Black Men in Dresses: Entertainment or Emasculation?

This year there will be three movies released featuring five African American men in dresses this year. Big Mamas: Like Father like Son, Skank Robbers and Tyler Perry’s Madea’s big happy Family. I have to wonder: Is this entertainment or Emasculation?

Many may see these images of brothers in dresses as something humorous. However, I see an insidious conspiracy by the media to strip away the manhood and male identity from the Black Man. Over the past two decades, the image of the black male has been slowly feminized. Little things like Athletes wearing earrings, Hip-hop stars wearing braids and sagging pants may be presented in the media to look trendy and stylish, but I feel it’s part of an effort to effeminate the Black male identity.

When a Black male is presented onscreen in a dress or with feminine attributes it sends a message to the world. That message is he is weak, soft and can he can be broken and subjugated to a submissive position. It destroys the image of Black Male authority and power in the eyes of Black women and causes the Black Man to lose face in front of her and his children.

And when Hollywood presents three movies featuring Five Black men in dresses I feel it’s sending a CLEAR message to the Black Community: It does not see Black men as MEN. They see black men as their BITCH, a castrated asexual role where they are weak, docile and submitted to their will. It’s less than a man, less than a woman and less than a child. It’s a Joke.

The way Black men are represented today in the media is the most dangerous thing since Wille Lynch’s speech on how to make a slave.

What’s so dangerous about so many movies featuring Black men in dresses? The messages within these films have a subconscious impact on the psychology of how Black men and Black boys are conditioned to see themselves in society. Presenting so many images of African-American men in effeminate roles is part of an institutionally racist plan to humiliate and degrade the image of the Black man in society. And because most young black males don’t have their fathers in their lives they have no idea what an example of manhood truly is. So they think these images are what they should emulate as Black male behavior and their Black male identity.

Worse, young brothers who don’t know any better they incorporate this feminine behavior into their own behaviors. Because the media presents these effeminate images as socially acceptable and even trendy brothers have no idea that their gender identity is being corrupted. Imbibing this media for long periods of time can leave a black male confused to their sexual identity.

I notice that currently in mainstream White media there are no images of White Males in dresses on a regular basis. I mean, how many top White movie stars like Leonardo DiCaprio and Christian Bale are starring in movies where they’re wearing dresses these days? How many top white male athletes and entertainers have their hair done up in braids with ribbons and bows? How many white male athletes and entertainers are presented in the media are dressed in feminine colors or presenting effeminate body language or expressions on a regular basis?

Not that many. But Black men are presented this way on a regular basis nowadays.

I’m urging brothers and sisters to really take a look at the media they’re watching a bit more closely. It’s not just entertainment. The media we watch and listen to influences the way we think and the way we act. It models of what someone else in society wants us to act like. And someone wants to destroy the image of the Black man in America in the eyes of the world.

Putting so many Black men in dresses can't be  entertainment. It’s emasculation.