The Untold Perspective- Baby Boy
This month makes John Singleton’s classic film, Baby Boy, twenty years old but it feels like we all just saw it for the first time yesterday. This film had black women all over triggered because let’s face it, some of us either know a Jody, dated a Jody or worse, had a kid with him. Jody served as Singleton’s depiction of the black man in America who grew up in the hood and now has to involuntarily face reality. The reality for Jody was that he had two kids from two baby mamas, was in love with one but not ready to settle down and commit, and was being erased as his mom’s number guy by his mom’s new boyfriend. In the opening scene of the film, the black man is compared to a baby that never grows up. “He calls his woman “mama”, his friends “his boys” and his house “da crib”. After this connection was drawn and narrated by psychiatrist Frances Luella Welsing, Jody embodied this stereotype to perfection.
Now this story is often viewed through the lens of Jody, “Baby Boy” or through the perspective of Yvette, his first baby mama and girlfriend. Yvette held him down from beginning to end, through the good and bad, mostly bad. She had a job, a car, and her own apartment which Jody simply leeched off of but couldn’t even put groceries in her refrigerator. Jody still lived at home with his mom and on occasion when Yvette couldn’t find him there, he was at his second baby mama’s house, Peanut. A scene that is unforgettable and notorious in defining Jody’s character is when he brings Yvette home from the abortion clinic and jets off to his second baby mama’s house to smoke weed and have sex with her. He is with Peanut while Yvette’s wounds haven’t even started to heal yet. And although most women can empathize with Yvette in this scene, it’s very rare that we ever step into Peanut’s shoes and see it from her perspective.
To a certain extent, Peanut is a relatable character. She’s hopeful, she’s kind, and she probably thought Jody was going to give her a happily ever after at some point. She opens her home to Jody speculating that he’s back with Yvette. Peanut allows Jody to see and interact with his daughter, something not all baby mamas would do. She even lets him slide back in her a few times having to stare at Yvette’s name tatted on his chest. Talk about awkward moment during missionary. Although Yvette endured a lot of losses and disrespect from Jody, Peanut got the shortest end of the stick between the two. He always ran back to Yvette and in the end of the movie we even watch him put a ring on it and extend their family with another baby on the way. Now whether this was a victory or not, the point is he never gave his heart to Peanut like he did with Yvette. Peanut was just a house while Yvette was the home. Every time Jody visited or called Peanut, she probably thought there was hope for them, but Jody never had intentions on being with her in that way. He even calls her and ask her to tell him she loves him even though he doesn’t love her. Jody was simply blowing off steam from time to time and it just so happened to be at the expense of Peanut’s emotions.
Now of course, some could argue that Peanut knew what she was signing up for while engaging with Jody however, that doesn’t subtract from the fact that he led her on. It wasn’t just in his words but also in his actions. Jody still displayed affection towards Peanut (both physically and emotionally), downplayed any talks of Yvette when they were together, and constantly came around. Peanut mistook Jody’s actions for a sign of hope.
Make no mistake, Yvette wasn’t perfect in this film. She had a little baggage with ex boyfriend Rodney who belittled Jody and didn’t respect their relationship ever chance he got. And as for Jody? I don’t know what Jody was. Perhaps he was simply trying to navigate his way through life and its commitments? Or experiencing an internal conflict between the man he was and the man he was trying to become? Undoubtedly, in the film Baby Boy, Peanut never really stood a chance.
