Black Women and Media: Historical VS. Contemporary Roles

No matter what channel you watch on television you see few types of black women. You see the loud, dark-complected overweight female, the light-complected sexy thin female, or the dominate female. All these characters stem back to slavery, where black women were seen as mammy, Jezebel, or sapphire. Comparison between historical and contemporary images will the show how similar media still is.

The Mammy, dark-skinned, overweight, caregiver, and asexual. The most widely known historical image would Hattie McDaniel's character in "Gone With the Wind", many would ask why she would play a role so devastating to the black American female. McDaniel states, " I rather play a maid than be one" during the time this statement could be further from the true.¹ As a maid during the time she would have made about $2.00 a week when she could make $200 a week. Just like in the movies in reality domestic jobs are all that were available to black women. The mammy character has transformed quit a bit but still noticeable. The popular movie is "Norbit" , who included a extremely overweight, loud, overbearing black female. The difference is this role was not played by a black male instead of a women. It was the black male perspective of what the modern mammy character is. The next character is the Jezebel.

The Jezebel, tan to light-skinned, of mixed race, and sexually appealing. This character can also be seen in "Birth of a Nation", she played Lydia Brown, the mulatto housekeeper. Her role in the movie was to seduce her boss, who was a well respected member of the community. She woos him with sex, which is needed to manipulate him into giving her favors. Modern day Jezebels would be video "vixens", these are the females that dance in the videos. They use their body to get what they want from their targeted male.²

The Sapphire, dominating, pushy, and bitchy, typically brown to dark complexion. This character could be seen in "Amos and Andy", poor grammar and mispronunciations. Today this character can be seen as the "welfare mother". She tears down black men as much as she can. She has a host of children with different males but known are seen because she wants to be in control. She displays a matriarchal characteristics such as head of the household, no man around, or castrate a male. She is too lazy to work and more than willing to take free services.

Form the looks of it the character roles of the past still exist. The images seem to stay because they are more entertaining than the truth. As we know entertainment sells but at what price.

Source:
1)http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1285/is_8_35/ai_n14930978
2)http://academic.udayton.edu/race/05intersection/Gender/AAWomen01a.htm