Movie Review: Tyler Perry’s ‘Temptation’ Falls Titillatingly & Alarmingly Short

**This review contains revealing details from the movie “Temptation”. If you have not seen it, reading this post will feel a lot like when you go see something with a friend who’s already seen it and they keep telling you to “watch this!” Therefore, continue at your own risk.

There are a lot of things to hate about this movie and Tyler Perry’s now infamous creative style in general. The preachy church-people-are-good-everyone-else-is-a-demon rhetoric. The fact that I can pretty much rely on a “sexy” guy taking his shirt off at least once (whether it’s for our enjoyment or his, well that’s still up for debate). And the awkwardness of his continual overuse of close-up shots. Yet somehow, the trailers drew me in (mind you, I’ve been boycotting Tyler Perry films for the last 3 years). The thought of Jurnee Smollet-Bell caught in a love triangle seemed wickedly out of character for Perry. But it turns out the exact opposite is true. What I find most disturbing this time around with “Tyler Perry’s Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor” is how unsexy he makes a movie about sex. And how eagerly the black community accepts this depiction.

The movie starts out predictably though promisingly with a marriage counselor telling what sounds like a cautionary tale to a pre-adulterous wife. Then we’re swept into the endearing young Love of high school sweet hearts Judith and Brice (Jurnee Smollet-Bell and Lance Gross). But as the reality of delayed dreams and marital malcontent sink in, so do her spirits. Smollet-Bell plays a convincing awkward and “forgettable” 2o-something who knows very little about herself or her body–let alone what’s needed to keep a marriage together. So things quickly heat up when tech-savvy pseudo-playboy/knight in shining armor, Harley (Robbie Jones), capitalizes mostly on Judith’s sexual inexperience. Throw in some line from Harley about people “having sex like animals” (I was fanning myself), a classic sexual-tension filled elevator scene, an unwittingly neglectful husband, and you’ve got yourself the makings of a titillating affair!

Only, that is of course until Perry throws us an alarming curve ball. Judith and Harley end up alone on Harley’s private plane–a business trip serving as the perfect opportunity for him to make his move on a married woman. But Judith persistently pushes his advances away. She clearly says “no”. She clearly says “stop”. Harley forces himself on her a bit harder, however. So much so that Judith actually has to fight him off. To which Harley aggressively grips her up and sternly replies “Stop! Now you can say you resisted”. And then proceeds to have sex with her without her consent. I’m sorry, maybe I am crazy, but that is called rape where I’m from. And suddenly the tide’s low again if you know what I mean. There’s nothing sexy, steamy, or arousing about rape. Judith seems to agree with me and goes home crying and screaming at Harley to never call her again. Those are not the actions of a woman who willingly steps out on her husband to fulfill a sexual longing not met at home.

The movie never treats it like a rape though and soon Judith’s under Harley’s spell. It is not completely uncommon for a rape victim to fall in Love with her rapist. So I suppose this wasn’t completely far-fetched. However, Harley begins exhibiting even more abusive behaviors. He introduces her to hard drugs, separates her from the people who Love her, and whoops her ass. As if that wasn’t enough to punish the philandering harlot, we learn at the end of the movie that Harley gives Judith HIV. BUT Perry never portrays Judith as a victim. Even though Melinda (Brandy Norwood), Harley’s ex-girlfriend, plays the I’ve-had-a-hard-life-so-now-I-don’t-trust-anyone victim role so well Melinda’s boss mistakes her for a lesbian. Wait, what? So the girl who willingly got involved with Harley in college is a victim and we should feel sorry for her but the married woman who gets raped by him is a whore? So what’s the moral of the story here ladies? If you’re stupid enough to catch the attention of another man besides your lazy husband, Jesus will hate you, you will get raped, contract HIV, and die. Oh wait, no my bad. Melinda wasn’t a victim either. She deserved HIV because she didn’t protect herself when she knew Harley cheated on her. That’s right, I forgot. What was I thinking?

What started out as a seductive fantasy soon turned into a right-wing conservative sexual education lesson in a hick town with a ban on contraceptives. And I’m ashamed to admit this but most of the people in the theater, my people, seemed to like it. Maybe they were jut taking the film at face-value. That’s cool I guess. But when you’ve got the power to speak and a good portion of your community listens, you have a responsibility to watch what you say. I mean does Perry have any positive feelings about sex? From the messages in this film, it certainly doesn’t seem so. Good thing not all of us are so easily duped by a well-placed hallelujah. Uh uh. Try again Mr. Perry. Or better yet, do us all a favor, and don’t. Ever. Again.

