So, without further adieu, here are: THE MOST TIRED, WORN-OUT, STEREOTYPICAL, BLACK WOMEN'S ROLES
FAT SASSY BLACK WOMAN
WHAT IS IT?
WHY IS IT JACKED UP?
Oh Monique, it takes more than just existing in a certain physical state to be "ground-breaking". You've got to show people that you are not going to relegate yourself to their most negative stereotypes of you. And "I hate skinny bitches"? That's called hypocrisy.
Beyond, Monique, I can give you several examples of the fat sassy black woman...Sometimes, in black-face a'la Shirley Q. Liquor, and sometimes combined with "mammy" whom some of you may have thought was gone...Nope. Look no further than the Pine-Sol lady, who I've thankfully not seen in a while.
I AVOIDED the probably good, otherwise Enchanted, precisely because of the loud, large, angry black woman, in the damn trailer.
JEZEBEL
WHAT IS IT?
WHY IS IT JACKED UP?
It is the wild, oversexed, ideal of a white man's fantasy black woman (who nine-times out of ten ain't fully black). She has wild over the-top sex scenes (hello Monster's Ball), or has some body-part fetishized (hello Kerry in Last King of Scotland)...And let's just say, Thandie Newton in just about everything. Still hanging on to the same racist idea first put forth in Birth of a Nation, in the NEW CENTURY is not cool, AT ALL.
THE BLACK FRIEND
WHAT IS IT?
WHY IS IT JACKED UP?
These women have nothing better to do, than to hang around, and support their white girlfriends, who are the main characters. They have no life of their own and definitely no plot-line of their own. They just provide an occasional hug and/or advice.
THE SAFE LOOKING "BLACK GIRL"
WHAT IS IT?
WHY IS IT JACKED UP?
The predominant image of black woman in Hollywood, is nine-times out of ten, not fully black. You tell me what's wrong with that? Yes, we are gaining ground here, with Kerry, Gabby, Naomie, and Nia (though none of these sisters work enough). But God help you, if you're an actress trying to make it, and you're Alek Wek, black.
Most "black women" working in Hollywood, must pass the paper-bag test (for the laymen, that means no darker than) or the "actually mixed" test with naturally straight hair, in order to portray black.
GHETTO FABULOUS
WHAT IS IT?
WHY IS IT JACKED UP?
The happy and proud to be ghetto black woman... As seen in Bring'n Down the House ( who managed to bridge several several stereotypes, as mammy, black friend, and fat-sassy).
Now, we all know Queen Latifah is living a good, classy, life. If I remember an interview with Diane Sawyer correctly, they talked about how meticulous her etiquette is. Now, why can't she be cast as the proper lady she is, on the big screen?
Poor talented Taraji P. Henson has made a career out of it...I would bag on Tracie Thoms in Grindhouse, but the fabulousness of her fury, out-did the sassy, even with all the unrealistic "nlgga' please"s ... said to OTHER WOMEN WTF?!
SASSY CARTOON CHARACTER
WHAT IS IT?
WHY IS IT JACKED UP?
We're teaching the kids early what labels and the actions associated with them, should be. And that is seriously JACKED UP.
BLACK GUYS IN FAT BLACK WOMAN SUITS
WHAT IS IT?
WHY IS IT JACKED UP?
It's self-hating. These men's mothers', children, sisters', wives, and friends, are not these loud obnoxious cartoons. And I'm sure they wouldn't like it, if they were portrayed as such. So, yeah RETIRE THAT. I'm talking to YOU TOO Tyler Perry.
Here is a wonderful two-part interview that relates to the subject, at hand:
Part I
Part II
ADDENDUM
I in no way blame the actresses who play these roles, but Hollywood for perpetuating them. They gotta eat.
FURTHER ADDENDUM
This is not some game of cards and political correctness has no bearing on this. These are facts. These images are what HOLLYWOOD PUTS OUT and they are jacked up. If they were equally countered by opposing images, there would not be a need for this post.
...But that is not the case.
