Tyler Perry's "Other" Movies

This weekend I read bell hooks, article "Eating the Other" (1990).  While it isn't the easiest text to comprehend, it brings up many interesting points.  She talks about how a white person is always the main focus in mass media texts.  There are many examples she brings up and even more that we could thing of in all aspects of mass media.  However, this was something she discussed ten years ago and since then society has evolved and  I wonder what her stance would be on on media focused on Others like television shows and movies by Tyler Perry.  He has created many popular texts that have the focus on the Other as opposed to white people.

Initially I wanted to say that she would say that white people as using this as a commodity and watch these texts in order to gain something and find some sort of fulfillment from it.  But the fact that they were created by a member of the Other and not a white person makes it more complicated.  She talks about how rap and break dancing were created as a way for black people to tell their story and pain.  Using this, I wonder if she would argue that Others like Tyler Perry are creating their own media texts as a way of also telling their story and pain.  So to the Others it is an expression but to white people it is a commodity for gaining something.

There are many different ways to pick apart and examine texts created by members of the Others.  We also see such iconic people that are members of the Others, for example Beyonce and Denzel Washington.  While we can make assumptions based on her old articles, it would be interesting to hear hooks' views on modern mass media's depiction of the Other.  Society has changed a lot in the past twenty years and I wonder if her views have as well.

Meghan O.