Okay, while the trend is not news as everybody who pays a little bit of attention to movies/entertainment has noticed it some of that list is not legitimate to the point the author has made. He says (or echoes Chappelle's sentiment) that Hollywood is emasculating black men. However, the Saturday Night Live references fail on several criteria. First of all, in case the writer is sort of thick in the head and doesn't know, SNL is in New York City. Hollywood is way across the country in California. In fact, they could hardly be farther apart unless they were outside the U.S. As well, even in one of the referenced clips, one of the white cast members is crossdressing as well. All the males on SNL go into drag on occassion so to single out the black comedians of that show and say "Look!" seems specious at best. Then there's Tyler Perry. Isn't the whole legend of Tyler Perry that he created himself from the ground up and built his own studio and specifically despite Hollywood giving him the cold shoulder? But when he decides to become Madea it's suddenly now Hollywood sticking him in a dress? WTF? I call BS on that.
If the guy writing the article wants to make a legitimate point he shouldn't just start grabbing every example of a cross-dressed black performer and shoehorning it into his article even though it doesn't fit the pattern he's attempting to highlight. Doing stuff like that puts the whole social observation at risk of being bunked without an in-depth look.
religion (re li jun) n. - the idea that you must think like me or suffer for all of eternity
reply
share
jmosley93
14 years ago
The bottom line is many people in the black community including myself are tired of seeing black men dressed as women. From Flip Wilson in the seventies to Tyler Perry today, this insulting and demeaning humor has gone on for way too long. I wish more black actors would take a stand like Dave Chapelle and not give in to hollywood's demands. Unfortunately, too many black actors are nothing more than slaves to money and fame. It is sickening that when these producers and studio executives tell these black men to dress in drag, so many of them are more than willing to do it. The same goes for black women who have played mammies, jezebels, crack heads, welfare mothers and sex slaves to the white man. You know who these celebrities are.
reply
share
harmedandderangerous
14 years ago
There you go... You just did it again. Did you read my post above yours? Tyler Perry is not part of the Hollywood machine. Isn't that the central thrust of his "aura" or accomplishment? Yet when you want to blame the system for emasculating black men you, like the writer of the linked article, use Tyler Perry as an example. With Tyler Perry's use of Madea the better culprit would be Perry's own opportunism and his desire to sell tickets at all costs to his black audience and, apparently, fat cross-dressed black comedians sell tickets. You can't have it both ways. That is, you can't blame "Hollywood", i.e. the white powers-that-be, on emasculating the black man while using a black man who emasculates himself to make money as an example.
religion (re li jun) n. - the idea that you must think like me or suffer for all of eternity
reply
share
14 years ago
[deleted]
Angry-Gorilla
14 years ago
Women were't allowed to be actors back then (as with musicians acting was not held in high regard in society as a whole). As for 'drag' being a way to demasculinize the black man ..come on, just let ignorant people write these posts, its funnier just to read what they say while keeping your distance with a grin and a wave.
ps:
i didn't realise a womans dress was such a powerful weapon against man ..er, then again :)
reply
share