Stereotypes of the African American Female in the Media

The Original Sin


The common stereotype of a woman’s inferiority to a man can be traced all the way back to the beginning of mankind. If you believe in the stories of Christianity from the Bible, you remember the story of Adam and Eve from the first book of the Bible. God makes man in his image and gives him the power to rule over the land and all the animals that live there. He also makes a woman from a part of the man’s body. God makes the woman because Adam is lonely. Even in the beginning, woman is created in response to a man’s desires. Adam is even given the power to name her.

They were living in perfect peace when the woman, Eve, does something that will change everything. She is tricked into eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge. This is the tree that God said not to eat from.



Then she gets Adam to eat the fruit and they both relies they have sinned. God asks Adam how did this happen? Adam tells God, “The woman made me do it.” After this they are cursed forever. Now everyone thinks that all man’s problems are because of women. Now this is just women in general, I haven't even talked about African American women yet.





Media of the Past

I discussed the Blackface Minstrel Shows and all the stereotypical characters they contained like the Sambo, Coons, and Zip Dandies. Those were the male stereotypes. This female stereotype I’m about to discuss is called the “mammy.”



The stereotypical “mammy”, was brought about in early minstrel shows and was meant to be an African American nanny/cook for the Caucasian family. She was a very large woman who was always happy and always singing.



In 1890 an African American women who was born a slave, named Nancy Green portrayed this mammy stereotype and coined the popular phrase Aunt Jemima. Which we still see today.




The next African American who would take the mammy character to the next level would be Hattie McDaniel. She would even go on to star in her own show called the “Beulah Show” in 1952. In the show Hattie would go around solving the problems of a Caucasian family, while smiling and singing.



Even in the animation world the mammy character was a hit. A character by the name of "Mammy two shoes" would appear randomly throughout the Tom and Jerry show to fix problems brought on by Tom and Jerry’s fighting. You would never see her face but you could tell by her large figure, her old maid clothes, and her loud voice, she was a mammy.






The Wench or "The Tragic Mulatto"


The wench character also became known in the Minstrel Shows. This was a role that started out as a man in Blackface dressed in an elegant dress. It became the most important specialist role in the minstrel show as the male actor would try to seduce the beautiful wench.




Later Mulatto women would play the role of the wench. Mulattos are born from an African American and a Causation. Many writers portrayed the Mulatto’s life as tragic because they hated their African American roots and also hated the Whites, but still wanted to be accepted by them. Of course it was easier for white society to accept the mulattos because their skin color was closer to white. A writer by the name of Lydia Maria Child told two short stories about the mulatto: "The Quadroons" (1842) and "Slavery's Pleasant Homes" (1843). She told the story of a light skinned woman as the child of a White slaveholder and his Black female slave. She grew up not knowing her mother was black and she believed she was White and free. Her heart was pure, her manners great, her language polished, and her face beautiful. When her father died her "negro blood" was discovered and she was forced into slavery, deserted by her White lover, and died a victim of slavery and White male violence. A good example of the Tragic Mulatto story is Peola in “Imitation of Life” (1934).





Popular Mulattos of the Past


Dorothy Dandridge was a famous actress who would led the way for many other successful African American female actors. She was sexy, intelligent, and a very talented singer. She brought the character of Carman Jones to life and grossed $60,000 during the first week and $47,000 in the second upon its release in 1955.



In 1999, actress Halle Berry would portray her life story on the HBO movie: Introducing Dorothy Dandridge.




Lena Horne is another African American singer and actress.

















The Black Heroine


Pam Grier also broke down barriers for women in the media. Although most of her earlier films were Blaxploitation films, she proved to the world that an African American female can be a lead action star in a film, while still being sexy, intelligent, and deadly. Pam Grier’s roles always consisted of her shouting, shooting, and fighting. She let everyone know that she was a lady, but she could hold her own in a fight.













Some of her well known films included, Cleopatra Jones (1973) , Coffy (1973) , and Foxy Brown (1974). Although this started a new chapter for African American women in the media it still had it’s drawbacks. Although Pam Grier was a strong sexy women she was still considered by high society as the girl no respectable man would ever marry. She was seen a “Forbidden Fruit.”








Media of the Present


Video Models on Black Entertainment Television(BET) have set a very bad example of what an African American female is like. Some of them have goals to become actors, but who’s going to take you seriously looking like this. They’re just objects to make the rappers look good. For the amusement of young teenage boys. The African American female went from being very subtle in to putting themselves completely out there. If other cultures see this they might think the majority of African American women are hoes or prostitutes.




You can still see little stereotypes here and there even in the cartoon called the Proud Family on the Disney channel. The main lead character is Penny Proud and she a mulatto, who’s smart, beautiful, and kind. Her Best friend Deshone is the sidekick of the show. As you can see she’s much darker than the main character and a lot bigger. Her hair is in a weird style and her expression is comical, not to be taken seriously. Her characteristics are loud, quick to anger, and unintelligent. Why is that? The two lighter toned kids are well dressed while the two darker toned kids looks lazy, uneducated, and badly dressed.





In Cortnee Bryant’s thesis on African American female role restrictions in animation, she asks why are African American women always sidekicks? Roles that are uncommon to African American women in animation are the lead roles, anti-heroines, and the romantic interest. Is this statement also true in videogames?





But I feel a change may come. This is the first African American Disney princess, called Tiana from the new Disney animated film "The Princess and the Frog".