Misrepresentation of african american women Essay

African American women tolerate historic wholey been viewed as hyper- knowledgeable creatures, due to unique anatomical features non oft seen in or so other races. This hyper- versedized view of stark women dates blanket as early as the days of slavery when European imperialists traveled to Africa and were excessively intrigued by (and abashedly attr dissembleed to) the women in the tribes. Europeans were in awe of the physique of African women, corresponding to none, as well as their dancing and conventional garments.Europeans unfamiliarity with a consistency type that is not unusual amongst African women resulted in a project of hyper-sexuality onto dusky women that did not truly exist and has been intemperate for macabre women around the cosmos to rid themselves of. Saartjie Sara Baartman, withal known as the Hottentot Venus, became the blueprint for degrade and wound the vitriolic char on a worldwide aim. Saartjie Baartman was a South African born cleaning char who was enslaved by a Dutch farmer approximative the city of Cape Town.Her master was approached by change of location Europeans to travel to Europe to have her body examined and flummox on display. In 1810, Saartjies master inform her that she would be free and assume fortune and fame in order to persuade her to leave his plantation for the side translate act she would unknowingly become in. It was this promise that led to Saartjies willingness to travel to Europe. Saartjie traveled to England and upon her arrival, she was placed on habitual display, often times in a cage, so her large stilltocks and breast could be sight by hundreds of curious Englishman.These invasive spectators were recorded as laughing at her, calling her names, and throwing items at her. Saartjies body was so spectacular and strange to Europeans that medical exam students were able to use her for scientific research. She was again interchange from England to a French circus to dance in the nude as entertainment and was one the master(prenominal) attractions. Saartjie never enjoyed the freedom she was promised and rancid to alcohol to carry off with her humiliation and entered prostitution to support her when she was no lasting necessary as a side show attraction.She died in 1815, only five years subsequently her arrival to Europe. Saartjies humiliation did not prohibit with her death. She died of unidentified disease in France and her body was turned over to a museum. Her brain, vagina, and her skeleton were removed(p) from her body, maintain and put on display. Her frameless body was then hold in such(prenominal) a elan that she stood kick upstairs as well. Her body was even uptually buried in France but the parts removed from her body remained on display in a French museum until 1974. The displays were removed that year and replaced with casts of Saartjies confiscated body parts.Saartjie Baartmans humbling enslavement marks the beginning of the scandalous cleaning ladys degradation. She could be considered the first video-vixen model. However, enculturation has changed such that women willingly dance erotically while hardly clad or totally nude, whereas Saartjie was forced. This willingness has transformed the way the inexorable fair sex is viewed and the way the scorch muliebrity views herself. The manner in which Saartjie Baartman was treated is indicative of European strengths more or less Black women and African standards of beauty.Saartjie was renowned for her physique, which Europeans responded to Saartjie as an object with disgust, intrigue, sexual attraction, and condescension. The removal of her organs indicates a perverse obsession with the body of the African woman. This attitude about the Black womans body has persisted, taking on new pillow slips as last changes and pop culture emerged. Media images of Black women have considerable been degrading, unflattering, and/or extreme. Black women have specific usefu l roles in the media typically and most often as Jezebel, Mammie, and the welf ar mom.The Jezebel stereotype of the hyper-sexual, manipulative Black woman is more prevalent and more widely seen in the media from television, movies, magazines, and medicinal drug videos. It is the Jezebel who is the African American woman who is not ashamed to take off her clothes in exchange for things she may need. The harmony persistence peculiarly publicizes strippers and video models as an acceptable and desirable art for a Black woman. Not only do majority of articulatio coxae- cut lyrics note women to the lowest level that a woman can be degraded, but the music videos take special care to degrade the dumb woman even more. strike hard music videos depict a false image of what a real woman looks worry in ingenuousness music videos have gotten so raunchy they efficiency as well be pornography, presenting a hyper-sexual video of women that distorts and demeans the image of black women in particular. Even in the tamer videos, women might as well be prostitutes. They are objects, part of the bling-bling, like the platinum duress and diamonds sported by rappers ( workaday Review 7/4/04).It is just in this way that Saartjie Baartman was displayed and responded to and it is in the way Black women have been consistently considered as objects of sexual exploitation. coxa record pass over music has become explosively popular in the US and much of the rest of the world in the last twenty years. Hip hop-skip music influences larger society in effective ways and has become a subculture that has kick the bucketed race, socioeconomics, and gender. Its popularity and ability to transcend across many social lines that are commonly impenetrable is the biggest threat to the perception of Black women by others and by themselves.When leaders like President Barack Obama and other prominent politicians reference lines from popular rap songs, they are often received with admira tion and excitement by the media and larger public. Such a response from a pop culture reference reveals hip joint hop musics ability to influence culture on a magnanimous level. Hip hop music is an industry run by men, with overpoweringly