What I’m Reading:
You can listen to the audio version of this Musing here.
Coming down from the holidays and several big writing and podcasting projects, I didn’t have time for reading this week—and quite frankly, was a little burnt out! I did, however, take my 18-year-old son—who was home for the holidays—on a movie date. We saw the remake of The Color Purple.
The movie was remarkable in many ways. The costuming was fantastic, the musical numbers vibrant and spectacular, and the dialogue witty. It was fun to watch; we both enjoyed ourselves.
The next morning at the breakfast table, though, my son told me he was surprised when his friend told him that she’d read the book and that it’s sad. Having not read the book, he saw the film as joyful. When I pointed out that the underlying themes of the movie were domestic violence, incest, generational trauma, the impacts of American slavery and British imperialism, and more, he said, “But they broke out in song.”
It would be easy to write off his response as coming from a young person who has not directly experienced any of the tougher themes of the story. And as his mom, I took the moment as an opportunity to talk to him about their gravity. But his observation did bring up an important question: Was there something off about the tone of the movie? There is great joy in the lives of the characters, to be sure, but does the format of the musical jump too quickly to the joy at the expense of depth?
What I’m Thinking About:
The thing that is interesting about this version of The Color Purple is that the plot itself is true to Alice Walker’s Pulitzer-winning novel. We learn early in the film that Celie, the protagonist, is impregnated twice by the man she believed to be her father, only to have those babies sold right after their birth. We also learn that she is shortly thereafter married off to an abusive older man who beats her and separates her from her sister, the only person she is truly bonded with. We watch as her step daughter-in-law is unjustly imprisoned for years, and upon release, exploited by the very same white woman who had her put away.
Those are the facts of their lives. We see them. But do we feel them, or do they get glossed over? In a review for NPR, Aisha Harris has similar concerns but points out that she struggles to criticize a film for not dramatizing Black pain. “Admittedly, it feels odd and even a little wrong to criticize a film for minimizing the trauma against Black women that’s shown on screen.” After all, it certainly isn’t Black women’s responsibility to lay their pain bare so that my white teenage son can have some perspective. And yet, Harris points out that there is a balance to be struck. She observes, “But exploitation and exploration are not the same, and with little exception, Bazawule and his screenwriter Marcus Gardley seem reluctant to sit too long in the discomforting facets of this story, choosing instead to over-index on ‘joy’.”
Harris points out that this is surely in part a corrective to some of the criticism that the 1985 movie received. She quotes Taraji P. Henson who says, “The first movie missed culturally. We don’t wallow in the muck … We laugh, we sing, we go to church, we dance, we celebrate, we fight for joy…” This is valid.
I do not feel like it’s my place to have an opinion on how Black pain is depicted or processed in this movie. These are not my stories to tell. What I am left with, instead, is the reminder that life (and art) is complex. There is no joy without sorrow, and perhaps letting this tension exist in all its forms is all we can do.
What I’m Excited About:
This Thursday to Sunday (January 11-14) I’ll be in New York City. I’ll get to meet some new friends and spend time with old ones, and I’ll get to see a few Broadway shows to boot! I’m very much looking forward to it! If you’re in New York and you’d like to see me while I’m there, you know how to find me!
Additionally, I’m very excited to announce that I started a new podcast! When We’re Not Hustling: Sex Workers Talking About Everything But is a podcast that explores the lives of sex workers beyond the fantasy. The first episode dropped on New Years Day, and a new one will drop every other Monday. Our first guest was trans porn star Trip Richards, and he and I discussed the possibility of talking about our lives outside our work. Please check it out!
Booking & Availability:
I have filled out my travel schedule for the next several months! I’ll be in Pittsburgh between these dates!
Jan 11-14: New York City, NY
Jan 23-28: Las Vegas, NV
Feb 2-4: Buffalo, NY
March 22-24: Buffalo, NY
April 4-7: Columbus, OH
April 25-27: New York City, NY
If you don’t see me in your city and you’d like to, please don’t hesitate to reach out to ask me about Fly Me To You options.
Also, don’t forget that I’m offering handwritten postcards and letters.
xo
