Oversexualization Of Black Women Analysis

The Oversexualization and Objectification of Black Women She’s angry, she’s mean, she has an attitude, she’s loud, she’s ghetto, she’s exotic, she’s a jezebel. These some of the many attributes and the stereotypes of black women that are given to them from misrepresentation in the mainstream media. Not only are these labels incorrect, they can be harmful to black women everywhere; they perpetuate this idea that if one falls into a stereotype about the community in which they belong, it makes them feel ashamed of themselves or they change who they are to not fit into that stereotype. Also, if they don’t fit into the stereotype, incorrect assumptions are made about them from people who are both apart of that community and outside of it. An example of this is when a black women is angry and has reason to be angry in a certain situation and she is reduced to the typecast of the angry black women and her legitimate feelings are pushed aside. Another stereotype that is harmful for black women is the video vixen; she is very sexual with has large breasts, a large behind, and is half …show more content…
Jane Caputi addresses this issue in her essay The Pornography of Everyday Life where she discusses how society mimics pornography in its treatment of women, in what is she called “everyday pornography”. When it came to black women, Caputi discussed an observation made by Alice Walker that said that “while white women are seen as ‘objects’ in pornography, black women are represented as ‘shit’” and that that occurred in everyday pornography with ads when black woman are portrayed as animals or dirty. This representation of black women is another reason for the oversexualization of black women in our culture and in our media. However, it can be seen as different from the portrayal in the black culture because it stems from racism rather than