Portrayal of Black Women in Media free essay sample

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 they have and the options they perceive. Therefore, it is not difficult to understand why Black women are the least likely to marry in the climate of the over-sexed woman and a pimp. The media has always played a big role in how people perceive different cultures through such media outlets such as radio, television, and internet. I felt that the portrayal of African-American women would be a good topic for this paper, because all race of women but especially black women have had negative stereotypes in media and I feel that they have had the most tainted image in people’s eyes. This paper is important because a lot of people can learn about the struggles that these women have had to overcome through these years. This is a part of American culture no matter if we are male, female, black or white. Topics like this need to be brought up more often so people can learn from mistakes and learn how to forgive people for past judgments’. Addressing these issues can also help social behavior. Also discussed in this paper is the history of how black women were treated during slavery and how that may affect the way they are still being portrayed in media. I will talk about some of the prominent women that opened the door, such as Hattie McDaniel, Nina Mae McKinney, Oprah Winfrey, Patti Labelle and Cicely Tyson. Elaborate on some of negative and positive stereotypes that the media has put out, and our own personal opinions. Also using view points from certain critics and prominent figures in the media world. According to journalist Tionna Smalls, she exclaimed in her article entitled â€Å"Dark Skinned Vs. Light Skinned: The Black Mans Dilemma†, the slave owners would divide the slaves up by dark nigger and light nigger. The dark skinned slave would work on the plantation doing chores, picking cotton and nurturing the land. The light skinned slave would live in the plantation, cooking and taking care of the field masters children. Also the light skin female was admired by the master and even a sexual desire while the darker slave was treated like trash. Tionna goes on stating that after slavery the light skin female was put on a pedal stool in the family because being white was viewed as being right or pure, anything close to that was close to purity. If you take a look at most Hollywood movies, a good majority of the actresses are fair skinnend. One of the first African American female actress was Nina Mae McKinney whom as been inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame. Since she was black she was only offered low budget films and looked at as the standard barer for future lead roles when using black women. Fredi Washington was a light skin, light eye female and was described as being too beautiful to play a maid but wasn’nt offered romantic leads. Her skin was so pale that some advised her to â€Å"pass† for white. But she refused to deny her heritage. As a result She was often passed over for the prime roles offered to black women like the maid role, for which studios felt she wasnt black enough. On the other hand, when performing in non-maid roles, as in the film she would be forced to wear dark makeup to prevent audiences from viewing her as a white woman and, subsequently, as a white woman in a romantic entanglement with the black male protagonist since such portrayals violated the anti-miscegenation codes in early cinema. Around 10 years ago, every video you came across had a light skinned girl as the lead video girl. These light skinned girls were dressed the best, nice make up and they were good to go. These videos made the average light skinned girl look like a Spanish, Asian, or white female and that took the fantasy of some black man’s sexual desire toward a white girl and placed all into their light skinned dream. These visual images forced guys all around, to believe that every light skinned girl was pretty with long hair. The music industry feels that people want to see light skinned girls with long hair singing love songs. Destiny Childs group member Kelly Rowland is a very attractive dark skinned female, but doesn’t get a lot of attention ecause Beyonce is the light skinned one, therefore deemed the prettier, more talented, money cow. African-American women portrayed in music has gotten a lot better recently but they still have obstacles to overcome. Female artists such as Beyonce and Alicia Keys have been noted as prominent role models by little girls no matter the rule rall over the world. They ‘re songs have lyrics that empower women to be the best that they can with or without a man. A lot of the underlying topics are independence, strong, intelligent. One group of African-American women who have a positive portrayal in music are gospel singers such as Yolanda Adams, Mary-Mary, and CeCe Winans. The main reason they’ve probably viewed as positive is because their songs talk about worshiping the lord. But a lot of young African=American women do look up to these females. Black women also get more opportunities now and days then they have before. It’s common to see someone like Beyonce performing at the Grammy’s , Mtv Awards, or American Music Awards opening and closing act. Twenty or thirty years ago you might have not seen that. With all the progress discussed in the previews paragraph black women still face negative stereotype in music, sure which are deserved and others that are nut. A lot of black female rappers get viewed in a bad light for the lyrics and the provocative clothing that they wear in their music videos. A lot of their lyrics bring out or talk about a lot of sexual indevendous, which is somewhat inappropriate for their audience which sometimes consists of little girls as young as ten years old. They also talk about how it’s okay to do anything to try to please a man which gives girls less empowerment. They also wear a lot of provocative clothing and wear stuff to show off their bodies. They wear a lot of halter tops which show off their stomach. They also wear shirts that push-up or point out there chest areas. They show a lot of cleavage and wear tight jeans and spandex to showcase their buttocks area. One of the most common and oldest stereotypical images is that of the mammy, generally a servant responsible for domestic duties and rearing children. She often is portrayed as the antithesis of American standards of beauty overweight, with exaggerated buttocks and breasts and wearing a head rag. Mammies are seen as nurturers, women good at comforting and taking care of others, but also verbally aggressive. It hasnt been just white producers and writers who have perpetuated these negative images, she points out. Keenen Ivory Wayans and Damon Wayans comedy show, In Living Color, contains a lot of negative imagery of African-American women. On the other hand, she cites The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Roc as examples of programs that do not demean black females, showing them as strong and capable. Jewell contends that the medias stereotypical portrayal of African-American women has real-life consequences. It affects how the majority culture treats black women. As a result of media images, many people have inaccurate and negative expectations about how African-American women should act and look. Only when these stereotypical images are replaced with more accurate representations will we see changes in societal perceptions and expectations of African-American women. Black women have also progressed a lot on TV. You see a lot of positive portrayals such as Oprah Winfrey and the Tyra Banks show. These women are shown to be very well educated and classy black women who have came from the bottom end up to make it to the top. Oprah has the longest running and more popular talk show for years. It seems like everyone in the media tends to love her and she’s like Gods gift to women. You also see black women in prominent roles such as host on shows such as Good Morning America and The View. I believe putting women in these roles shows how much our culture has grown. When young black women see that they can aspire to be these things it makes it easier for them to believe. As a country we still need to improve a little bit on the portrayal of African-American women. One negative stereotype that I see a lot is young black teenagers who are pregnant and have some type of baby father drama. Every time I turn on a show like Maury or Jerry Springer you see these women in this type of role. Then when these ladies come on these shows there personalities are showed as loud mouth ignorant young girls. Theyre shown as if they have no class and not having a civil or a proPer up bringing.