Diversity in Action, a student organization promoting diversity education and awareness, explored stereotypes of black women as portrayed in pop culture and media in their event Monday.
The various stereotypical portrayals of black women in literature and film is the center of all the misconceptions, Dr. Maisha Wester, associate professor and host, said.
These representations build barriers not only between races, but between genders within the black community, Dr. Alisha Jones, associate professor and host, said.
“These are not just interracial stereotypes, but intra-racial stereotypes,” Jones said. “We see these sort of problems within our own community.”
These stereotypes include the nurturing “Mammy,” the overbearing “Black Matriarch,” the hypersexualized “Jezebel” and the feisty “Sapphire.”
Wester said these stereotypes are often featured with caricatures of physical or mental aspects of their character.
“The black woman is always too much of something,” Jones said.
Wester said these stereotypes have been supported by the association of black women as a saintly figure in books and movies like Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man” and Spike Lee’s “Inside Man.”
A female character embodying this stereotype must prove herself as a “servant to God” and become a martyr figure by dying, only to live in a legacy passed down by others.
“After you die, someone else tells your story,” Wester said. “You don’t get to tell your story.”
This stereotype has faded away over time, she said, in lieu of the prospect of a black woman as an artist. Instead of oppressed and servile, she said the character is empowered and independent.
Examples of this can be found in works of literature such as Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” and Toni Morrison’s “Paradise.”
Associate professor and host Dr. Amrita Myers explored this with an analysis of the recently-released music video from Beyoncé’s, “Formation.”
While playing the video for the audience, Myers showed how Beyoncé goes through the video portraying various forms of the aforementioned black female stereotypes, including the “Mammy,” “Jezebel” and “Sapphire” figures.
However, despite the stereotypes presented, Myers said Beyoncé is actually channeling the black woman as an artist in the video because she is the one in control the entire time.
Along with this, she said the singer is a good representation of a movement she calls “black feminism.”
While Myers said she uses the term “feminism” in reference to its original definition, equality between men and women, she said black feminism is an extension upon this. She said black feminism focuses primarily on equality between men and women within black culture.
Understanding everyone in the audience may hold a different idea of what black feminism means, she briefly asked attendees to discuss among themselves the meaning behind the phrase.
The term belittles the power of the word feminism, sophomore Deanna Davis said. While she said she supports gender equality, she said she believes the word should cover the whole spectrum between gender and race.
“I think adding ‘black’ to it denotes it,” Davis said.
Another way black feminism is being promoted is through the work of Genius for Men, Jones said.
Genius for Men is a women’s organization which explores the portrayal of black men in the media and how women can be afraid of men on account of the “dangerous” characters they portray.
Through the actions of this organization, Jones said she hopes black men will be able to reciprocate the efforts in favor of black women.
“We want to create a sisterhood where men will respond in a similar way towards women,” she said.
In regards to improvement of representation of black women, Jones said activists are already on the right track by putting on discussions like they did, which she refers to as “transgressive.”
“Seeing a group of black women talking about these kinds of issues is not something you see every day,” Jones said.
