An Open Letter to Tyler Perry

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 4/4/13 at 10:19pm

From a man with HIV

[SNAFU]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 12:04am

GOOD! Tyler Perry really deserves to be bitch slapped!

[~tiny~]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 12:37am

I think he's been bitch slapped pretty well by Spike Lee. Anywho, nice article...but wtf does he care, as long as his crap movies and plays make dough? Plays on the fears of G-d fearing people/ on the down low.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 2:24am

"Do you know my "sin"? Not loving myself enough to demand my partner use a condom."


What does this sentence even mean?

[SNAFU]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 2:26am

Not sure a bitch slap by Spike Lee means much, he is one who needs to be bitched slapped himself.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 4:57am

TheaterDiva, the writer of the article is "asking" Perry the question:
"Do you know my sin?"

The writer answers the question himself:

Not loving myself enough to demand my partner use a condom.

In other words he feels he contracted HIV by obviously not loving himself enough to do what was necessary to protect himself. That was his "sin."

Updated On: 4/5/13 at 04:57 AM

[fingerlakessinger]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 5:03am

Isn't it pretty much an open secret that he is gay too?
Or is it just the fact that he is a middle aged man who isn't married and dresses like a women for a living that pushed me to that assumption?

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 8:58am

I think it might be an assumption, yes. I've only seen a couple of his films, but it's pretty clear Perry has this *very* rose-coloured idea of what a relationship is. It's not a question of some director playing to the mindset of his predominantly female audience: IMHO, it's what he very firmly believes.

I havent seen this one, nor am I really interested in doing so. But the discussion here does leave a few thoughts. Is he right about HIV being a possible by-product of a situation like this? Yes. Was he right to use it in the film? In some ways, yes, because no one's talking honestly about its spread in the black community. At one point in time, the largest population group in Canada contracting it on a per capita basis was black women 17-26, and it was being treated like this "thing" we werent supposed to mention, because, well, after all, HIV is that gay disease, right? But the crucial question: did he handle it correctly as a plot device? Huge fail.

Perry is far from the perfect writer, based on what I've seen. He has trouble with plot holes the size of sixteen-wheelers and gets past them with blustering, soft-focus style in the hope that no one will notice. While I can understand his obviously wanting to do a film about the impact of HIV on the straight black community, he just didnt know how to present it... and instead of something helpful, he does this passion-play that makes the whole thing dismissive.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 9:23am

If i trmember correctly there was also a lot of anger when FOR COLORED GIRLS came out, about his adding an HIV plot line with a cheating gay husband.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 10:16am

I'd say the would-be minister who wrote the Poz article undercuts his message by kind of setting up getting HIV as something of a punishment for not loving himself enough.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 10:38am

Possibly, but at least the minister didn't turn that message into a cheesy titillating sexy movie with a punitive "SEE WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU BREAK THE LAWS OF GOD AND NATURE!!" message at the end of it.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 10:47am

Tyler Perry gives me the sadz.

I find his public working-out of his issues around his sexuality, Christianity and misogyny to be profoundly disturbing. And people eat it up without realizing that it's simply one F*CKed up man who cannot come to terms with his reality.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 11:19am

I read this review of his latest movie on Jezebel just before I read the open letter Borstalboy linked. I think that saddest part is that my beloved Vanessa Williams is a part of this.

And ditto to everything Robbie said.
Tyler Perry Isn’t Just an Artless Hack, He’s a Scary Ideologue

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 11:38am

That's a great Jezebel article. Clearly Perry and Tommy Wiseau need to do a team-up.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 11:44am

Love the review, Phyl. Thanks for posting. Hopefully someone in his posse will see it and discretely shove it into his front pocket for future reading.

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 12:01pm

I've never seen a Tyler Perry film - the trailers alone put me off. Perry himself was physically and sexually abused from a young age. Is he perpetrating the cycle? Getting back at the mother who never stopped his father from beating him?

