouldn't know half the stuff I know today, WE NEED BLACK PEOPLE TO TALK ABOUT THEIR PROBLEMS, CULTURES, AND HOW THEY LIVE SO THAT WE CAN HAVE THE KNOWLEDGE TO BETTER UNDERSTAND EACHOTHER. Only then will racism in America stop. If we can acknowledge (and accept) the differences bewteen eachother and then explore it. With acknowledgement comes understanding, with understanding comes reasoning, and with reasoning comes peace.
The whole point is to show the life of a BLACK FAMILY. I don't know if you realize it, but Caucasian families are so different from African-American and Hispanic families that there is no comparison. A mad White woman is a different kind of mad than a mad Black woman. Race is what you are, its not something that we aren't allowed to talk about. Caucasians will always be different than members of other races. That's how it will always be.
Argue over anything now days...
Who cares thats its diary of a mad black woman? I mean is she not A MAD BLACK WOMEN?
Diary of a mad women?
no offense, but how white does that sound to you? Seriously, thats like some lame lifetime movie with the main character being a old white whore.
Tyler Perry is black, therefore he targeted his own race, not to eleminate any other ones, but its a funny title. Would you honestly go see
Diary of a Mad woman?
Or
Diary of a mad BLACK woman?
Plus,
Black women are known for bad relationships... I dont mean to put it like that, but yeah lol
While others have already pretty much stated the obvious, which you haven't figured out, then you know what me being female I find it offensive to say Mad Woman. So why not have simply titled it "The Diary of a." There ya go, that works, now no one can be offended.
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Anything you don't say with your lips puckered will get the TP camp on your rear. Instead of being so quick to defend, they should just listen to thoughts about the movies and plays. Sooner or later the fact that TP's movies are mostly for Afro-Americans will cause a decline. This will also be supported by Blacks. I really enjoyed the plays and have bought all I have seen for salea. My problem is, (also got TP's boys on my rear), is you cannot make a point about the bad black men, then have a man dressed as a woman whose gun is as familiar to us as her as her "heerelo's" How often does a woman jump on someone's kid on a bus but is allowed to be a foster mother. My point is, all nationality of women have problems and we do not need TP to let the world know what may or may not be exclusive to Black women. Another thing I got chewed for was my comment about the play, Madea's Family reunion. At the end, during the wedding, TP as Madea thought it ok to Mock Esther Rolle. The damn damn damn was ok, but when you fix yourself to try and look like her was a bad thing for him to do. If she was alive, I believe she would be one of TP's supporters. I know it is ok to have spoofs, but to speak of one's body build, asserting that she has no neck, was a cheap shot. Who knows, she may have been teased about her looks as a child? I know this post will cost me but if TP wants to continue his success, he really should listen and encourage his camp not to bash comments from buyers of his work.
shareThen why name the "play" that way...
Here's the deal Indigol. There's an entire station dedicated to non-black mad women...or at least mostly white. Ever heard of Lifetime Movie Network for 'Women' (I rarely see 'Black' women on this station)? And just about every other station out there. It wasn't done to offend just to a target audience who don't have dozens of station's or movies dedicated to the release of their frustrations. Not being a Black/African American person it's easy to just not see how biased television and movies are.
In short, Diary of a Mad White/other Woman has already been done...just under a billion different titles.
Hope this helps. God bless you.
Your suggested title isn't as inclusive as it could be. Maybe it should have been called "Diary of a Human With a Particular Emotion." That's still human-centric, though, so maybe a better title would be "Diary of a Life-form," or "Recordings of Something," or "Perceived Occurrences." Come to think of it, those titles are also somewhat descriptive, so they are also discriminatory. I think the best we can do is simply " "
shareI believe the simple point that the creator of this thread was trying to make is that in our society people look at defining a person based on their race as a negative matter. It is common that a person would be defined based on their gender, but to think that a person is inherently different based solely on their skin color is generally frowned upon. As far as my opinion is concerned, I honestly don't really care. It's a movie, the creators can name it whatever they want. Regardless, I can see where he/she is coming from when having a problem with this title. Then again, perhaps needlessly sarcastic banter would be more constructive? Mm..what do you think, Weasel?
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Re: Why not 'Diary of a Mad Woman' ?
by - golden_fried_messiah on Sat Jul 2 2005 07:19:36
> ***Note: Unfortunately, IMDB woudln't let me post my thoughts without being
censored. I feel, however, that the censorship of these words just further
proves my point about equal rights and such. How ironic.
