Stereotypes of Black women embodies the principals of intersectionalism through the combination of race, gender, and sometimes class, creating negative, and normalizing categories. The stereotypes tend to form around the sexuality of the Black woman’s body due to the origins of stereotypes. The hyper-sexualization of the Black female body began when European colonizers discovered Africa. Due to the environment African women wore limited amounts of clothing, which is how colonizers came to see their naked bodies. Instead of the viewing the naked body in terms of adaptation to the environment, it was linked to a sexual, animalistic nature. This began the stereotype of the Jezebel. This mindset was the justification of the sexual terrorism Black
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Mammy’s ¬¬¬¬¬archetype consisted of her being overweight, dark-skinned, homely and eager to serve. The persona was created by pro-slavery advocates, to mythologize the Mammy figure in a justification of slavery. Her image portrayed the happy slave narrative in attempts to deny the brutality and sexual terrorism that was taking place. It’s important to understand that these two archetypes were and are the antithesis to “ladyhood”, which was, and still is at times, only applicable to White women. These stereotypes never disappeared, but evolved into other stereotypes. The 1940s, you saw the rise of the Sapphire stereotype, which derived from the Amos and Andy shows. The Sapphire is depicted as an assertive, domineering women who takes on masculine personality traits, which in turn, emasculates men, but especially black men. The Sapphire stereotype then evolved in to the popularized stereotype of Angry Black Women. In the 80s and 90s, you begin to see the rise of the video vixen, which evolved from the Jezebel stereotype, and the Welfare queen, which derived from the Mammy …show more content…
Ferguson explains the concept of “adultification” of black boys. What this explains is that many teachers in the school systems, view young boys as adults who may pose a threat, and therefore believe that they are deserving of severe and ruthless punishments. However, this concept applies to black girls as well , especially when examined through the context of stereotypes. It is exemplified in how black girls’ are perceived and how school faculty and peers respond to those perceptions. The negative perceptions of black women, brought about by stereotypes, leads teachers to believe to these girls are in need of “social corrections”, which causes disciplinary referrals. For example, black girls are much more likely to have their appearance and conduct policed, and judged on the basis of whether or not they appropriated ladylike behavior. Steele and Aronson conducted a study to determine the prevalence of stereotype threat in students. The threat occurs when negative group stereotypes are prevalent in certain social contexts or situations. They found that when race was included in the assignments, Black students students performed worse than White students. Steele, in his later work, explained that this occurred when members of a particular group are in fear of
Mammy’s ¬¬¬¬¬archetype consisted of her being overweight, dark-skinned, homely and eager to serve. The persona was created by pro-slavery advocates, to mythologize the Mammy figure in a justification of slavery. Her image portrayed the happy slave narrative in attempts to deny the brutality and sexual terrorism that was taking place. It’s important to understand that these two archetypes were and are the antithesis to “ladyhood”, which was, and still is at times, only applicable to White women. These stereotypes never disappeared, but evolved into other stereotypes. The 1940s, you saw the rise of the Sapphire stereotype, which derived from the Amos and Andy shows. The Sapphire is depicted as an assertive, domineering women who takes on masculine personality traits, which in turn, emasculates men, but especially black men. The Sapphire stereotype then evolved in to the popularized stereotype of Angry Black Women. In the 80s and 90s, you begin to see the rise of the video vixen, which evolved from the Jezebel stereotype, and the Welfare queen, which derived from the Mammy …show more content…
Ferguson explains the concept of “adultification” of black boys. What this explains is that many teachers in the school systems, view young boys as adults who may pose a threat, and therefore believe that they are deserving of severe and ruthless punishments. However, this concept applies to black girls as well , especially when examined through the context of stereotypes. It is exemplified in how black girls’ are perceived and how school faculty and peers respond to those perceptions. The negative perceptions of black women, brought about by stereotypes, leads teachers to believe to these girls are in need of “social corrections”, which causes disciplinary referrals. For example, black girls are much more likely to have their appearance and conduct policed, and judged on the basis of whether or not they appropriated ladylike behavior. Steele and Aronson conducted a study to determine the prevalence of stereotype threat in students. The threat occurs when negative group stereotypes are prevalent in certain social contexts or situations. They found that when race was included in the assignments, Black students students performed worse than White students. Steele, in his later work, explained that this occurred when members of a particular group are in fear of