I found this on YouTube. I was especially interested in the picture of Tom (from Tom and Jerry) and the Black woman. If you recall Tom's white owners are usually very well dressed and 'sophisticated' in their posture but in this picture the Black woman is wearing patched socks and standing with her hands are her hips. It hits home because most of us grew up watching Tom and Jerry ( I was a HUUUGEEE FAN!). What are they teaching little kids? What are we growing up to believe?
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Point Two
Going into Columbus Middle School and listening attentively to the conversations of twelve to thirteen year old colored girls makes it hard to deny that the media can be detrimental to the self-images of people. As conversations drift in and out of the all female and predominantly Black classroom, the girls talk about music videos, news, and performances made by Black entertainers. While these conversations are (to them) mere past times, they reveal an often ignored but persevering issue affecting the Black community: the monolithic and oppressive images of Black women in the media today and how these images create mental barriers and psychological damages on young Black girls and Black women. As a woman who has had to deal with overcoming the sexualization and exotification of Latinas throughout the media as well as a person who has grown to be shaped by the girls in Columbus, I can no longer sit back and allow there to be no room for complicating media images.
To clarify, the media we are addressing is mainstream (specifically white mainstream) media via magazines, music videos, ads and news reports. This therefore gives us space to acknowledge those few individuals and communities who have worked diligently to create their own media images that add more depth to the understanding of Black women’s experiences. It also helps critique those media outlets that have been appropriated by whites and thus have constructed a superficial perspective of what it means to be a Black woman.
More significantly we do not want to simply take an oppositional view on all current images of Black women. Our goal is to complicate and diversify these images. It is very easy, for example, to brand all music videos as sexist and oppressive, leaving no room to discuss what that means and what social contexts and constructs have led to the creation of the music videos. We also want to be careful on how we go about identifying oppressive images without alienating the Black women who are portraying these images. For instance, Dr. Raquel Rivera pointed out in her discussion of Reggeaton and women that we cannot ignore the women who find it liberating to dance in sexy ways. The point we are trying to make is that the mostly undressed Black woman on a video or magazine should not be the only let alone the dominant representation of Black women. By creating one specific image of Black women, the media is also constructing rigid expectations for young Black girls and giving these girls little room to aim for other self-portrayals.
I will be mainly concentrating on the second point, which addresses who is making the “big calls” on what gets to go on magazines, TV screens and Ads. On one hand, I will look into who have historical decided the images of Black women. On the other, I will be advocating that Black women themselves become the CEOs, editors and leaders of media outlets. Yet these women must have sense of how media images affect the Black community. It is not just a matter of placing Black women into these positions but also a matter of placing women who consciously understand the need for control of Black women of their own media images and diversifying said images to 1) empower Black women and 2) give an extra layer of depth of what it means to be a Black woman in America.
At its roots, our goal is to politicize Black women via controlling and complicating media images while valuing Black cultural forms of entertainment.
To clarify, the media we are addressing is mainstream (specifically white mainstream) media via magazines, music videos, ads and news reports. This therefore gives us space to acknowledge those few individuals and communities who have worked diligently to create their own media images that add more depth to the understanding of Black women’s experiences. It also helps critique those media outlets that have been appropriated by whites and thus have constructed a superficial perspective of what it means to be a Black woman.
More significantly we do not want to simply take an oppositional view on all current images of Black women. Our goal is to complicate and diversify these images. It is very easy, for example, to brand all music videos as sexist and oppressive, leaving no room to discuss what that means and what social contexts and constructs have led to the creation of the music videos. We also want to be careful on how we go about identifying oppressive images without alienating the Black women who are portraying these images. For instance, Dr. Raquel Rivera pointed out in her discussion of Reggeaton and women that we cannot ignore the women who find it liberating to dance in sexy ways. The point we are trying to make is that the mostly undressed Black woman on a video or magazine should not be the only let alone the dominant representation of Black women. By creating one specific image of Black women, the media is also constructing rigid expectations for young Black girls and giving these girls little room to aim for other self-portrayals.
I will be mainly concentrating on the second point, which addresses who is making the “big calls” on what gets to go on magazines, TV screens and Ads. On one hand, I will look into who have historical decided the images of Black women. On the other, I will be advocating that Black women themselves become the CEOs, editors and leaders of media outlets. Yet these women must have sense of how media images affect the Black community. It is not just a matter of placing Black women into these positions but also a matter of placing women who consciously understand the need for control of Black women of their own media images and diversifying said images to 1) empower Black women and 2) give an extra layer of depth of what it means to be a Black woman in America.
At its roots, our goal is to politicize Black women via controlling and complicating media images while valuing Black cultural forms of entertainment.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Speak with us: What Do YOU Think?
Want to be part of a social activism project? Want to share your thoughts about the images of Black women in the media? Well if the answer is YES then please come and be interviewed! Ashia Troiano, Sable Mensah and Stephanie Rodriguez have teamed up to create a documentary addressing the contemporary images of Black women on mainstream media. Our campaign is called Speak In Speak Out! So come AND SPEAK!!