So, do not come up in my blog acting this is not some game of bridge or some shit. Because, you won't get posted. If you don't have a "black people are too sensitive" counter-argument, bring it on.
P.S. On a totally unrelated but pisses me off anyway, subject...
I saw TWO back-to-back trailers featuring solitary white males who were needed to save an entire population of people of color in China and North Africa (and I SAY North Africa because people like to pretend Egypt's not on the same continent).
Obviously, there is not ONE person of color among them who can do the same thing. Those trailers were for 10,000 BC, which I WILL NOT be seeing, and The Lost Kingdom, which I also WILL NOT be seeing.
Like Public Enemy said, before Flav turned into Minstrel Show 101, Burn, Hollywood, Burn.
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20 comments:
Have u ever watched the cartoon on nick called the Kids Next Door? There is one black character on there and-guess what?- she's Ssassssy like Wanda Sykes. Mmmhmm!
The black fisha sing still exists today.
excellent post that will be forwarded to my wife.
This is exactly the reason why I rarely watch mainstream Hollyweird movies...
And I just rented "The Last King of Scotland"...Wish I had known about the body part fetishisation prior to this. D:
rosario dawson would kick your ass if she knew you were calling her Blck.
That girl don't want nothing to do with her African Heritage.
@ladyk
On Last King. It's bad...Some bare-breasted Ugandian women dance around a fire while Kerry's character and James' character get down.
@yobachi
Rosario knows who she is...She plays ALL those parts too.
Black
Latina
Brazilian
Bactrian...
Like I said, they gotta eat. I can't fault her for getting hers. I fault Hollyweird, for giving it to her.
I just saw that scene...When you said they got down, I assumed you meant dancing...Not having hot jungle monkey love... *groans* WHYYYY? D:
I like this list; I do relate to it and find it amusing because I've seen all of these things before.
There is one thing you said, though, that stung me a bit. Why is it that you referred to the women pictured above as not "fully black"? I understand that a couple of these women are multiracial; but why not be more sensitive to the ways in which many of these women might racially self-identify and use a different phrase besides "not fully black"? That's all I ask.
I'd like to know, in particular, what is "not fully black" about the woman on the far left. Her skin color is of average darkness, and I've seen many women from Central Africa who have features just like hers. In fact, she looks far more like the average black women I see every day than Alek Wek does, in terms of facial features and skin color. There are so many white actresses with tan skin and full features; yet no one refers to them as "not fully white". Why do we do this to black women?
I have a hefty amount of Irish and Native American ancestry in me along with the African, which shows itself somewhat in my skin color and features. I consider myself a black woman, though. I may not look like Alek Wek, but I think we're both beautiful black women.
That's why your comment really hit home for me. I'm not trying to be confrontational; I understand the point you were getting across about colorism and Eurocentric beauty ideals for black actresses, and I agree with it. I just wanted to share my feelings.
@J.Wiley
There's nothing to be stung about. These women are in fact mixed.
That's not a bad thing, but they are. If you notice, a poster above said something to the effect of Rosario not claiming black.
No, she claims all of her bloodlines (and gets her money because of it) and there's nothing wrong with it.
The issue is not with their mixed racial heritage but with Hollywood for not balancing it out.
Having a predominent reprensentation of black that is "mixed" is jacked up, any way you slice it.
It's about as silly as having women who look like Halle or Rashida Jones be the predominent representation of white women in Hollywood.
It's not their fault they're getting hired more than ladies with darker skin and nappy hair, it's Hollweird's.
As for the lady you referred to on the far left, that is Zoe Saldana. She is Dominican and mixed.
That naturally straight hair, I referred to? She has it. Therefore she is "safer".
When you can name one actress who IS Alek Wek's color (and let's throw in the nappy hair for fun) and has the considered stature and beauty of those pictured, then I will concede to your point.
What you (or I) see is not an accurate gauge of what the predominent skin color among black women is. So, that generalization is null.
We are a variety and that is beautiful. ALL OF IT should be represented equallly.
As of now, light, bright, mixed, and non-nappy are all Hollywood sees as "safe". Therefore they get all the plum "black women" roles.
