There's Nothing 'Dope' About Black Female Tropes

I rented Dope on Redbox a while back and was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It was nothing that I expected yet somehow mostly what I wanted.

Before I unleash a verbal spanking, I’d like to point out the things I did enjoy. First of all, a movie headlined by people of color, relatively unknown with exceptionally refreshing portrayals of ‘hipster millennials’ obsessed with 90s culture. In short, the movie flowed...until one of the three female characters showed up on screen.

1.) "One of the Guys"

The black lesbian experience is an interesting one and deserves to be seen in film, but there is hardly anything revolutionary about Kiersey Clemons' "Diggy" except that fact that she's black. The character could have been cast as another male and it would not have changed anything about the story. An opportunity was definitely missed here because she's treated as one of the guys; drooling over women and objectifiying them along with her two male friends.

The movie feels as if it doesn't even want you to notice that Diggy is a young girl and the only time we are reminded is when she lifts her shirt to prove her femininity to a bouncer at a club.

2.) "The Jezebel"

Dope took this trope to an entirely new level with Chanel Iman's "Lily." Her only focus in life seems to be having sex and getting high. This character infuriated me because her actions were so bizarre and unbeilievable that they took me completely out of the film. I sat there thinking, why would she do this? And the only answer I could come up with was that a plot device was needed to create conflict by separating our main character, "Malcolm," from his stash of drugs.

Later in the scene, in some desperate move to be relevant, "Lily" becomes an internet meme to be mocked for the rest of the film.

3.) "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" or "Damsel in Distress"

"Nakia," played by Zoe Kravitz, is undoubtedly the most disappointing character of all. When we first see her, she's sitting on the steps outside her apartment complex studying for her GED. Even though there's a lot of negative things we can assume about her, we get the sense that she's independent and in control. She doesn't whine or make excuses, she's getting things done.

The thing that kills it entirely is when she becomes an object and is no longer seen as a person. Suddenly Malcolm is encouraging her to go to better colleges and offers to help her study for the GED exam. My question is, since when does she need him? She doesn't and never has, but the movie's plot tries to make the audience believe that Nakia somehow needs Malcolm when he, in fact, only wants her (or any decent looking girl who throws herself at him.)

It's just redundant. She obviously knows that she deserves more in life because she's studying to get her GED. She doesn't need a man telling her to reach higher, she was already fucking doing it before he came along!

If you can overlook these issues, which a lot of men have done, then you can enjoy this movie and call it groundbreaking. However, we still have a long way to go if men think women are nothing more than tropes and plot devices.