In my last post, I raised a concern about the negative portrayal of minorities in the media, specifically in the news. But the news is not the only place where minorities are not given a fair representation. Entertainment media acts as an aid to stereotypes of minorities held by society as a whole.

Women of color specifically are given unfair and inaccurate portrayals that follow them their entire lives. They are consistently compared to these characters/personas seen in print media or on the screens that do not accurately represent them. Some women spend their lives proving the stereotypes wrong or live in fear of acting out and making them true.

For years, the media has served as an aid to stereotypes held by young impressionable minds that grow up and keep the same opinions.

The Black/African American Woman

When people see a Black woman some of the many stereotypes associated with them are that they are loud, aggressive, and angry. Before even getting to know them, these characteristics are assumed. Additionally, Black women are often stereotyped to have large lips, fake hair, and a big butt. When they do not have one/all of these characteristics they are looked at as less than.

Print Media

From the early 1800s to now, print media exaggerates characteristics of Black women creating commonly held/believed stereotypes. Starting with the introduction of the Mammy. Mammies were depicted has large, round and matronly Black women. Their skin was the darkest shade of brown they could possibly find, with large red lips. Mammies had this nurturing, and motherly nature that if weren’t present they were punished. That translated to Black women feeling as they always had to uphold that same image. If they were caught being anything put that, they would fear some level of punishment. 

Now in current times, we see print media portraying Black women the same way. Last fall, a caricature of Serena Williams was circling around the internet. It caught a lot of backlashes because now, more people are aware of the negative portrayal of Black women. Serena was drawn similar to Mammy in the fact that she was drawn with big lips, big nose, and a round figure. The artist depicted Serena as a child, throwing a fit while being AGGRESSIVE (broken racquet). The Black community was very upset about this because it represented the stereotypes commonly held by Black women that they try to steer away from. Serena was upset because she wasn’t getting the fair treatment. It was unfair to depict her the way they did.

Television/Movies

With time, the main medium transitioned from print to television. The transitioned led to an opportunity to create false stereotypes of Black women.  From Sunday morning cartoons to late night adult shows, black women are portrayed as the loud, aggressive character. Take a look at these examples:

Disney’s The Proud Family

The main character of the show was a light skinned teenaged girl named Penny Proud. One of her best friends was this short, round Black girl names Dijonay (we are not going to address how they gave her a crazy name). Dijonay was always loud. Probably one of the most annoying characters in the show. If characters are inspired by real life muses, then the creators are generalizing all black girls to be loud and annoying. As children, we try to find similarities in what we see on TV, but I definitely could not relate. I did not want people to think of me as loud and annoying because I wasn’t. Why weren’t the other characters also loud and annoying?

These stereotypes of Black women fed to us by the media creates false opinions and expectations on how someone should be or act. It is unfair for Black women to feel as if they have to prove a stereotype wrong because of the preset opinions held about them.

The Hispanic/Latina Woman

Latina women experience this same negative portrayal in the media. There are so many stereotypes the media emphasizes for comical effect. Some stereotypes often held about Latina women are that they are sassy, lovers/mistress, and/or immigrants.

The Maid

Similar to Black women, Latina women are always casted to play the role of the help. Some prime examples of this are films and tv shows like “Maid in Manhattan”, “Family Guy” with Consuela the maid, and “The Devious Maids”.  Why can’t the Latina women play the role of the rich housewife? Why is she always subjected to play the maid? Children watching consistently occurring on TV grow up to think that all Latina women are maids and nothing more. Latina little girls don’t get that same inspiration to chase their dreams and become doctors through the media because all they see are women who look like them in smaller roles.

The Immigrant

The idea that all Latina women are immigrants and do not speak English is discriminating. When creating Latina characters for shows and movies, these characters often do not speak English. It is made to be a joke that these women came from another country and cannot communicate as well as the American natives — This translates to the commonly held stereotype. I have personally seen children arguing and this (that the Hispanic/Latina student cannot speak English) used as a way to bully one another.

Children are very impressionable and easy targets for the media to feed false stereotypes of different demographics. In this post, I simply brushed over the common stereotypes illustrated in many forms of media. The lack of diversity in characters played by people of color — women of color to be more specific — strengthens racial discrimination. The poor and inaccurate portrayals of women of color must come to an end. These women should not have to spend their lives trying to prove these preset opinions of themselves. As we evolve as a society, we should work towards equal and accurate representation in the media in order for young impressionable children to have a weaker level of implicit biases.

 

Sources:

http://theconversation.com/i-am-not-your-nice-mammy-how-racist-stereotypes-still-impact-women-111028

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/08/stereotype-angry-black-girls-racial

https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/antiblack/sapphire.htm

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-latino-stereotypes-20170428-htmlstory.html

https://www.thoughtco.com/latino-stereotypes-in-television-and-film-2834654