Spike Lee Takes a Feminist Turn
“As a sex positive, polyamorous, pansexual,” Nola Darling, the 27-year- old heroine of Spike Lee’s new television series, “She’s Gotta Have It,” boldly declares in the fourth episode, “words like monogamy have never even seemed like a remote possibility.”
If Nola’s admissions sound familiar, it’s because her character is both vintage and millennial. She originally appeared in Mr. Lee’s feature film debut of the same name over 30 years ago and now updated as a Netflix dramedy.
Billed as a “seriously sexy comedy” in 1986, the movie revolved around Nola’s romantic relationships with three men — the poetic and overly possessive Jamie Overstreet, the narcissistic Greer Childs and the unemployed hip-hop aficionado Mars Blackmon (played by Mr. Lee).
A budding artist living in Brooklyn, Nola was, Mr. Lee noted at the time, “a young black woman who’s really leading her life like a man, in control, with three men dangling at her fingertips.” He continued, “That paradox is funny, it’s really crazy.”
In a television landscape in which African-American female characters on shows like HBO’s “Insecure” and ABC’s “Scandal” unabashedly establish their sexual freedom by having multiple male partners — or, in the case of Netflix’s “Master of None,” also have several female ones — Nola’s sexuality no longer feels comedic. It feels right at home. The surprising result: Spike Lee has made his most feminist heroine yet.
Critics have long noted Mr. Lee’s “woman problem.” In 2009, the journalist Teresa Wiltz observed, “When it comes to his female characters, it’s as though Lee can’t decide whether to worship them or punish them.”
Of “She’s Gotta Have It,” the feminist writer Bell Hooks wrote: “Men do not have to objectify Nola’s sexuality because she objectifies it. In so doing, her character becomes the projection of a stereotypical sexist notion of a sexually assertive woman — she is in fact not liberated.”
In the past, Mr. Lee often challenged such characterizations of his work. “I’m 30 years older, and the world has changed,” he said. “Nola’s character is such a strong character. She is a woman who is juggling three men, and I think there are more women like that now. But the way those women are judged hasn’t necessarily changed as far as men go.”
The move to television — and hav- ing 10 30- minute episodes to play with — contributed to the evolution, allowing Mr. Lee to flesh out Nola ( played by DeWanda Wise with a mix of vulnerability and confidence).
Mr. Lee filled the writer’s room with African-American women, including his wife, Tonya Lewis Lee. “Nola is a female character created by a man. In the process of making a show, that became even more apparent,” she said. “So we added female voices to put the meat on the bones of this female character, and there would be moments where Spike was like, ‘I don’t understand what you guys are talking about.’ ‘ That’s because you’re a man, and there are things you can’t see as a man, as open as you try to be. So listen to us, and let us help you.’ And he did.”
One conversation stood out to her. It involved a scene in which a slightly inebriated Nola stumbles down the street to her home. “As a woman looking at that, it’s very different, you recognize that real vulnerability that you feel,” Ms. Lewis Lee said.
Of the eight writers credited, four are women — Radha Blank, Eisa Davis, Joie Lee ( Mr. Lee’s sister) and the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage.
Their involvement has altered the depiction of Opal, a lesbian character who Ms. Hooks previously described as “predatory.”
Ms. Nottage said: “Opal appears in a very different way now. Opal offers Nola stability and love in a way she struggles with some of the men.”
The show pays attention to the ways in which black female characters’ bodies are under surveillance, threatened and even assaulted.
“The original film ends with this very violent attack against Nola, which wasn’t adequately addressed,” Ms. Nottage said, referring to the highly criticized scene in which Jamie rapes Nola.
The rape scene does not appear in the TV version. Instead, in the first episode, Nola is assaulted by a stranger, serving as a catalyst for her to find her voice as an activist. As a guerrilla-style artist, she begins an anti-street harassment campaign.
Ms. Nottage added, “I think now we have the tools to have that conversation, particularly in the African-American community, in a really open way.”