An Inside Look at Melissa Harris-Perry Essay

As mentioned before, Latin women are stereotyped in a sexual way due to the exposure of their skin. Similarly, African American women are discriminated as sexually promiscuous because of their historical background during slavery. Although both Latinas and African American women have similarities in sexual stereotypes, the cultures behind them have impacts on their different identities. Latin women are misunderstood because other ethnic people are not aware of different cultures’ collision. In addition, young Latin women’ dressings are culturally accepted by themselves when they are influenced by their parents. If they want to alter their styles of clothing and decide to wear more clothes in non-bright colors, they could change it immediately, so that they might not be viewed as conveying sexual signals. Unlike Latin women, the “Jezebel” stereotype on African American women is caused by their history. Even if African American women don’t act as sexually promiscuous in nowadays, they are still stereotyped. They don’t have any choice to change “Jezebel” stereotype since it is accepted by other ethnic people during slavery and passed down from one generation to the next. In general, the origins of Latina’s and African American women’s stereotypes matter and the cultures behind them result in different identities of these two groups of people.

“Oh my gosh! you’re so pretty for a black girl.” “You’re black so I know you can twerk.” In society these phrases may be considered as compliments for black women even though they are not. However, people only know what the media portrays black women to be. It emphasizes them as ghetto, loud, angry, and ignorant. Black women are more than the negative stigma that the media portrays. In our society, the media reinforces the plague of African American women by stereotypes and falsities originating from slavery. For young African American women, the majority of media portrayal, especially in music and film, is of a bulumpcious, sexually hyperactive golddigger. This negative image of a black women is damaging to the black community by implying

Victims of rape and other forms of sexual harassment became more vulnerable and susceptible toward psychological and emotional control by whites due to severe mental and physical ramifications. Sexual harassment was a means of forcing blacks into submission; this tactic created a somewhat obedient labor force. Besides these motives, black women were denigrated through use of their reproductive capacity as a form of slave breeding.

The stereotypical misrepresentations of African-American women and men in popular culture have influenced societal views of Blacks for centuries. The typical stereotypes about Black women range from the smiling, a sexual and often obese Mammy to the promiscuous Jezebel who lures men with her sexual charms. However, the loud, smart mouthed, neck-rolling Black welfare mother is the popular image on reality television. These images portrayed in media and popular culture create powerful ideology about race and gender, which affects daily experiences of Black women in America. With few healthy relationships portrayed in the media, Black women are left to make decisions based on the options

In the context of physical appearance, black woman are only featured with body parts- mainly their “large, rotund behind” (Perry 137). The presentation of the face is mainly limited to white or lighter-complexioned women. The highest idealization of women is one that possesses a “‘high-status’ face combined with a highly sexualized body read by the viewer as the body of a poor or working-class woman” (Perry 137). Perry further substantiates her claim by stating that “women are created or valued by how many fantasy elements have been pieced together in their bodies” (137). She debunks the opposition arguing that the bodies of black women are appreciated by pointing out that only a minority of black women have such attributes, and those without are pressured and struggle to achieve such proportions.

Patriarchy’s Scapegoat: Black womanhood and femininity – A critique of racism, gender inequality, anti-blackness, and historical exploitation of black women.

The stereotypical misrepresentations of African-American women and men in popular culture have influenced societal views of Blacks for centuries. The typical stereotypes about Black women range from the smiling, asexual and often obese Mammy to the promiscuous Jezebel who lures men with her sexual charms. However, the loud, smart mouthed, neck-rolling Black welfare mother is the popular image on reality television. The typical stereotype about Black men is the violent, misogynistic thug, and the ever-enduring pimp. These images portrayed in media and popular culture createpowerful ideology about race and gender, which affects daily experiences of Black women in America. With few healthy relationships portrayed in the media, Black women

“No other group in America has so had their identity socialized out of existence as have Black women… when Black people are talked about the focus tends to be on Black men; and when women are talked about the focus tends to be on white women.” - Bell Hooks

Women of other categories like Asians, Latinas and Native Americans face similar stereotypes to Black women. The two Black women stereotypes that Asians, Latinas and Native Americans can be compared to are the Mammy and Jezebel stereotypes. These stereotypes are either a threat to masculinity or an ideal way to be feminine in the male thought.

