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.