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