Linda Stirling Unmasked: The Black Whip




AGORA
: Dragged from her chariot by a mob of fanatical vigilante Christian monks, the revered astronomer was stripped naked, skinned to her bones with sharp oyster shells, stoned and burned alive as possibly the first executed witch in history. A kind of purge that was apparently big business back then.


CRITICAL WOMEN HEADLINES

9/14/08

The Family That Preys: Sitcomish Sermonizing, Sudsy Mayhem, And 'Family Values Is The Best Revenge' Tirade As Usual

The Family That Preys: Sitcomish sermonizing and Tyler Perry's trademark 'family values is the best revenge' anthem, awash as usual in sudsy mayhem.

CLICK TO READ REVIEW HERE

2 comments:

  1. I do agree on certain parts of your review, in my opinion Tyler does predictably illustrate his moral points of view by creating characters on the extremes of good and evil. Realistically, most of us boring human beings fall somewhere in the murky middle. However, there is a part of me that thinks I saw a different movie than you are reviewing. Battered Woman? I saw one hit in this movie, from a man who had just been told by his predatory wife that he was worthless, unloved and that the son he was raising was not his own. Clearly this alleged battered woman had little fear or respect for her spouse ( speaking from personal experience, battered women don't usually stay in unwanted abusive relationships if they are equipped with a Harvard education and money in the bank). Abuse is about power, and clearly this women had all the money and all the power in this relationship. Also, about the abandonment issue, there was no indication at the end of this movie that this man had abandoned his legal son, just that his marriage had justifiably collapsed. Stemming from your review, methinks that Tyler Perry is not the only one with a tendency to over dramatize and over moralize to illustrate a point.

    My final point is this, I actually liked the movie, not because it had some clear moral and ethical message, but because Alfre Woodard and Kathy Bates are two actresses who have proven again that they are both worth my money.

    R.B.

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  2. Hi RB:
    Thank you for your intelligent and thoughtful comments.
    Of course you're correct in stating that there were many factors presented to justify the betrayed husband's angry response - but isn't that what Perry wanted, to stack the deck so against this high achiever woman that violence against a woman would seem justified and bring a sense of relief, even laughter, to a similarly frustrated audience against this extreme villainess?
    The treatment of Sanaa's character has actually sparked a great deal of negative heated discussion among my female critic colleagues. Such as, if she was so disgusted by her spouse, why didn't she just leave him, she certainly had the financial means to do so. And why no bid by this bright woman to seek child support and work-related compensation from her boss?
    And there's a real sense now that war has been openly declared against successful and powerful women, it's in the air with the abhorrent sexist attacks against women like Hillary and Sarah Palin - way beyond where they may stand on issues - women who have the audacity to bid to run for the males-only highest offices in the land.
    Prairie

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