Why Aren’t We Respecting Tyler Perry’s Fanbase?

This weekend Tyler Perry released his first movie for Netflix, A Fall from Grace, and the internet exploded. Tyler Perry, who is self-taught, is a screenwriter, actor, director, and producer who has produced stage plays, movies, and television shows across multiple genres. The film tells the story of an older woman who is charmed by and falls in love with a much younger man. According to IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes, this is not one of Perry’s worst rated films. However, this did not stop his usual critics, and what seems like new ones, from dissecting the film and writing Perry off again as one-dimensional, unsophisticated, stereotypical, lazy about the quality of his work, and unable to evolve after fifteen years of filmmaking. There are also more far out there criticisms such as Tyler Perry hates Black women, Tyler Perry thinks his fans are idiots, and Tyler Perry is colorist. I guess this is better than the days when Perry was constantly called out for putting on “minstrel” shows.

The criticism that stands out the most to me is that Tyler Perry believes his audience will accept anything he puts out, no matter how bad it is, and that he takes advantage of this— even though Perry has repeatedly said he knows his audience, and that he writes specifically for them. This particular critique is utterly dismissive of the fans and their ability to know what they like and…