Mo’Nique has revealed that she is bisexual in her new Netflix comedy special, explaining her attraction to women and why she opted not to tell her grandmother about it.
In her stand-up special, My Name is Mo’Nique, the Oscar-winning actress, best known for the films Precious, The Queens of Comedy, and the TV comedy The Parkers, brought up the subject for the first time in the general public.
The actress and comedian describes growing up in Baltimore and watching her grandmother Mimi’s tumultuous relationship with one of her daughters, which was fuelled by Mimi’s religion and unwillingness to accept that she had a queer daughter. This memory is brought up near the conclusion of the 72-minute presentation.
She explained how she publicly rejected her child because of her grandmother’s religious convictions, how others would perceive her at church, and what they would say about her.
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When Monique’s Uncle Tina’s mother passed away, it led to him turning to drugs and alcohol, and Monique says her grandmother took it to the grave with her.
After criticizing religion for “ripping apart motherf**king families,” Mo’Nique claims to have witnessed her “Uncle Tina” and Mimi “struggle” with one another, which heightened her own anxiety about coming out as bisexual.
“And I felt cowardly when my grandmother left, because I couldn’t tell my grandmother who her granddaughter really was,” Mo’Nique says through tears. She kept her bisexuality a secret from Mimi.
“I adored how she adored me,” the comedian says. “I couldn’t tell my grandmother my secret thoughts. And my fantasies. ‘Cause I … did not want her to leave this earth thinking she was a failure. Because had I told her my secret thoughts, she would’ve left thinking she had failed.”
She recalled making a pledge to keep her sexual orientation and desire to women a secret and carry it “to my grave” because of concern that she could be stigmatized as having a “disease.”
The whole Netflix original series lives up to its moniker. Monique opted to share her self-healing with the world.
She takes you on a tour through her life, starting with her childhood and ending with the present. In a one-hour special, she shares a lot of personal information, and as she promised at the start, “by the end of this special you will understand me better.”
The majority of comedians are renowned in one of two ways either a comic who doesn’t swear or one who does. Some social media users complained that there was too much vulgar language and was more focused on her life story.
A real-life example is Bill Cosby, who was regarded as a non-cursing comic, yet being charged with drugging women and other offenses. Richard Pryor was regarded as one of the finest comedians of his period, although vulgarity was a significant part of his shows. Both men were among the best comedians of their eras it’s all a matter of preference.
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