How 'Straw' reveals the impossible choices facing single mothers every day
From left: Teyana Taylor, Sherri Shepherd, Taraji P Henson, Tyler Perry at Tyler Perry's 'Straw' New York screening held at The Plaza on June 3, 2025 in New York.
What you need to know:
- Tyler Perry's film "Straw" follows Janiyah, a single mother whose promise to pay £40 for her daughter's school meals becomes a devastating journey that ends with her arrest.
- The movie exposes society's harsh judgment of struggling single mothers while revealing the impossible choices they face daily.
I have a penchant for re-watching movies. I can sit through one I have watched 20 times over and enjoy it the same way I did the first time. Of course, this only happens with stories I deeply connect with. I am certain there is a name for that tendency. That said, after recently watching Tyler Perry's Straw, I know from the deepest part of my heart that I will never re-watch it.
The movie follows the life of Janiyah, a single mother to a seven-year-old girl who is often ill. She lives in what looks like a poor neighbourhood, in a modest apartment. The story starts early in the morning with a hardworking Janiyah getting out of bed when the alarm goes off. During the morning runs as Janiyah preps her daughter for school, the little girl asks her to pay 40 dollars so she can be allowed to eat at school. Janiyah responds with a reassurance that she will pay the money that same day, and the daughter will not be embarrassed again.
There was something about that promise – resolute and sure. It was not the usual tone adults use when they are trying to shift children's minds from something they were nagging about. The promise was about honour – the honour of the child before her peers, and the honour of a mother determined to prove to her child that as a parent, she can provide for her. No wonder this promise becomes the motivator for all the actions that Janiyah takes, including ending up with handcuffs, being escorted to a waiting police van.
Janiyah cries from the beginning to the end of this piece. Besides just how painful the narrative is, I am aware at a certain level of depth that a close examination of the movie will bring me face to face with the pain that I have caused people, at their lowest, even if unknowingly. Like the times I was too focused on facts when I needed to listen with my heart; or the days I was quick to dismiss instead of gently helping.
I questioned my decision to write about Straw. Did I want to relive every single painful moment in this story? Was I willing to admit that as a human being I am weaker than I imagine? Did I really want to stare into the nakedness of human blindness and selfishness? But I skipped past the more colourful things that happened in Daisy's World this week because that movie deserved space. The turmoil the film caused in my soul was the clearest sign that I needed to write.
Bathed regularly
Janiyah is the proverbial drowning man who clutches at a straw. Everything around her is drowning. Her daughter's self-esteem is chipping away because she cannot afford 40 dollars. The girl is taken away by child protection officers because of what is perceived as an inability, on Janiyah's part, to take care of her child. The teacher says the child is not bathed regularly and is often hungry.
As an audience, with the benefit of seeing both sides of this story as it unfolds, I am aware the mother in question is doing everything in her power to keep her child together. Even when the unsympathetic boss is mean and rude to her, she is not distracted because her eyes are firmly fixed on getting her pay, so that she can get forty dollars to pay for her daughter's meals.
Straw is also about the resilience of many single mothers in our society today. We live in a world that finds it easier to judge than to understand. I think some of the vilest things I have read on social media have been directed at single mothers. This movie is a reminder that life is not that simple, that tough choices often have to made. And no, life does not always come with a manual inside a box labelled 'Product of Germany'. This side up".
May we judge less, may we not point fingers, and most importantly, as a society, we need to stop trying to be experts of things we know nothing about. There are no medals to be won for mean, unschooled opinions.