Saw This in Essence. Had to Share: Sex Talk

A lady asks Essence columnist about her boyfriend’s erectile dysfunction and it was such a clever solution, I had to share. Enjoy ladies (and gentlemen), just in case you were having the same problem–and even if you weren’t!

What “Good Guys” Need to Know About Women & Sex

My fancy was quite tickled when I came across this bit of truth in the article “Yes Being A Good Guy Means You Have to Wait for Sex” that one of my male readers turned me on to. The article details the escapades of a woman who has sex quickly with guys she’s not interested in to get rid of them–playing on the idea that a man will get bored with a woman he sleeps with too early–for her own benefit. The thought that jerks who put in no effort for sex will often get to sleep with the same woman that made him wait, frustrated my friend. He followed with an excellent point arguing that in response, men will just stop being good guys. And interestingly enough, I could not debunk the jerk, yes! nice guy, no! mating behavior as myth. I, too, had done precisely what this woman had done understanding clearly that when you give up the buns guys don’t call you back. But what the guys didn’t realize is that I didn’t want to be called back. So because we were on the same page, we could sleep together and move on. When a man comes along though–that I could actually have something with–suddenly I was on “lockdown”. So maybe just maybe, if she’s not sleeping with you, you should take it as a compliment! Because that woman wants to give you the best of what she has to offer–not just sex. All my good fellas can check out the article here and weigh in. Do you think this system rewards jerks over good guys? Or do you not mind putting in more work because the end reward will be greater than more notches on your belt?

“What Women Want”

Some of you may know, I used to have a late night radio talk show back at Temple University. And our favorite topics were, *gasp*, Love and sex. And what I miss most about that show is the ease and comfort with which we’d handle taboo topics that no one else wanted to talk about. We were just a group of girlfriends that had our private conversations on air. It provided many laughs but also broke down some serious barriers. So it should come as no surprise that this Love and sex talk from divorced women caught my fancy. I found it interesting and refreshingly candid. Check it out on Askmen.com!

http://www.askmen.com/dating/love_tip/what-women-want.html.

Are You Addicted to the Pipe?

“How many of you ladies have an emotional addiction? You are a slave to the ‘Pipe’ that you call a PENIS. You will tolerate any type of treatment, any form of degradation or disrespect to have it and to keep it. You are an emotional crack head. You will steal to get it. Married men, men in relationships are not off limits. From her vagina to your mouth. An addict never ask where the pipe has been…”

Saw this posted on my Facebook news feed from a group called “Black Women Who Want More”. And it made me wonder, how many of us are addicts and don’t know it? How much of your life have you sacrificed, compromised, and endangered for the pursuit of the pipe? It’s interesting that many men use “pipe game” as a euphemism for sex. Although I think it more so came from the plumber/maintenance man analogy, maybe the likening of sex to drugs is more accurate. And when I ask this question, I’m not only talking to single women switching from bed to bed. I’m curious about married women and women in relationships as well. What is your relationship with sex and with your partner? Is it at a healthy level? Could you abstain if you had to–maybe because of sickness or what have you? Or are you addicted? Is it okay to be addicted to one pipe as opposed to many? Please post your thoughts!

Join the DEBATE on Casual Sex!!

Sex and the City

Four beautiful women in their 30s sat around a small table discussing the new post-chivalry dating possibilities of the millennium.

I Love the Sex and the City writers for staying so true to real life. In the end, the only one who gets the fairytale Love is the one who never stopped believing she could have it.

“Look, if you’re a successful single woman in this city you have two choices,” the blonde one roused. “You can bang your head against the wall and try and find a relationship. Or you can say screw it and just go out and have sex. Like a man.”

“You mean with dildos?” the brunette asked, confused.

“No! I mean without feelings.”

The other two women–another blonde and a redhead–listened eagerly as the first blonde explained a prior sexual escapade where she felt absolutely nothing for the man in her bed. But the brunette’s eyebrows furrowed in bewilderment. The concept of “having sex like a man” flustered her. She still believed in romance. And she doubted the blonde’s ability to feel absolutely nothing.

As I listened to these four women talk, I was reminded of the troubled state of my sex and womanhood in the 21st Century. I, too, had gone through a period in my dating life where I approached things “like a man.” I took what I wanted and didn’t particularly care about the other person’s feelings. I called back if and when I felt like it. And I had sex without feelings. So I asked myself if the two-can-play-that-game attitude–pioneered by women in the 90s and carried on by women in the 2000s–really did us any good? It didn’t help me have better relationships with men I wanted to take seriously. It didn’t get me a proposal from some guy amazed by my ability to f**k him and leave him. It didn’t keep me from getting my feelings hurt by men. And it definitely didn’t even leave me with a stack of mind-blowing sex stories :(. My days of “having sex like a man” resulted in the same thing it often results in for men–emptiness and no true connections. I filled myself on temporary comforts only to end up hungry again. I do not regret experiencing sex without emotion. It created a needed boundary between sex and Love in my mind. But it wasn’t a completely fulfilling and satisfying experience–physically nor emotionally. And as I contemplated what I’d been through, seen other women go through, and the gripes of those four women at the table, I wondered why did modern women want to be like men so badly?? What is so bad about being a woman??