That article is indeed pretty horrifying.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 12:18pm

"In other words he feels he contracted HIV by obviously not loving himself enough to do what was necessary to protect himself. That was his "sin." "

So, vanity is no longer a sin, unto itself?

This is why I avoid religion. It's all so silly.

[Playbilly]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 1:18pm

Filmmaking as therapy is never pleasant for an audience that recognizes it as such.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 1:21pm

It might be nominally better if the director realized that was what he's doing.

[AC126748]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 2:18pm

Reading the articles on Jezebel, The Grio, and Buzzfeed about the film have stirred a morbid curiosity in me, but I refuse to contribute a penny to the Tyler Perry empire. Considering how HIV-AIDS and those who live with it have long been misunderstood and marginalized within the broader African American community, this kind of representation is the last thing that needs to happen. Perry is a sad, repressed man, and all of his money and fame won't drive his self-hatred away.

[tazber]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 2:31pm

Film making as therapy can produce some of the most invigorating and creative works imaginable.

But what Perry does isn't therapeutic. He just uses the medium as a bully pulpit to espouse his views as if that somehow lends them credibility.

Plus, it feels like he's pandering to who he thinks his audience is. I feel like that is a disservice to his demographic's intelligence.

Updated On: 4/5/13 at 02:31 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 3:14pm

Speaking of, that bully pulpit is "Coming to OWN":

THE HAVES AND THE HAVE NOTS (Tuesdays from 9-10 p.m. beginning May 2

From prolific writer, director, producer Tyler Perry, “The Haves and the Have Nots” is a new television drama which follows the complicated dynamic between the rich and powerful Cryer family and the hired help who work in their opulent mansion set in Savannah, Georgia. From the outside, the Cryer’s are the enviable face of success and wealth, but behind the veil, the family’s dysfunction threatens to destroy their world of privilege. Cryer family patriarch Jim Cryer (John Schneider, “Dukes of Hazzard”?) is a powerful judge whose double-life, including tawdry affairs with high-priced escorts, puts his family and political ambitions at risk. His wife, Katheryn Cryer (Renée Lawless, “Wicked”), is the ultimate matriarch portraying a loving and dutiful wife, but she is willing to do anything to protect her family’s status. Their son Wyatt (Aaron O’Connell) is a troubled angry jock who cares little for his own image and finds himself in and out of rehab. His sister Amanda (Jacyln Betham), a struggling law student, tries harder to live up to her parents’ expectations, but unknowingly has befriended a scurrilous young woman, Candace Young, with the power to ruin the entire family. Hanna Young (Crystal Fox) is the Cryer’s maid and the matriarch of her family. Despite having no money, she has found other types of wealth through religion and virtue. She prides herself on her dutiful son Benny (Tyler Lepley), the glue who helps keep the family together. Hanna does have one dark secret, however, her estranged daughter Candace (Tika Sumpter, “Gossip Girl”) — a manipulative opportunist who will stop at nothing to get what she wants. In a bizarre coincidence, Candace is shocked to find out that her newfound friend Amanda’s father is Jim Cryer, the very man who has been paying her for sex and who also employs Candace’s mother as his family’s maid. Armed with this knowledge, the dramatic stage is set for what will be, in Candace’s eyes, the opportunity of a lifetime. Other characters in the series include the Cryer’s chef Celine (Eva Tamargo, “Passions”), their wealthy friends Veronica (Angela Robinson) and David Harrington (Peter Parros) and son Wyatt’s rehabilitation counselor, Jeffery Harrington (Gavin Houston). “The Haves and the Have Nots” is produced for OWN by Tyler Perry Studios. It is created, written, directed and executive produced by Tyler Perry

Updated On: 4/5/13 at 03:14 PM

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 3:30pm

Wow. One more stereotype, and this thing gonna exPLODE.

[javero]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 5:57pm

The word prolific is now a euphemism for hack. I don't begrudge him his success but wish he'd attempt to raise the muthafriggin bar a bit. The TP oeuvre is like a race to the bottom.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 4/6/13 at 12:23pm

And now this...