Mammy is the most well known and enduring racial caricature of African American women. The Jim Crow Museum at Ferris State University has more than 100 items with the mammy image, including ashtrays, souvenirs, postcards, fishing lures, detergent, artistic prints, toys, candles, and kitchenware. This article examines real mammies, fictional mammies, and commercial mammies.
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The portrayal of Black women as lascivious by nature is an enduring stereotype. The descriptive words associated with this stereotype are singular in their focus: seductive, alluring, worldly, beguiling, tempting, and lewd. Historically, White women, as a category, were portrayed 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.2
In preparation for the panel discussion .Our Bodies, Our Blogs taking place at the 2007 Blogher conference, Laurie Toby Edison is inviting comments over at her blog, Body Impolitic to look at the various issues that affect the body image of women. Inspired by her post, I started to think about what to write about in regards to black women and body image.
From slavery and colonialism to society’s pressure for women to conform to an archetypical notion of beauty, skin hue, hair texture and body shape have been used to either devalue and / or judge the content of a black woman’s character by comparing their features to a Euro-centric notion of beauty. Since the early days of Hip-Hop videos and hyper-sexualized images and media content, some black women have used prevailing stereotypes about the black female body for their own monetary gain. The problem, (besides, what compels an individual to perpetrate negative stereotypes?) is the tendency to lump black women as a monolithic entity, where the actions of one person represents the entire population. While women are certainly allowed to make a living using whatever means they feel will be profitable, the concern from many about how some women choose to portray themselves in the media is becoming more complicated.
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This book is an outgrowth of an international conference, ‘The Black Body: Imagining, Writing, and Re(Reading)’, held at DePaul University in the spring of 2004.
It is a collection of writing by scholars – some of whom participated in the conference and others whose work addresses complementary themes – that explores the ways in which the black body has been constituted as a site for the construction and maintenance of social and political power.
After hearing a bunch of hoopla, I felt compelled to watch the music video “Video Phone” today–well, not really. It was just a couple of seconds with the sound off. (I have a strong gag reflex, you see.) However, the few seconds I did see utterly disgusted me. Beyonce has become little more than a highly paid stripper, and it is disgusting and hypocritical that she is held in such high esteem and is commended as being a positive role model for Black girls.
 | C S on TK and Nancy |
 | koklabuddy on An hour and 30 min late(r… |
 | Masego Holele on An hour and 30 min late(r… |
 | Boitsholo aka oralic on Da Brat- Tom boy Gangsta to Vi… |
| Boitsholo aka oralic on TK and Nancy |
YUMandI 