I have a theory. It would seem that us 21st century girls have been suckered into subconsciously hating ourselves. We are overrun with and internalize the sexist propaganda that comes with life in America. We have somehow systemically learned that emotion is in fact weakness. And we’ve distanced ourselves from our abused, battered, and manipulated mothers, grandmothers, and aunts. We have watched them accept things from men (or other women) that we would never accept ourselves. And in our frustration with the women of a different era, we’ve found solace in what we perceive to be masculine behaviors. Instead of being the abused, we’re the abusers, the oppressor instead of the oppressed.

Any woman who actually has “had sex like a man” without any emotional attachment knows how powerful that can make you feel–at least initially. But when it’s time to explain to a man you really like how many guys you’ve been with and he doesn’t really want to hear anything over 5, you feel like shit again. Or when it’s your birthday and you want one of those guys you’re just sleeping with to make you feel special  and you realize that none of them can–and none of them want to. If women were honest with themselves and with their EMOTIONS, we’d realize the truth–that casual sex poses emotional dangers for us. Because at the end of the day, we want to feel Love. Women, after all, were created for Love.

Whether or not casual sex is good for women is a highly debated issue (check out Can Women Enjoy Casual Sex? from Psychology Today). And even though I am leaning more towards the side that says it’s not so great a practice for MOST women, I am in no way advocating that women should NOT have casual sex. I know. Now you’re sitting at home like “wait, but you just said…” I know what I said. I also believe just like the four women illustrated above women do not fit into a single box. There may be women out there like the blonde (aka Samantha Jones) filled with enough self-Love that they do not need life long companionship. I’ve never met them but I’m sure they’re out there. Even I’ve had casual sex that made me feel sexually empowered not because it was so great but because I was exercising my pussy power. I got to say when, where, and how it would be done. And if he didn’t like it, he had to go. What I am trying to say about casual sex is examine your motives as a woman and do not deny yourself your innermost desires. If you want Love (like the brunette and the other blonde), say you want Love.

I’ve come across many women who try to deny themselves their own nature. They say things like “it’s not that serious”, “I’m not that kind of girl. I just wanna f**k”, or “I’m just having fun”. But when the right person comes along, they’re swept up faster than you can say Swiffer. Not realizing that all they are doing is denying their own humanity, they’re own womanhood–feeding into the propaganda that tells us it’s not okay to be vulnerable and emotional and to want a relationship. We feed into the messages that tell us somehow men are more powerful and have more control because they’re less sensitive. But it takes the most strength to be vulnerable–whether you’re a man or a woman. The hardest thing in the world is sharing your heart–not your bed. If you are having casual sex while maintaining the ultimate Love for self  and not compromising on what you want, than by all means “do you booboo”. But do not fall into casual sex because you’re afraid to pursue the Love you want and need. If you put yourself out there for Love, the Universe will not return to you empty-handed.

Everybody Loves A Put On: Awkward Black Girl

Every once in a while, when you’re in the mood, you discover things worthwhile on your own. But most times, somebody else discovers that something’s cool before you do and puts you on. Everybody loves a put on. Especially when you’re put on by someone you share similar interest with. It’s almost like without seeing, hearing, or tasting whatever this new thing may be, you already know that you’re going to like it. Put ons are kind of like cheating on a test–you didn’t do any of the work but you still get to enjoy the positive outcome (and yes, I’m aware this isn’t a morally sound analogy). Only they’re with new experiences. So when my cousin posted a Facebook status expressing her dual love for both The Misadventures of Ms. Not-Right-Now (aka the blog you’re currently reading) and a set of vlogs entitled The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, my curiosity was instantly sparked. What could she possibly love that belonged in the same status as her love for my blog? But even before clicking,  I knew without knowing that I’d just found love. Besides, anything mentioned alongside me had to be good (JK. Okay not really)! It’s only right that I now pass the put on because I know some of you will enjoy this just as much as we did…

“When Great Sexual Chemistry Isn’t Such a Great Thing”

Just because the sex is great, it doesn't mean you and your partner are compatible!

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