Aunt Jemima Analysis

The mammy figure was introduced after the Civil war. White southerners created the image to mend relations between black women and white men. The mammy was used to counter anti-slavery sentiments by masking the relationship as a friendly and familial one (Turner 44-45). Aunt Jemima originated as a minstrel show character portrayed by a white man in blackface and drag. Christopher Rutt, co-founder of the ready-to-make pancake mix, used Aunt Jemima to market his product to appeal to his local, southern consumers (Behnken and Smithers 23). Using a mammy figure to sell their product was a success. The image of Aunt Jemima sold the idea of comfort. Aunt Jemima pancakes are fast and easy to make, almost as if they were made using slave labor. It …show more content…
She was put on display in character and advertised the pancake mix to the audience. Along with the image of Aunt Jemima was a back story. She worked on a plantation and was loyal to the South and her master. After her debut, Green travelled the country as Aunt Jemima and marketed the product to many until she died in 1923. Green, in a way, parallels Saartjie Baartmann, the hottentot venus, however instead of being highly sexualized Aunt Jemima is meant to be seen as sexually undesirable (M. Harris 35). Both Baartmann and Green were put on display for the viewing and entertainment of white people. They also confirmed the white ideas of the black existence. Aunt Jemima and Green’s minstrelsy commodified the mammy figure. The image of Aunt Jemima will be widely spread through advertisements and “memorabilia” and persist into present …show more content…
The memorabilia in its original context is highly racist, characterizing the typical mammy figure, thick-waisted, smiling, and happy to serve white families. Saar re-contextualizes the image to challenge the idea of the subservient, asexual black woman whose loyalties lie with white families. The baby in the middle is mixed in race as a commentary on the sexual abuse black women were often subject to (M. Harris 117). At the same time the baby subverts the asexual nature of the mammy figure. The work has a bedding of cotton, referring to the past slavery, and the center most image has a black power fist. In the background is a tiling of the most modern Aunt Jemima of the time. The company has illustrated the more modern Aunt Jemima to have lighter skin and be slimmer, attempting to distance her from the original mammy