Audience Applauds Domestic Violence in the New Tyler Perry Movie

Hey everybody: Today I am not talking about the election. I am talking about domestic violence.

 I always try to support black movies. I make it my business to go see them the first weekend in hopes of making it the Number 1 movies. So this Saturday I was there to see Tyler Perry’s latest movie. The movie has a number of plotlines going on simultaneously. One of them was a husband/ wife relationship. The wife was the major breadwinner and she was also involved in an affair with her boss. Her husband was a portrayed as a weak but loving husband who rarely questioned the activities of his wife. The wife constantly verbally browbeat her husband. Some of the things she said to him were particularly vile. When she would say these things the audience would verbally express their disgust. They hated her so at the end of the movie she makes her most vile statements to the husband, and he retaliates by slapping her with such impact that she slides across a diner counter and hits the floor.  The response of the audience was to cheer and applaud. I found this reaction disturbing, but not unexpected. Perry had created such an evil character devoid of goodness that people believed that her behavior warranted the response. There is no behavior that warrants physical violence. Some in the crowd even said “it’s about time.” This is a frightening mindset that needs to change. October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and it should be used as a time to educate the public. I enjoyed the movie up until to that point but as a woman I can not support this kind of violence. Violence is not the solution and I hope that we can get to the point as a society where we will never believe violence is justified.