When? Sunday March 29, 2009, Saturday April 4th and Sunday April 5th 2009
12-5pm
Where? Sundays - BCC
Saturday - Kohlberg 114
The interviews will be brief. Please email speakinspeakout@gmail.com to schedule a time if you are interested!!
--
Speak In, Speak Out 2009
http://sp3akinsp3akout.blogspot.com/
Ashia Troiano, Sable Mensah, Stephanie Rodriguez
When? Sunday March 29, 2009, Saturday April 4th and Sunday April 5th 2009
12-5pm
Where? Sundays - BCC
Saturday - Kohlberg 114
The interviews will be brief. Please email speakinspeakout@gmail.com to schedule a time if you are interested!!
--
Speak In, Speak Out 2009
http://sp3akinsp3akout.blogspot.com/
Ashia Troiano, Sable Mensah, Stephanie Rodriguez
Monday, March 23, 2009
Roundtable: Sexual Media Images of Black Women (from NPR)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5437124
This is a podcast from NPR. It was released in 2006 so some of you may have heard it, but it is still relevant. It features Mark Anthony Neal, associate professor of African American Studies at Duke University; Karrine Steffans (AKA Superhead), model and author of Confessions of a Video Vixen; and Shaheem Reed, MTV news editor. They're discussing perceptions of black women given that a black exotic dancer had recently accused white Duke students of raping her.
Few things I want to point out in this:
Steffans' self-perception when she started out. She says her perception of what she wanted to be came from videos. She didn't feel beautiful, and the only place she saw women who looked like her was in videos taking their clothes off. No one ever told her she was smart or that she could do something that did not involve getting naked for a camera.
The discussion of "bitch-ho" lyrics in rap and different female responses to it
Participation records - labels release songs that get you to dance in the club. Steffans urges women to stop buying music that degrades them.
This is a podcast from NPR. It was released in 2006 so some of you may have heard it, but it is still relevant. It features Mark Anthony Neal, associate professor of African American Studies at Duke University; Karrine Steffans (AKA Superhead), model and author of Confessions of a Video Vixen; and Shaheem Reed, MTV news editor. They're discussing perceptions of black women given that a black exotic dancer had recently accused white Duke students of raping her.
Few things I want to point out in this:
Steffans' self-perception when she started out. She says her perception of what she wanted to be came from videos. She didn't feel beautiful, and the only place she saw women who looked like her was in videos taking their clothes off. No one ever told her she was smart or that she could do something that did not involve getting naked for a camera.
The discussion of "bitch-ho" lyrics in rap and different female responses to it
Participation records - labels release songs that get you to dance in the club. Steffans urges women to stop buying music that degrades them.
Point One
Point One: We want an end to the psychological damage of black women and black young girls imposed by the media.
In “Those Loud Black Girls,” Signithia Fordham argues that to be a successful female in academia, she must “gender pass;” in other words, she must de-feminize and silence herself to thwart attention away from her gender. Fordham further argues
that to be a black woman in the academy is even more difficult because she must adhere to the norms of a white woman on top of “gender passing” – she must bring as little attention as possible to the fact that she is a woman and black.
Fordham’s article only added another layer to the things I had already seen in my everyday lived experience. Rarely do black women have a voice in the way people perceive them, and the only time they are represented at all is when they are
fulfilling stereotypes. When a black woman does not fit the mold created for her by outside agents, she is silenced, erased from any meaningful aspect of society.
The point I am specializing in and will further elaborate on is the first point – our demand that more attention be paid to the psychological and emotional health of black women.
We believe that, as of now, there are very limited representations of black females in the media. From television to magazines to music, the same stereotypical images of women appear repeatedly – the sex symbol, the angry girl, the super woman. When images like these are fed over and over to our women, they become internalized. Seeing people who like themselves portrayed as one-dimensional and in service of other people’s needs, wants and desires constantly is detrimental to black women’s self esteem. It is then embedded into the fabric of society, making it difficult to combat. Low self-esteem has been a recurring factor among women who are subject to domestic violence and prostitution among a host of other social ills. We believe that to free ourselves of the cycle that many women are trapped in, we need to reconstruct and redefine what it is to be a black woman in the greater American consciousness.
With regards to my focus, I envision the documentary including black women sharing their ideas about:
- their self-perception and the factors influencing it
- responses to media images
- experiences/relationships with other black women
In “Those Loud Black Girls,” Signithia Fordham argues that to be a successful female in academia, she must “gender pass;” in other words, she must de-feminize and silence herself to thwart attention away from her gender. Fordham further argues
that to be a black woman in the academy is even more difficult because she must adhere to the norms of a white woman on top of “gender passing” – she must bring as little attention as possible to the fact that she is a woman and black.
