I begin my blog by stating the confusion I had while taking this representation test. Originally I just chose one of my favorite movies, Tyler Perry’s Temptation, but looking at the test I wondered if I should change the movie I was blogging and maybe even change the genre of movie that I prefer. Then however I decided to keep my movie choice and not allow this blog to waver my preference in movies.

The movie Temptation begins as a love story. A girl grows up and falls in love with her bestfriend and eventually gets married to him. Ofcourse the problem came when the excitement checked out of her relationship. Working at a job which dealt with creating women into the object of any mans effection. However she fell in love with one of her coworkers and efter countless times of denying his advances she eventually gave in and left her husband. The man began to beat her and was very controlling of her and everything she did but tried to disguise it with buying and showing her the finer things in life. In the end his drug abuse and the last beating she endured was too much. She was saved by her husband while hanging on to life. His love was greater than his hurt. She found out in the end that she contracted aids from this man and her life would never be the same. The entire movie was narrated by an older and beaten down version of the woman as she told the story to a couple who was contemplating divorce.

When I watched the movie for the first time I loved it because I felt it taught a lesson in a ‘grass isn’t always greener’ stand point. When I look at the movie from a representation test stand point I wonder if African American are shooting ourselves in the foot with the stereotypes we ourselves convey to the world. Tyler Perry is a well-known director as well as film writer and actor. That was one of the few points that I did receive. With that being said I direct you to the stereotypes of men and women of color. The protagonist is not a woman of color and the stereotypes of a colored women are portrayed throughout the entire movie. A time we see this stereotype being portrayed is in the idea that black women are loose, and have attitudes shown when she was in scenes with anyone after finding her new love. She also could be said to be loose by just being the one to cheat on her husband.

However when it comes to men of color not being reduced to stereotypes I got some small leeway with the “one or more” clause of the sentence.  The husband of the story was not the normal idea of an African American husband, he was somewhat successful, carried himself with class, and was loving and caring to his wife. When he forgot her birthday he sweetly made it up to her by singing a tone deaf song to make her smile. On the opposite side however we are given the stereotypical African American male, abusive, druggy, who thinks he is God’s gift to women. Ever comment he made to her was about her physical beauty but never about much else. This movie does a good job of supporting the negative stereotypes of the African American race. I do commend Perry on showing that the all black men are not like that by showing the two different lovers in her life. However that brings about a brand new argument for men in general, the idea that the good guys finish last.

No one in this movie had disabilities nor was the LGBT style of life represented. They did poke fun at one of the side characters who was not in a relationship or trying to pursue anyone. Jokes about her being gay because of the way she dressed or her lonely lifestyle in connection with her sexuality could be seen as disrespectful in the eyes of people who are actually members of those groups.

The women are not seen as being any good every one presented basically lies or only seen as the object of a man’s affection. The place where she worked was focused on changing women to make them more attractive. They had a room with expensive dresses and shoes necessary to wow the man. Almost insulting the intelligence of men as a well as objectifying women. Men as a whole were stereotyped in that they would always easily fall for the women and their flashy and revealing attire. The idea of violent men was very much glorified in this movie. Though she was beaten she never left him because he was giving her the things she wanted otherwise and that made the idea that violence can be over looked when everything else is good.

I was not surprised by this movie failing this test however I feel that most movies will fail this test from many different stand points on these categories. It is quite bias however because the when it comes to all groups of people. I also was confused about the category of Race, Ethnicity, and Culture because the questions of race and stereotype where stated elsewhere. However being an African American I must say that we perpetuate these stereotype at times but to put them into a movie and glorify them really should be done better. This representation test makes me want to venture out to and find movies that have a little more variety in them. This movie received a D and rightfully so it does not do a good job of elevating the people it represents or the male and females genders as a whole. Originally I would have given this movie a 5 pickle rating, however when you bring the rep test in i must give it a 2 pickle rating.