Friday, July 01, 2011

Know Your LGBT History - urban African-American movies

Tyler Perry gets much hell from some folks because his movies seem too formulaic.

But when one considers what USED to pass for the urban African-American movie, one gets a great appreciation for what Perry is doing.

I will never forget the one summer in which I saw several urban African-American  movies. I don't remember the year, but I remember that they were all awful.

Pitiful.

Pathetic.

And the worse was how the lgbtq community were portrayed in these movies. It was embarrassing enough how African-Americans in general were portrayed, but the makers of a few of these pictures seemed to go out of their way to portray lgbtqs of color as freaks.

Take for example the motion picture, Woo.  

Woo starred Jada Pinkett (before she married Will Smith, got more successful and obviously gained more sense) as a woman looking for romance. That's the plot. The movie didn't make a lick of sense. And the following scene which disrespects the transgender community was enough alone for Woo to be a bomb - which I am glad to say that it was. In spite of its title, this is NOT a funny scene:



And then there was Sprung, which was extremely disappointing because it was actually hilarious in some scenes and starred several of my favorite actors and actresses (who REALLY should have known better). The scene here is of bad quality and it shows how one of the characters gets revenge on another by making him humiliate himself in a police line-up by stripping half naked and saying some sexually suggestive comments.

It's not funny and what makes the scene even worse is the fact that the makers of Sprung just HAD to add a flamboyant gay man (in panties no less) to the scene.

Seeing stuff like this makes you want to fight somebody. It starts at 2:25 and if you to see a better quality of the scene, go here:



Just a reminder to folks. We won a huge victory last week, but we still have a HELL of a way to go.

I'm still trying to find out where the hell was GLAAD when all of this stuff went down.

Past Know Your LGBT History Posts:

Know Your LGBT History - Charles Pierce

 Know Your LGBT History - Torch Song Trilogy

The Best of Know Your LGBT History

Know Your LGBT History - Masters of Horror - Sick Girl

 Know Your LGBT History - MadTV

 Know Your LGBT History - Gimme A Break

Know Your LGBT History - Not Another Gay Movie

Know Your LGBT History - My Beautiful Laundrette

Know Your LGBT History - The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Know Your LGBT History - I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry

Know Your LGBT History - The Gay Deceivers

 Know Your LGBT History - Reflections in a Golden Eye

Know Your LGBT History - Dynasty

 Know Your LGBT History - Milk

 Know Your LGBT History - Black Shampoo

Know Your LGBT History - Never Too Young To Die

 Know Your LGBT History - All About Eve

Know Your LGBT History - Hotel

Know Your LGBT History - The Streets of San Francisco

Know Your LGBT History - Two looks at transgender characters in films

Know Your LGBT History - Flawless

Know Your LGBT History - Mahogany

Know Your LGBT History - Beverly Hills Cop

Know Your LGBT History - Some Like It Hot

Know Your LGBT History - Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia 

Know Your LGBT History - Dirty Laundry

Know Your LGBT History - The Willie Witch Project

Know Your LGBT History - Spartacus

Know Your LGBT History - Caged

Know Your LGBT History - The Birdcage

Know Your LGBT History - Maude

Know Your LGBT History - That Certain Summer

Know Your LGBT History - Boat Trip

Know Your LGBT History - Staircase

Know Your LGBT History - Beautiful Thing

Know Your LGBT History - Armed and Dangerous

Know Your LGBT History - The Proud Family

Know Your LGBT History - Suddenly Last Summer

Know Your LGBT History - Gay TV Now

Know Your LGBT History - Stewardess School

Know Your LGBT History - Up the Academy

Know Your LGBT History - Don't be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood

Know Your LGBT History - A Different Story

Know Your LGBT History - Victim

Know Your LGBT History - The Color Purple

Know Your LGBT History - Making Love

Know Your LGBT History - A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge

Know Your LGBT History - Noah's Arc

Know Your LGBT History - Ode to Billy Joe

Know Your LGBT History - Adorable Adrian Adonis

Know Your LGBT History - The Night Strangler

Know Your LGBT History - All in the Family

Know Your LGBT History - Tongues Untied

Know Your LGBT History - The Celluloid Closet

Know Your LGBT History - Querelle

Know Your LGBT History - Theatre of Blood

Know Your LGBT History - Strange Fruit

Know Your LGBT History - Designing Women

Know Your LGBT History - The Children's Hour

Know Your LGBT History - Sylvester

Know Your LGBT History - Once Bitten

Know Your LGBT History - The Boys in the Band

Know Your LGBT History - Christopher Morley, the crossdressing assassin

Know Your LGBT History - Midnight Cowboy

Know Your LGBT History - Dracula's Daughter

Know Your LGBT History - Blacula

Know Your LGBT History - 3 Strikes

Know Your LGBT History - Paris Is Burning

Know Your LGBT History - The Women

Know your LGBT History - Soul Plane

Know Your LGBT History - The Player's Club

Special Know Your LGBT History - Fame

Know Your LGBT History - Welcome Home, Bobby

Know Your LGBT History - Barney Miller

Know your lgbt history - The Jerry Springer Show

Know your lgbt history - Martin Lawrence and that 'gay guy' on his show

Know your lgbt history - The Ricki Lake Show

Know your lgbt history - Which Way Is Up

Know your lgbt history - Gays in Primetime Soaps

Know your lgbt history - Boys Beware

Know your lgbt history - The Boondocks

Know your lgbt history - Mannequin

Know your lgbt history - The Warriors

Know Your LGBT History - New York Undercover

Know Your LGBT History - Low Down Dirty Shame

Know Your LGBT History - Fortune and Men's Eyes

Know your lgbt history - California Suite

Know your lgbt history - Taxi (Elaine's Strange Triangle)

Know your lgbt history - Come Back Charleston Blue

Know your lgbt history - James Bond goes gay

Know your lgbt history - Windows

Know your lgbt history - To Wong Foo and Priscilla

Know your lgbt history - Blazing Saddles

Know your lgbt history - Sanford and Son

Know your lgbt history - In Living Color

Know your lgbt history - Cleopatra Jones and her lesbian drug lords

Know your lgbt history - Norman, Is That You?

Know your lgbt history - The 'Exotic' Adrian Street

Know your lgbt history - The Choirboys

Know your lgbt history - Eddie Murphy

Know your lgbt history - The Killing of Sister George

Know your lgbt history - Hanna-Barbera cartoons pushes the 'gay agenda

'Know your lgbt history - Cruising

Know your lgbt history - Foxy Brown and Cleopatra Jones

Know your lgbt history - I Got Da Hook Up

Know your lgbt history - Fright Night

Know your lgbt history - Flowers of Evil

The Jeffersons and the transgender community    





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2 comments:

  1. Do you know the film Dirty Laundry? It only starts urban, when a kid shows up at the Manhattan apartment of a successful magazine writer and announces that the writer is his father. They then go south to sort out what's going on, and it becomes a family story. Then the writer's boyfriend shows up to find out what's really going on. I enjoyed the film. I'm not familiar with any of the actors, but the DVD jacket blurb assumes that some are well-known.

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  2. Anonymous4:18 AM

    Speaking of urban African American films, one I would love to see you cover in this series is Car Wash.

    It may be rose-tinted memory, but I remember the Antonio Fargas character in that film being one of the very first positive gay images I ever saw. Certainly stereotyped, but it really struck me when I saw it as a kid t see a self assured queer character, and that the only homophobia I remember comes from the "bad guy" of the film.

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