Jazmin Avalos WGS 321 – Outline Assignment Outline for Chapter 4 Thesis: The portrayal of African American women as stereotypical mammies, matriarchs, welfare recipients, and hot mommas helps justify U.S. Black women’s oppression. Outline: 1. The objectification of black women as the other a. Advocating the imagery of U.S. Black women as the Other provides ideological thinking justification for race, gender, and class oppression. (Page 77) i. Binary thinking shapes understandings of human difference. Objectification is central to this process of oppositional thinking. b. Culture is defined as the opposite of an objectified nature. (Page 78) i. Defining people of color as less human, animalistic, or more “natural” denies African peoples subjectivity and supports the political economy of domination that characterized slavery, colonialism, and neocolonialism. c. Domination always involves attempts to objectify the subordinate group. (Page 78) i. The treatment of U.S. Black women domestic workers objectifies them as if they were animals or mules, represents one form of objectification. d. Oppositional binaries rarely represent different but equal relationships, they are inherently unstable. (Page 78) i. The foundations of intersecting oppressions become grounded in interdependent concepts of binary thinking, oppositional difference, objectification, and social hierarchy. 2. Controlling images and black women’s oppression. a. The dominant ideology of the slave era fostered
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
replacement of stereotyped images of black womanhood with those that are self defined, 4) black women’s activism, and 5) sensitivity to black sexual politics. The first three themes correlate to black motherhood and living in a binary environment, one in which black people are the oppressed and white
African American women have long been stereotyped, discriminated against and generalized in this country. They have had to face both being black in America while also being a woman in America. African American women encountered and still do encounter double discrimination of both sex and race (Cuthbert, 117). Women like Elise Johnson McDougald, Marion Vera Cuthbert and Alice Dunbar-Nelson all tried to shed light on what it was like to be an African American woman living in the 20th century yet literature often portrayed them as emotional, hypersexual, unintelligent and of lesser worth. The literature highlighted that African American women have to serve both their employer and their husbands and families. They are not supposed to have an opinion or stand up for themselves, especially to a white man. ***Concluding sentence?
The systematic, oppressive dehumanization of black womanhood was not a mere consequence of racism. It was a calculated method of social control, manipulation, and misogyny. With capitalism on the forefront of the American society during the Reconstruction years, and a booming manufacturing economy was on the rise, white supremacy capitalism patriarchy needed a group to be at the very bottom of the social hierarchy, a scapegoat. That scapegoat was black women. Manumitted black women showed that when given the same opportunities to live their lives like humans, they surpassed and excelled in all areas. Their success was a direct challenge to the racist ideologies that darker races were inherently inferior. Racist
During the times of slavery, colored individuals were labeled as “other” in the United States. Black families were categorized as pathological, deviant, and in need of fixing. Black families struggled a lot. Poverty rates were sky high for single women who were the head of their household, especially for Black and Latino women. They were also the face of the homeless community, which was growing rapidly. The government then decided to implement marriage and fatherliness encouragements to ease poverty which resulted in societal problems surrounding the Black and Latino women.
All African-Americans have been portrayed in stereotypical roles since their arrival into American society for the entertainment and amusement of others. Many people find it difficult to appreciate the diversity of the African American women. So instead of trying to do this, they create identities based on negative stereotypes. There are several negative stereotypes associated with the African American woman. The Mammy archetype is the one chosen to be analyzed in this essay. Collins described the mammy as “-the faithful, obedient domestic servant. Created to justify the economic exploitation of house slaves and sustained to explain Black women’s long-standing restriction to domestic service…” (72) She is commonly seen trying to soothe
By expressing this with the African American society of women who are continuously torched by the demanding words of men, McLune appeals strongly to all American women’s intellect of equality and respect. Women should not have to be judged by men and expect to be treated as if they owe anyone something, let alone have to be mistreated and belittled, if that were to be the case then men should be treated the same, therefore McLune’s audience, should understand that that is not how you define a black woman in any terms.
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
Ever since the period of slavery, Black women have described the different forms of multiple oppressions they face of race, class, and gender with terms like “interlocking oppressions,” “simultaneous oppressions,” “double jeopardy,” “triple jeopardy” and so on.
“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
Modern stereotypes among African American woman are the welfare mother, the
The other two common stereotypes are “domestics or mammy” (Barlowe, 6) and “brash women”. Since blacks were forced into servitude for hundreds of years in the United States, it’s no surprise that one of the earliest stereotypes about African-Americans to emerge in television and film is that of the domestic worker. Movies such as “Gone with The Wind” capitalized on the domestic stereotype. More recently, movies such as “The Help” featured African-Americans as domestics as well. While I do believe that Latinos are arguably the group most likely to be typecast as domestic workers today, the controversy over the portrayal of black domestics in Hollywood hasn’t gone away. The 2011 film “The Help” faced intense criticism because the black maids helped catapult the white protagonist to a new stage in life while their lives remained static. Like the Magical Negro and the black best friend, black domestics in film function mostly to nurture and guide white characters. Black women are routinely portrayed in television and film as sassy, neck-rolling harpies with major attitude “angry black woman” problems. Most African American women that I know believe these depictions have real world consequences in their love lives and careers. According to Olabola Awosika from Washington DC, black female physicians petitioned Bravo's "Married to Medicine" television show because it heavily associated Black women in medicine with materialism, "cat fights", and
In Patricia Hill Collins’ “Mammies, Matriarchs, and Other Controlling Images,” she illustrates four main stereotypes that Black women face. The first controlling image applied to African American women is “The Mammy.” The mammy is the faithful, obedient servant to the white family and the stereotype attempts to hide the fact that black women who work for white families are being exploited. By loving and caring for her white “children” more than her own, the mammy symbolizes the dominant group’s perceptions of the ideal black female relationship to elite white male power. The smiling mammy signals her agreement with the situation, seemingly accepting her subordination (Collins, 71). Next is the image of the Black matriarch (Collins, 73). According to the stereotype, they spend too much time away from home, are overly aggressive and unfeminine, and allegedly emasculate their lovers and husbands. This stereotype attempts to control conduct by punishing black women for assertiveness and hides the oppression by making it seem that black women are naturally this way (Collins, 74-75).
As African-American women address social issues that are important to their life experiences, such as class and race, instead to acknowledge “common oppression” of gender inequality, they are often criticized by “white bourgeois feminists” (hooks, 2000). Their ability to gain any form of equality within society is tarnished by such groups as they develop a “fear of encountering racism” from simply joining this movement (hooks, 2000). As white men, black men, and white women oppress them, their issues are often ignored due to reoccurring stereotypes and myths that claim black women are strong, independent, and “superhuman” (hooks, 2000). It becomes extremely difficult to seek liberation and equity within a “racist, sexist, and classist” society, as their gender and race causes them to be at the “bottom of the occupational ladder” and “social status” (hooks, 2000, pg. 16). As black women are perceived to demonstrate strength and dynamic qualities as white women perpetrate the image of being
Black woman were depicted through this myth as breadwinners, running “female-headed households” because they were forced to join labor forces due to the circumstances of black life, the poor low social class working for white supremacists without any other opportunities (79). The black men fighting to obtain control and power emulated the highest societal symbol of power, white men and white supremacy, and therefore viewed power as the ability to oppress another; black men viewed matriarchal figures as a threat to their position as “the sole boss,” so internalization of this myth lead to black men to consider black females “as a threat to their personal power” leading to black males demanding that black woman assume a “passive subservient role in the home” under their power