If the issue is word choice, mixed vs. not completely black, then, my bad.
I just wanted to let you know that Robin Williams (and countless others, I'm sure) wanted to say that putting on a fat woman suit has nothing to do with race and everything to do with comedy with a capital C. Of course, it's rarely funny, but that's the intention...
@Fletch
It's old as dirt, but apt.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
LOVE this post - preach! I wish I had more time to research more examples - not that it would take too much time to find them. It also needs to be reinforced how influential these representations are to ALL of our ideas about black women.
@J.Wiley
The reason your second comment was not published, was because you repeated what you previously posted.
Probably 90% of Black Americans claim a mixed heritage similar to your own, including myself.
The issue is indeed colorism (and hair texture) and it's balance, as my last few lines state.
NO WHERE in the above post or my comment will you find anything demeaning to those with "safer" obvious-looking, mixed blood.
Those who look like Alek Wek, could in fact, be mixed as well...Moreso, in rare cases.
Semantics, is just too nit-picky a thing to quibble over, when we both agree with the gist.
Peace.
Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou, thankyou, thankyou, THANK YOU.
I always found it interesting that I had no problem getting roles when acting in the UK, even w/ my US accent, but in the States, all I was offered was "friend," "maid," "ghetto extra." I even had one director ask me to please be "blacker." Now you know why I'm an ex-actor.
Preach it.
Love this article.
You know Cree Summer? Freddie from A Different World?
Well, she fits in most of the roles just as much as Queen Latifah. Like you, I don't blame her, but the system she's in.
She's played the best Black friend role in movies and television.
She's also one of those actresses that passes the "paper bag" test due to her multiracial background (African-Canadian, Anglo-Canadian, and Cree).
In accordance to the "Sassy cartoon character," she plays 4 out of five of them. She's Numbah 5 from Codename: Kids Next Door, Susie from Rugrats/All Grown Up, and Foxxy Love from Drawn Together. She has also played the first Black Disney Princess, Kida, in Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Disney has forgotten about her for some odd reason and canonly considers Tiana from next year's The Princess and the Frog as an official Disney Princess of color.
There is one more stereotype you forgotten to mention:
- The Old Christian: You know the types. Older, slightly (or largely) rotund Black women who are so high and mighty, clutching on the Good Book, and, in most cases, damning those who aren't exactly like them to hell. Think: Aunt Esther from Sanford and Son, Florida Evans on Good Times, Roz Ryan and Barbara Montgomery on just about everything they've been on, and Mama Payne on Martin (played by a pre-Big Momma's House Martin Lawrence).
@Jeff Harris.
The old black church lady IS a glaring ommission!
So is her contribution to black "race dramas", howling over a dead black son, or moaning mournfully on the soundtrack over some jack-up racism.
i dont wanna start a fight or anything but foxxy love on drawn together is *meant* to be a black stereotype, just like the rest of the characters on the show. that said shes..in the words of wooldoor.."the only one in the house whos not completely retarded.."
@anonymous
The line of comic-irony is a thin one, indeed.
Sometimes I love Foxxy.
Sometimes I hate her.
I've been enjoying your blog a lot, Ms. DC... you might get a kick out of my musings on the theme:
http://lancetooksjournal.blogspot.com/2007/03/black-by-popular-demand.html
The more things change...
-LT
as a child and all of my life i always wanted to be an actor but now that im an adult and seein the biasim that hollywood portrays as well as the media. magazines that ony feature lightskinned blacks like people magazine. it bothers me. my sister is adrk-skinned woman and i look mixed. growing up we have always have peopl quetion our relation. and i know that i i were to go to h-wood i would probably get more roles than my beautiful brown siter. and i cant' deal with that so i've decided to go back to college and earn a degree in someting that wont make me feel like i should be put on a higher rank according to some ignorant producer or director.
I agree with everything you said! As a double major in Psychology and African-American studies, I can tell you that seeing these perpetual images of Black women does adversely effect the Black psyche...hence, why our daughters are still choosing the white baby doll: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjy9q8VekmE
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