Well when one is another person's area, one has to play by the other's rules. Otherwise, the person the doesn't like it can make his or her own area and then have his or her own rules. *shrugs*
What in the world is wrong with the title?! She was MAD and she was BLACK!!!!!
So What!? The movie was great and so are Tyler Perry's plays. Get over yourself!
Quit trying to nit pick!!!!!!
i believe that the title is a parody of diary of a mad housewife and without an adjective it sounds really stooped
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the movie was directed for also mad black women. i dont see why the title is so damn racist to these people. how bout this, if it's so racist, do everyone who like the movie and the title a favor and write tyler perry. give him your reasons why you think it's racist. then see if he cares.
6:30, solve world hunger...tell NO ONE!
I never heard anyone complain about the title of the movie "Single White Female", why complain about the title of Diary of a Mad Black Woman?
But if you really want to open this can of worms, why stop at titles related to race? What about American Beauty, American Pie or American Wedding? Are they only for Americans? Or the movies French Kiss or Japanese Story? Canadian Bacon? "Black" is as much a word to describe a culture as it is a word to describe race.
"Action is how men express romance on film." -- Kurt Wimmershare
I was also going to mention Single White Female.
Baba mi Ogun modupue
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The fact that many black men (women, too, but that's not my point) are getting the financial where-with-all to be able to dump their loving wives for younger (and sometimes lighter skinned, or white) women is relatively new. I mean I'd say that within the last 15 years or so, this has really become common.
"Action is how men express romance on film." -- Kurt Wimmershare
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You cannot please everyone, but he is a good man, who takes care of his family and his church, and he finding a way to spread God's message through laughter and tears...so get off his back. Ask Steven Spilberg why he only does historical movies based on his jewish heritage. Ask Jerry Seinfeld why he never had blacks over to his house on a nine year long sitcom, ask Nia Vardalos why she named her movie (which is one of my all times favorites,) MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING instead of MY BIG FAT WEDDING...Ask the writers of the Sopranos why they are still in the 21st century mind you, allowed to call us mooks and what have you on one of HBO's most popular shows...
You can always tell when a brother has finally made it. Someone always comes along to dog him for some reason or another. Tell me this...why wasn't one of the "Friends" on that long running sitcom black? That show ran for ten years and it took nine to have a black woman on there who starred in more than one show. And I watched it every Thursday because I LIKED IT.. I enjoyed the humor and all. Of course I wondered where were the black people but I figured art imitated life. It is sad but TRUE that in all honesty if there is a group of six friends most likely they'd all be the same race. America is white. Not to appear to be racist but it is. We as blacks are the minority and are still looked at as second class citizens. It took us over 55 years to be nominated for Oscars in the best actors catagories and so forth. We have to distiquish ourselves. There are plenty of "Black" movies that hold no color lines. This just happens to be on that does. No one was worried about Mr. Perry when he was struggling to sell his plays and get investors involved. As soon as he gets famous and buys that beautiful house (They used his home in the movie), people want to call him racist. That is crazy. He is writing from a BLACK PERSPECTIVE BECAUSE HE IS BLACK. He says he only dates black women so that is where his expertise lies. He was brought up in black churches, so that is what he knows. WHY EVEN BOTHER???? Mel Gison, God fearing and all, starred in a movie titled "What Women Want", and it was based on WHITE WOMEN. There was one black woman with a line,THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE FILM, and all she said was "nice booty" refferring to his bottom...hmmmm
I hoped you have watched the movie by now. I mean seriously, you didnt even get pass the title before you started to complain. If you are not black you would not understand the struggles we endured to even have a title like that. What we have went through to have an all black cast, a black writer, director, producer, and so forth and a film make the money this one did. If CLEOPATRA was proven to be a black women long agao, why was Elizabeth Taylor playing the part??? Hmmmm
Answer the questions I have, because I know I have answered yours.
Sicerely,
Almond Indigo
"Single White Female"...good point.
And yea, why not Diary of a Mad PERSON...as to not exclude men.
Truly nothing else needs to be said after reading that your post. You said it all and far better than I could have.
Baba mi Ogun modupue
The original poster of this was obviously someone that clearly doesn't understand black culture....Tyler Perry was crucified by the white critics because they were so ignorant they didn't know anything about black American culture. They didn't know that Perry was a successful playwright whose plays have been shown across America and grossed over $75m. Perry had to pay out of his own damn pocket for the movie to be made. This was a good movie and the public has spoken since Diary grossed over $50m in theatres and will make even more on DVD.
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