Since the beginning of film, the same story has played out over and over again – a tall dark and handsome man falls in love with a beautiful woman. He courts her, love is nearly lost, he fights for her, love is renewed and they both live happily ever after.
For many African American women, they see these movies and fantasize about being the leading lady. Often times though, they fail to really realize who the leading lady is. She is typically a white woman who all men want or all women want to be like, the American Beauty.
This is not exclusive to white Americans, in fact this is subliminally setting the standard for all races in America. Black women, on the other hand, did not get placed on this pedestal of glory and wonder that was cultured by the media. When African American women were presented in a movie, they tended to be a siren-Jezebel, maid-Mammy, or an angry black woman who’s always obnoxious and loud-Sapphire.
The Mammy was one of the first stereotypes to dominate film in its early years. She was nurturing, asexual and always understanding of the blacks sub-level position in the world. Movies such as Imitation of Life showed black women as not just content but desired to do whatever the white person needed. On the other hand, her opposite was the over sexed black Jezebel. This label was created to show contrast between the lewd black woman and the model of modesty, self-control and self-respecting white woman.
At the same time Mammy and Jezebel characters were created, so was the Sapphire character. Obnoxious, loud and rude, the Sapphire represented the woman that no one wanted to be around. She was played by people like Hattie McDaniel, the sassy Mammy in films such as Gone with the Wind (1939). Aunt Esther in Sanford and Son and Pam from the hit sitcom Martin are some other good examples of Sapphires in the media.
The combination of the Mammy, Jezebel and Sapphires not only worked as a “symbol for how black women are,” it also worked as a role model; although degrading, they were role models nonetheless. The black community were subjected to this for such a long time that somewhere along the way, fiction and reality switched places.
Fast-forward to the present, blacks have made tremendous strides in film with their range in characters expanding further than any stereotype. The barriers are not as big as they were during the early days of film. They can now be the positive leading lady and be praised for their work. Although there are still some movies/series that stereotypes still have a role — Lynn from Girlfriends (Jezebel/Tragic Mulatto) and Yvette from Baby Boy [Sapphire)– they are not as overt as they were
Despite all the improvements in films for blacks, there seems to have been a new factor which caused a deterioration in the perception of African American women. It is no longer the strong morals, spiritual and loving people of the previous generations. Generations of subjection to stereotypical characters has created a generation of women who seem to embody these negative images. It’s clear that radio and television have the power to change the course of
history, to proselytize, and to coalesce not merely the good and the noble, but the very worst in human nature as well.
The deception of the negative imagery shown time and time again is no longer a deception but a fact of the black culture. This is also magnified by the music that is played on the radio and glorified on mainstream video channels. In the mid to late 80s, a group called 2 Live Crew began a new brand of music that has seemingly tainted how black women are viewed permanently. They were the ones to start the lyrical degradation of women in music. The music they produced referred to women in anything but their name in addition to being sexually explicit. With songs like, “Me So Horny” and “Move Somethin” out in rotation, many cities would not allow them to have concerts in addition to store clerks being charged for selling their albums to minors.
Because of this group’s contribution to music, artists now find it second nature to debase the image of black women further decaying our culture as a whole. While it is true that all women, and not just black women, must fight these degrading images, there still stands a history of white women being placed on pedestals more often than the latter. When white women are being degraded or degrade themselves, people tend to have more sympathy for them. Angelina Jolie, for instance, has repeatedly taken husbands from their wives but is still loved due to her celebrity status. Angela Bassett, on other hand, is a great actress who has consistently played respectable and diverse characters. However she does not seem to receive as much praise that she deserves. While white women still seem to maintain their pristine image, black women are still fighting for a better reputation than what was given to them.
These stereotypes were began at the end of the abolishment of slavery and cultured by the films and images provided by our white counterparts, as well as selective blacks. If we hadn’t developed and embodied these stereotypes, we wouldn’t have these scantly applied morals and inflamed negative esteem of black women. Since “ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do” (Gladwell, The Tipping Point), hopefully this method can be used to reverse the negative images of African American woman.
Christine Williams