Gender, Racial, and Social Discrimination in Straw (2025): Portraying the Struggles and Mental Health Challenges of Black Women

Abstract

This study examines the portrayal of gender and race in Tyler Perry’s Straw, primarily through a feminist film theory lens, drawing on Kimberlé Crenshaw’s intersectionality and Laura Mulvey’s feminist film theory, with Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytical theory and Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory providing a secondary interpretive layer. The paper explores how Straw powerfully critiques workplace discrimination, housing instability, and law enforcement bias, and how these systemic injustices devastate Janiyah’s mental health and agency. It considers how Taraji Penda Henson’s raw performance both challenges and risks reinforcing the “strong Black woman” stereotype, as the film’s reliance on sensationalist plot elements occasionally undermines narrative authenticity.

The study highlights Straw’s contribution to mental health discourse and calls for more nuanced storytelling, community collaboration, and policy reforms to amplify Black women’s voices and address systemic inequities.