Fordham’s article only added another layer to the things I had already seen in my everyday lived experience. Rarely do black women have a voice in the way people perceive them, and the only time they are represented at all is when they are
fulfilling stereotypes. When a black woman does not fit the mold created for her by outside agents, she is silenced, erased from any meaningful aspect of society.
The point I am specializing in and will further elaborate on is the first point – our demand that more attention be paid to the psychological and emotional health of black women.
We believe that, as of now, there are very limited representations of black females in the media. From television to magazines to music, the same stereotypical images of women appear repeatedly – the sex symbol, the angry girl, the super woman. When images like these are fed over and over to our women, they become internalized. Seeing people who like themselves portrayed as one-dimensional and in service of other people’s needs, wants and desires constantly is detrimental to black women’s self esteem. It is then embedded into the fabric of society, making it difficult to combat. Low self-esteem has been a recurring factor among women who are subject to domestic violence and prostitution among a host of other social ills. We believe that to free ourselves of the cycle that many women are trapped in, we need to reconstruct and redefine what it is to be a black woman in the greater American consciousness.
With regards to my focus, I envision the documentary including black women sharing their ideas about:
- their self-perception and the factors influencing it
- responses to media images
- experiences/relationships with other black women
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Point Three: Explanation & Protest Action
Why I am doing this:
There is a lot of power within and amongst Black women. However, because “we’ve been conditioned from an early age by advertising, pop culture, and the news media… [and] surrounded 24/7 by images steeped in racial stereotypes, … there’s simply no way for [black women] not to be influenced by them.” These images have served as weights and chains that have restricted Black women’s movement and ability to exist as whole entities in open and personal spaces within American society. I believe that working to remove the weights and chains and to heal the scars left behind on Black women, their families and their communities is a means of and goal of social change in the Black Freedom Struggle in my generation.
Explanation:
I am focusing and expanding on Point Three: WE WANT DIVERSIFIED, COMPLEX AND NON-MONOLITHIC PORTRAYALS OF BLACK WOMEN.
We believe that the images of Black women constructed by our oppressors have been used to further develop a capitalist and racist agenda historically rooted in the enslavement of African people. We believe that these images have and continue to oppress Black women and their communities beyond the end of chattel slavery and the present day. We believe diversified, complex and non-monolithic portrayals of Black women in the media will break America's psychosis of Black women and free them from the mental and psychological bondages that racist and sexist imageries have entrapped Black women, their communities and America in since before the fruition of this nation.
Protest Action:
I will interviewing various people (academics, artists, students, mothers, etc.), where I will ask them to look at various images and representations of Black womyn, define and interpret them as they understand them and how the work that they do helps them define their own Black womanhood on their own terms.
There is a lot of power within and amongst Black women. However, because “we’ve been conditioned from an early age by advertising, pop culture, and the news media… [and] surrounded 24/7 by images steeped in racial stereotypes, … there’s simply no way for [black women] not to be influenced by them.” These images have served as weights and chains that have restricted Black women’s movement and ability to exist as whole entities in open and personal spaces within American society. I believe that working to remove the weights and chains and to heal the scars left behind on Black women, their families and their communities is a means of and goal of social change in the Black Freedom Struggle in my generation.
Explanation:
I am focusing and expanding on Point Three: WE WANT DIVERSIFIED, COMPLEX AND NON-MONOLITHIC PORTRAYALS OF BLACK WOMEN.
We believe that the images of Black women constructed by our oppressors have been used to further develop a capitalist and racist agenda historically rooted in the enslavement of African people. We believe that these images have and continue to oppress Black women and their communities beyond the end of chattel slavery and the present day. We believe diversified, complex and non-monolithic portrayals of Black women in the media will break America's psychosis of Black women and free them from the mental and psychological bondages that racist and sexist imageries have entrapped Black women, their communities and America in since before the fruition of this nation.
Protest Action:
I will interviewing various people (academics, artists, students, mothers, etc.), where I will ask them to look at various images and representations of Black womyn, define and interpret them as they understand them and how the work that they do helps them define their own Black womanhood on their own terms.
Three Point Plan
1. WE WANT AN END TO THE PSYCHOLOGICAL DAMAGE OF BLACK WOMEN AND BLACK YOUNG GIRLS IMPOSED BY THE MEDIA.
2. WE WANT CONTROL OF OUR IMAGES THROUGH PHYSICAL REPRESENTATION IN DECISION MAKING PROCESS.
3. WE WANT DIVERSIFIED, COMPLEX AND NON-MONOLITHIC PORTRAYALS OF BLACK WOMEN.
2. WE WANT CONTROL OF OUR IMAGES THROUGH PHYSICAL REPRESENTATION IN DECISION MAKING PROCESS.
3. WE WANT DIVERSIFIED, COMPLEX AND NON-MONOLITHIC PORTRAYALS OF BLACK WOMEN.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)