Tyler Perry's ‘For Coloured Girls’

That’s the question that will undoubtedly be asked following the release of the film in the UK today (10th December).

Perry’s movie is based on the poem ‘For coloured girls who considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf’ by Ntozake Shange and features a stellar cast of black actors including Janet Jackson, Phylicia Rashad, Loretta Devine, Whoopi Goldberg and British actor Thandie Newton.

In the US, the film has come under attack for its extremely negative portrayal of black men and the absence of meaningful male lead roles. Of the five male characters in the film, only one is shown as a supportive husband. The other men are depicted as rapists, murderers and ‘living on the down low’.

The depiction of the husband of Janet Jackson’s character has been particularly blasted. In the film he is seen cruising for gay men and eventually infects his wife with the HIV virus. The film has re-ignited the debate about whether ‘on the down low’ homosexual behavior is uniquely attributable to black men. The topic gained international exposure some years ago after Terry McMillan, author of ‘How Stella Got her Groove Back’ revealed that the lover (and later husband) she met while on holiday in Jamaica left her for another man.

However, health experts have repeatedly pointed out that closeted gay male societies are not a phenomenon only experienced in the black community.

The other characters seem to engender stereotypes of violent black males in society.

Perry has steadily developed a reputation for employing black actors who are often neglected by mainstream Hollywood. However some have criticised him for creating new millennium black stereotypes of mammies and welfare queens and failing to portray successful black families as illustrated in his last film ‘Precious’.

‘For coloured girls’ is on show at cinemas across the UK from today.