Racialized Women Analysis

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Recommended: Objectification of women in modern society

Sammi Leung
301136241

CMNS 452 - Essay Proposal

Modeling the Sexuality of Racialized Women:
A Semiotic Analysis of the Images Produced in America’s Next Top Model

The premises that race and gender are social constructs mobilized anti-racism and feminist movements, including education and research, to counter the issues encompassed within these two forms of discrimination. However, while there are many arguments supporting the problems surrounding white supremacy as well as the sexual oppression of women, the combination of both race and gender lacks examination in comparison. Racialized women are commonly associated with being sexually available and exotic, despite feminist movements against the objectification of women. Because women are underrepresented in arguments against race, and issues of race are underrepresented in arguments against the sexualization of women, racialized women are marginalized and continue to face both racism and gender inequality.

One of the factors that heavily influence the continuing propagation of these ideas associated with the sexuality of racialized women is the production and dissemination of media images, symbols and narratives (Brooks & Hébert, 2006, p. 297). As a society who is constantly consuming media culture through various media outlets, television uses a combination of methods in imagery, symbolization, and narration to represent our social realities. Notions of what beauty means are further dictated by fashion and reality television shows, which includes shows that discuss trends, makeovers, modeling, and more. In turn, these television programs often targeted at young women themselves, continue to shape how society views women of color, particularly how women of color are superfi...

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...inist Media Studies, 1(1), 17-24. doi: 10.1080/14680770120042783

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Sanger, N. (2009). New women, old messages? Constructions of femininities, race, and hypersexualised bodies in selected South African magazines, 2003-2006. Social
Dynamics, 35(1), 137-148. doi: 10.1080/02533950802667301

Schueller, M. (2005). Analogy and (white) feminist theory: Thinking race and the color of the cyborg body. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture & Society, 31(1), 63-92. doi: 10.1086/431372

Merskin, D. (2001). Winnebagos, Cherokees, Apaches, and Dakotas: The persistence of stereotyping of American Indians in American advertising brands. Howard Journal of
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