So you see, my son, there is a very fine line between love and nausea.
On today’s episode of Deep Thoughts About Stupid Shit, Emily returns to the Eddie Murphy comedy–and third-highest grossing film in 1988 – Coming to America.
Emily was delighted to discover that the romance between Murphy’s Akeem and Shari Headley’s Lisa respects her agency, despite Akeem initially lying about who he is. In addition, many 80s and 90s films were pigeonholed as “niche” if the cast wasn’t all white, but Coming to America’s cast was almost entirely made up of Black actors (as well as Murphy and Arsenio Hall in multiple roles under heavy makeup). The romcom’s overwhelming mainstream success helped normalize an all-Black ensemble.
The portrayal of Zamunda, the wealthy sovereign nation where Akeem is the crown prince, also helped push back against cultural commentary Tracie and Emily grew up with that insisted Africa was synonymous with impoverished.
But not everything is rose petals in Murphy’s comedy and storytelling. While Akeem’s romance with Lisa offers a lovely counterpoint to the myriad romcoms from our Gen X childhood that bulldozed over women’s clearly stated boundaries, the film still exhibits some unfortunate misogyny and misogynoir. The character of Imani, Akeem’s intended bride, always worried Emily, since the poor woman was brainwashed into perfect obedience before being rejected. Learning that Eddie Murphy wrote this as wish fulfillment for his own dreams of romance after becoming rich and famous in his early 20s helped her recognize Murphy's loneliness and contextualize Imani.
We know you would have helped out if you hadn’t had a cup of coffee in your hand. But you can still listen, even with your hands full!
We are Tracie Guy-Decker and Emily Guy Birken, known to our extended family as the Guy Girls.
We both have super-serious personas in our "day jobs." No, really. Emily is a Finance writer who used to be a classroom teacher. Tracie writes and consults on social justice and mindfulness and works as a copywriter and project manager for non-profits. If you really need to see the bona fides, please visit our individual websites: tracieguydecker.com and emilyguybirken.com
For our work together, what you need to know is that Tracie is older (3 years), Emily is funnier (by at least 3 percent), and we're both hella smart, often over-literal, and completely unashamed of our overthinking prowess. We love movies and tv, science fiction and murder mysteries, good storytelling with liberal amounts of dramatic irony, and analyzing pop culture for gender dynamics, psychology, sociology, and whatever else we find there.
Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, secure exclusive access to bonus episodes, video version, and early access to Deep Thoughts by visiting us on Patreon.
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