"She's Gotta Have It" is my favorite television series right now from Netflix. Spike Lee really did his thing with this one. This series is about a young and black woman born and raised in Brooklyn, New York who has set out to follow her dreams of becoming one of the hottest fine artists from New York. First and foremost, the main thing that attracted me to the show is the main character herself, Nola Darling -- played by DeWanda Wise. Her name is just as beautiful as she is, for starters. Nola is a dark skinned African-American female so it is relatable for me while watching each episode, along with her natural hair that isn't your typical 3C hair type.
It's more of that hair type where your edges may not be completely slick all the time.
Another wonderful characteristic about the main character for me would be the fact that she is a fine artist. Throughout the episodes, she is seen in this beautiful brownstone in Brooklyn, New York, painting constantly. For me, being a graphic artist myself, that is an ultimate dream. She is in her own world. She is doing her own thing according to how she wants to live.
Going against monogamy rules
Sexual freedom seemed to be the main topic of choice for this particular show. As we all know, it is highly frowned upon for a woman of any race to have multiple partners, or even to date multiple men at one time.
For Nola, she broke those standards. She has shown us all that you can have control over your personal life as a female, safely of course. You don't have to go by society's standards on dating as a female. Nola also displays how this is your life to live as a woman, not anyone else's. By juggling three different men from three different backgrounds in life, Nola proves that it is possible to have sexual freedom as a black woman in today's society.
Devastating effects of body injections
The female body is another topic brought up throughout the series with Nola's best friend Shemekka Epps. She is played by Chyna Layne. Her character is focused more on the insecurities that women face when it comes to how they look. Throughout the series, she is seen as a waitress at one of the local area clubs in Brooklyn but has a strong desire to become one of the star dancers/singers for the club one day.
Her boss wouldn't allow her to dance for quite some time and she always believed it was because of her looks, specifically the size of her booty. Now, just take a step back and look at the beauty standards of society today. If you turn on your television to watch a music video, the first thing you will notice on the women in those videos is the enormous size of their bottoms or some other cosmetic surgeries like lip injections and even breast enhancements. Shemekka is probably one of the most important characters of the show because she sheds light on the damaging effects insecurities can have for a young lady, along with how body injections affect society.
Long story short, she ended up getting some injections done in a cheap motel room by a lady that wasn't even a certified doctor at all, and way too many of them, I might add.
She did, however, get to perform on stage for the same club she was once waiting tables for, but things went horribly wrong during her set. She ended up tripping and falling onto her new enhancements, which popped like a balloon on stage in front of everyone as soon as she hit the floor. This led to whatever it was that was injected into her being passed through her blood stream. This sent her to the hospital for a couple of days in which she was separated from her friends and family, especially her daughter, to recover. Not only were her singing and dancing days over at the club before they could even begin, but she also had to live with the fact that she made a horrible mistake by altering her body just for a job position.
I love how Spike Lee put this part of the story together.
I'm not going to give too many details on the show. I don't want to spoil things for you all by giving away too much, but I highly recommend that you take a look at this Netflix series as soon as possible. It is great entertainment based off of Spike Lee's original film, plus you can actually learn a thing or two from it overall.