During the 1960’s black women were beginning to challenge the stereo-types that defined them, these types were hold over classifications from slavery.

Sexual exploitation of black women continued long after slavery ended and was institutionalized by other oppressive practices. Hooks provides substantial evidence that the continued devaluation of black womanhood after slavery ended was a conscious, deliberate effort on the part of whites to sabotage mounting black female self-confidence and self-respect. She presents the fact that “White men employed two important myths to brainwash all whites against the newly freed blacks: the myth of the “bad,” sexually loose black woman and the myth of the black male rapist” (p. 60). By perpetuating the myth that all black women were incapable of fidelity and sexually loose, whites hoped to devalue them that no white man would marry a black woman. Also, whites hoped to encourage white male rapists and sexual exploiters to take advantage of black women. In addition to these myths, Hooks lists other negative labels that were used to characterize black womanhood: Aunt Jemima, the mammy, and the Sapphire image. The stereotypical image of Aunt Jemima depicted the black woman as passive, longsuffering, and submissive. The mammy image was portrayed with affection by whites

Sexualization of women in the media, be it as a marketing front for products or props in movies and music videos, serves to diminish women’s status in society. Though women are universally exploited by the media, in North America women are depicted differently based on race. However, these depictions are polarized between women of colour, to be precise black women, and white women. When juxtaposed, white women appear as demure and black women as sexually aggressive. Mass media’s portrayal of black women is not a unique phenomenon. In fact, from the time of slavery black women’s bodies entice white men’s darkest fantasies. This is clearly seen in the legacy of Saartijie Baartman. Baartman was a spectacle for the white woman and man’s gaze. She was violently objectified, fetishized, and commodified during the 1600’s. Her legacy is important to African Diasporic women because society still misuses the black female body. Black women are still hypersexualized in society because they are viewed to have bigger butts, hips, breast, and lips that are not only condemned as abnormal like Saartijie Baartman but seen as uncontrollable and animalistic. Therefore, black women’s bodies have been conditioned to represent a sexual deviance. The sexual representations of black women in the media dehumanizes them, which, in turn, reduces their worth and normalizes the objectification of black women. Black women are vilified in the media through the black jezebel stereotype, which entails being

From this, we can see that the Western idea of African women was that they deviated from the sexual norm. However, again, this “norm” varies throughout cultures. What seems, to colonial America, as sexually deviant is very much a “norm” in other nations, and vice versa. Furthermore, race and class impact the linguistic aspects that are both normative and deviant. For example, in the United States, the term “bitch” has a negative connotation and is used to refer to women in a derogative manner. However, African American women, when called a “Bitch”, take this term in a complimenting fashion, as in their culture it represents “…super-tough, super-strong women who are often celebrated” (Collins, 2004, p. 124). Again in this instance we see the differing perspectives and values that are altered by the race and class of a person. A white American women may perceive being called a “bitch” as being offensive to her femininity, while an African American woman will likely recognize it as compliment. The word “bitch” proposes a very interesting difference between the reactions of white American women and African American women that proves this influence of race and class on gender identity.

Inside the families, stereotypes like black women are most likely to be single mothers or black men do not take care of their children are some ways families disassemble. Black women are the “rock” of the family meaning she holds everything together. This stereotype is linked to sexism where the woman is known for being emotional and it takes power away from black men. Being a strong black woman consist of certain behaviors such as caring for one’s family while working and supporting the family

Black women are loyal leaders who naturally are maternal. That is what a black women should be portrayed as, but instead black women in the hip-hop industry are being dehumanized to normalize the sexual objectification of misogyny. To understand the social and political processes that create misogynistic values in our men we must first learn where this all started.