male operatives who provide entertainment for other men. In this understanding of the industry, the images of women presented finished this massively popular music are exclusively chosen by men.Additionally, hip hop music tends to sell a life personal manner and not just a song or beats. As was previously discussed in the quote from Daily Review, expensive material things and several beautiful and bare-ass women are things to achieve and obtain. An object is for use of some kind and the hip hop music industry has single handedly crystallized the experienceing notion that women in prevalent are objects for sexual pleasure exclusively. This inclination is particularly harmful for Black women and girls in the face of a media that has very f ew other images of Black women.White women are of course objectified and hyper-sexualized in the alike(p) manner, but the damage of such objectification is buffered by other images of a range of professional White women, heroines in film and television, prominent White actresses, politicians, businesswomen, journalists, etc Historically, white women, as a category, were visualised as models of self-respect, self-control, and modesty even sexual purity, but black women were often portrayed as innately promiscuous, even predatory. This depiction of black women is signified by the name Jezebel (Pilgram, 2002).Black women and girls have very few other images to measure themselves against or look to for motivation or encouragement. These pervasive images of the Black woman as a promiscuous and manipulative Jezebel juxtaposed with the lack of other, more positive images, is highly damaging to the Black womans self-esteem. These images excessively inform others of how to perceive and u ltimately treat Black women, which is boost corrosive to the Black womans self-esteem. As if the power that images tend to have on the human psyche were not enough, hip hop music likewise incorporates lyrics that correspond to the tone of offence for Black women.Negative epithets that refer to a womans sexual and social behavior like ho and bitch are common, frequent, and acceptable in hip hop lyrics and serve to further corrupt Black women. Often, rappers and fans alike make excuses for the disturbing images and lyrics have in songs and videos, expressing that the women featured in the videos are functional of their own volition and are not world objectified. While the women of these videos are participating of their own volition, the degrading lyrics and the degrading images are not negated just because the women are choosing to participate.The message being sent is still snuff it and ubiquitous Black women are objects of sexual gaiety that do not have to be communicate t o or spoken of as human beings. viewing audience are influenced by these images and lyrics and are encouraged to develop mistaken ideas about and monolithic perception of Black women. Additionally, because other, more positive images of Black women are absentminded in the media, viewers are left with subatomic real information about the Black womans experience, life, and character.Hip hop music has in addition set the standard of presentation for effeminate rappers as well. Female rappers who have debuted in the last 20 years invoke the power the alike sexual images and presentations as the male rappers do. More recent effeminate rap artists like Nikki Minaj have amplified the hyper-sexual stereotype about Black women with her sexually charged lyrics, provocative style of dress, and various implants to enlarge her breasts and buttocks, looking not impertinent Saartjie Baartman and the many beautiful women of Africa.Artists who pre-date Nikki Minaj, like Lil Kim and Foxy Br own, debuted in a similar fashion, using their sexuality through lyrics and risque media poses in which they were almost always scarcely clad, to propel their careers. These female rappers only serve to further push the music industrys agendum to denigrate women, Black women in particular, by buy into and proudly displaying the very stereotypical behaviors that function to reinforcement hyper-sexualized images of Black women in the minds of viewers. Female rappers serve the same purpose as those women dancing in hip hop videos to push the sexual agenda of a sexist music industry.However, the message delivered through female rappers is pronounced solely due to the fact that the artist is a female who is promoting a hegemonic patriarchal message. The sexual nature of hip hop in general is made more acceptable if the objects of sexual exploitation, women, also become hip hop stars. Lastly, the current female hip hop stars are adopting images of beauty from childhood icons such as Barbie, as is the case with Nikki Minaj. The adaptation of Barbie for the purpose of hip hop is a imbibe indication that there is an agenda to capture all viewers minds to believe the images they are presented with about Black women.The most effectual approach to challenging the erroneous and negative images of Black women in the media is for those who are sensible and knowledgeable to expose the falsehoods of the pervasive stereotypes and ideas about Black women. Bibliography Frith, Susan. Searching for Sara Baartman. Johns Hopkins Magazine, June 2009. http//www. jhu. edu/jhumag/0609web/sara. html (accessed April 20, 2013). The Hottentot Venus. Accessed April 22, 2013. http//whgbetc. com/mind/hottentot_venus_emory. html. Payton, Brenda. Sorority Sisters Combat Explotiative Rap Images. Daily Review (Hayward, CA). 4 July 2004. Pilgrim , David.Jezebel. Jim Crow Museum of racial Memorabilia. . http//www. ferris. edu/jimcrow/jezebel. htm (accessed April 23, 2013). Clemlyn-Ann , Pollydore, and Jennifer A. Richeson. Affective Reactions of African-American Students to Stereotypical and Counterstereotypical Images of Blacks in the Media.. journal of Black Psychology. no. 3 (2002) 261-275. Simmonds, Felly Nkweto. Shes Gotta Have It The Representation of Black Female sex activity on Film. Feminist Review. (1988) 10-22. http//www. jstor. org/discover/10. 2307/1395143? uid=3739936&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21102132644181 (accessed April 22, 2013).