‘She’s Gotta Have It’ on Netflix Fits Perfectly Into This Current Era Of Sexual Politics

It’s almost inevitable that, either before or after you queue up Spike Lee’s new Netflix version of She’s Gotta Have It, you also queue up the original 1986 feature film (conveniently, it too is available on Netflix). A lot about the film — Lee’s first, made for a budget of just over $170,000 — and the 2017 series are similar: the main character, Nola Darling (Tracy Camilla Johns in the movie, DeWanda Wise in the series), directly addressing the camera, Nola’s three lovers, the moody soundtrack, and more.

But there’s a fundamental difference between the original version and the series: the sexual politics of the series make a whole heck of a lot more sense than the original version, especially in light of the avalanche of sexual misconduct and harrassment charges that have come out since Harvey Weinstein’s sexual misdeeds were exposed.

For one, while Movie Nola was very mature about her sex life, informing her sexual partners about each other’s presence, she was still susceptible to the pleas of the controlling Jamie Overstreet (Tommy Redmond Hicks in the movie) to settle down. This is despite the fact that Jamie, angry that he has to share Nola with Greer Childs (John Terrel in the movie) and Mars Blackmon (famously played by Lee), actually rapes Nola in her apartment, pretending that Nola wanted things rough from him. Despite that, Nola commits to him at the end of the movie — though a direct-address scene at the very end establishes that she quickly put an end to that.

Series Nola, though, isn’t having any of that. Jamie (Lyriq Bent), Greer (Cleo Anthony) and Mars (Anthony Ramos) all want Nola to be exclusive with them, but at no time does she give them any indication that that will happen. In fact, she shuts them down at every turn. She’s kept her power, and uses it to fully give the version of herself that fits best with each of her men.

The third episode, “#LBD (Little Black Dress)”, boils these politics down to the slinky “little black dress” Nola buys in the aftermath of being attacked on the street by a guy who called her a “black bitch” (more on this in a second). She buys it to refuel her confidence, hoping to jumpstart her creativity before a big gallery show set up by her friend Clorinda (Margot Bingham). She wears it differently for each guy, but the guy’s reactions are all the same: she’s wearing the dress because she “wants it.” In no uncertain terms, though, she tells them that the dress isn’t for them, it’s for her, and just because she’s wearing it doesn’t mean she’s open to sex.

This episode is in direct repsonse to those people, male and female, who have reacted to the current spate of allegations by stating the tired cannard that women should “dress appropriately” in order not to attract the attention of perverts. Nola isn’t wearing the LBD for any other reason than to power her confidence back up; stating anything else gives her very little credit for being able to manage her sex life and emotional well-being.

Lee has said he’s “regretted” the movie’s rape scene, and subbing in the street attack for the rape makes more sense for Nola’s character. The Nola of the series would have shut Jamie down in a millisecond if he even thought about attempting what his movie version did, and the street attack feels more like something that the always-in-control Nola couldn’t control, no matter how confident in herself she was.

There are other jarring aspects of the movie version, like the casual use of the word “homo” and the fact that Opal Gilstrap (Raye Dowell in the movie) is seen as more of a lesbian vixen trying to get Nola to “change teams.” Series Opal (Ilfenesh Hadera) is more of a stabilizing force in Nola’s life, and the one person to whom Nola would be willing to commit.

Same-sex relationships and sexual fluidity are treated in a much more matter-of-fact fashion in the series. And while Lee told me that it was simply because he had more time to explore that relationship, it feels more like a case where it would have been too much of a third-rail issue in 1986, even in an art-house film like the original movie was intended to be.

he’s Gotta Have It needed to be remade in 2017. Things have changed a lot in the world of sexual politics, but not enough to think a new Nola Darling wasn’t necessary. If the show gets a season 2, Weinstein, Louis C.K., Charlie Rose and more will likely be at least mentioned. Looking forward to what Spike and his (mostly female) writing staff wil have up their sleeves for that.