She’s Gotta Have It

In Spike Lee’s 1986 film, “She’s Gotta Have It”, a revolutionary representation of sex is showcased on the big screen. The film follows the life of an up and coming artist in Brooklyn, Nola Darling. Nola was, and still is, a refreshing depiction of black womanhood in movies. She is nonchalant and easy-going, confident and as sexually liberated as a woman could be in the mid-eighties. Despite being filled with bubbling talent, Nola maintains an ordinary lifestyle, surrounded by friends, family and her three lovers. The final characteristic has to be the most memorable aspect of the film, as the concept of non-monogamous or polyamorous relationships are rarely explored on the mainstream media. Instead, heroes and heroines are expected to be encapsulated within the tight restraints of monogamous, heteronormative romance. For the major part of the film, though, Nola’s decision to have relationships with different men is not outwardly questioned or judged. However, as the film comes to its conclusion, the radical notions that it presents are quickly dissolved.

Nola, as she learns that Jamie, one of her lovers, is thinking about leaving her, decides to turn away from her lifestyle; it is her choice for polyamory what turns out to be the point of contention between the two lovers. She becomes, at that point, the typical female hero, who has to be willing to give up on her own happiness to fulfill the romantic plot of the story. Most frustratingly, in the process of their negotiation -- Nola invites Jaime over to her apartment in an attempt to convince him not to break up with her -- Jaime will overpower and rape Nola, as she begs him to stop. The film, as if unaware that it had filmed a rape scene, proceeds with the story as if nothing but a quarrel had taken place in that apartment. The radical notions that are presented throughout the film are quickly overturned and the narrative is pushed back towards the misogynistic standards that tend to be found in other popular media creations. Nola ends up being punished for her deviancy from the norm; she is raped because her male partner found himself threatened by her sexuality, by her internal liberation, by her ability and constant desire to choose for herself. The sexual violence, meant to be a corrective tool at that moment, appears to work, too. The couple is reunited, by the end, and the violent assault that Nola had to endure has helped her see that monogamy was the better choice all along.

In its finale, the movie ends up reinforcing many toxic notions about sex and womanhood. Mainly, that rape is not a vile act that is exerted on a victim, but a mechanism through which women can be controlled. At the same time, the sexual liberation of women, especially when it moves away from the expected norms, is presented as only a passing event, one that will naturally be manifested before said woman has found her ideal romantic partner. And, most dangerously, that men who are controlling and violent -- though Jaime had a share of good characteristics, which makes the audience sympathize with him at the start -- are not meant to be seen as misogynists, but temporarily upset men. It reinforces the expectations that women ought to forgive their abusers, give up their lifestyles and particularities for them, regardless of the damage that they have done to women. The finale dehumanizes the protagonist that the viewer has come to love and turns her into an entirely different person, but, though disheartening, this move can serve as one of the most realistic representations of what romantic love can mean for women under our current system.