TY  - CHAP
AB  - Purpose This paper, an exploration into Black women cultural consumers of Tyler Perry Productions, examines the ways cultural consumption practices contribute to transformative ideologies and behaviors.Methodology/approach This regionally diverse ethnography using yo-yo fieldwork in Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York, and New Orleans, is based upon the author’s experiences over the course of five years engaging theater attendees and the casts and crew members of multiple Perry productions.Findings The author first discusses the dichotomous and provocative responses to Perry’s work by scholars, critics, and consumers of Tyler Perry Productions. After an ethnographically rich discussion of the setting surrounding a performance of the stage play Madea’s Big Happy Family, the author discusses how Black women report Perry’s work as a site of resistance to, and resources for responding to, microaggressions and other structures of oppression.Originality/value Building on the work of black feminist theory (Bobo, 2001, B. Smith, 1998) and black feminist theater aesthetic (Anderson, 2008), this paper, by crafting a Black Women’s Theatre Aesthetic that, for the first time, engages with and gives primacy to the consumers of theatrical productions, opens a portal for understanding the creative ways Black women call into play cultural consumption practices as tools and devices for transformative praxis.
VL  - 17
SN  - 978-1-78560-323-5, 978-1-78560-322-8/0885-2111
DO  - 10.1108/S0885-211120150000017019
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/S0885-211120150000017019
AU  - Lotson Adrienne R.
PY  - 2015
Y1  - 2015/01/01
TI  - Taking Off Our Earrings and Staying Out of Jail: Black Women and Madea on Tyler Perry’s Chitlin’ Circuit
T2  - Consumer Culture Theory
T3  - Research in Consumer Behavior
PB  - Emerald Group Publishing Limited
SP  - 401
EP  - 421
Y2  - 2024/04/24
ER  -