“The family f—cked my husband,” were the iconic words Vanessa Williams said as her character Teri Joseph in the '90s classic family drama Soul Food. The line came after Teri witnessed her husband cheating on her, and moments before she would attempt to stab her husband with a kitchen knife.
But can you believe that 25 years after the film premiered, there are people who still think Teri is the villain? The number of villains in Soul Food is endless: Diabetes for taking out Big Mama; Mel Jackson for playing yet another havoc-wreaking light-skinned; Ahmad for being up in grown folk's business; whoever let Lem's ex into him and Bird’s wedding; Lem for dancing with his ex at his own wedding??
Teri however, is not one of them. And even if she was the villain (she’s not!!), xoNecole has compiled a list of reasons as to why she’s justified to be.
1. Maxine stole Teri’s boyfriend
From very early in the film, we learned that Teri’s sister Maxine (played by Vivica A. Fox) stole Teri’s boyfriend and later married him. Imagine having to spend every Sunday dinner for the rest of your life watching your ex-boyfriend and your sister peacefully smackin' on yams and collard greens and fried chicken after betraying you in such a way and the rest of the family going along with it. And to top it all off, Maxine had the nerve to have beef with her sister?
2. Teri's husband took $5k out of their joint savings
There’s perhaps nothing scarier than thinking you’re married to a handsome, successful, educated, well-adjusted man only for him to come home one day and say “honey, I’m pursuing a music career.” Mind you, this was before the internet when you could upload your music to Soundcloud or TikTok for a chance to go viral. But this was the reality Teri had to live with her husband, whose audacity led him to take $5,000 out of the couple’s savings account just to pay for studio time. Imagine if an actual emergency arose. Oh sorry, I can't pay for a new car battery because my husband wanted to play the keyboard at his ginormous age!
3. Cousin Faith f—cked Teri’s husband
I mean where do we even begin with this one? Your jobless cousin comes into town unannounced, crashes at your place for free, and then you walk in on your husband with his booty butt cheeks out as he’s breaking your cousin’s back. I would’ve stabbed both of them then and there!
4. Family expected Teri to pay for everything
It should be stated that I probably wouldn’t have tried to sell Big Mama’s house, but I also wouldn’t expect my sister to pay for all the expenses on the house either, ESPECIALLY after how cruel I'd been to her.
5. Bird being rude after Teri got Bird’s husband out of jail
As far as I’m concerned, Teri is the only real b—tch in this entire film. She thinks her sister Bird has been abused by her husband and the first thing Teri does is send her goons after him to rough him up. Weeks after Bird’s husband ends up in jail for the altercation, Teri calls a friend at the DA office to drop the charges, and instead of saying THANK YOU, Bird and that triflin' husband of hers instead chastise Teri.
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Feature image by Movieclips/ YouTube
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