The Stereotypical Black Woman

Women Key in Shaping Black Panther Party. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2014. .

In Hey Girl, Am I More Than My Hair? : African American Women and Their Struggles with Beauty, Body Image, and Hair Tracey Owen Patton provides a historical review on the emergence of black stereotypes, elaborating on how black women earned the status of inferiority. Black women are held to the Eurocentric expectations, causing these adverse perceptions to evolve from the created principle that white women are the only defining archetypes of beauty (Patton 26). The societal practice of comparing black women to white women sheds a negative light on the black female community, leading to the manife... ... middle of paper ... ...ale’s image is still being felt today, which can be clearly seen through the comment on my acquaintance. I am grateful for artists like Maya Angelou and Kara Walker for protesting the perceptions of black females and working to transform them.

Her-Story Unsilenced: Black Female Activists in the Civil Rights Movement. Vol. 5 of Sage: A Scholarly Journal On Black Women 1988. 60-64. Rooks, Noliwe.

African American women have been characterized as angry because of their outer characteristics, attitude, and choice of words; however, they have tried to escape this stereotype but mass media reinforces it. The stereotypical myth about women of color being portrayed as angry have been around since slavery. This myth has caused a plethora of negative reactions from the black community. Black women have had enough of trying to prove to society that they are more than what they make them out to be; however, society continue to push black women to the bottom. Based on a psychological lens, the movie Waiting to Exhale debunk this stereotype through reinforcement by the actresses’ mental reactions to different life situations.

3-17. Clenora, Hudson Weems. “The Tripartite Plight of African-American Women as Reflected in the Novels of Hurston and Walker.” Journal of Black Studies 20.2 (December 1989): 192-207. Hui, Fung-mei, Sandra. “Race and Gender in the Works of Maxine Hong Kingston, Alice Walker and Toni Morrison.” Diss.

14 Nov. 2013. Sharpley-Whiting, T. Denean. Pimps up, Ho's Down: Hip Hop's Hold on Young Black Women. New York, NY, USA: New York University Press (2007). Print.

https://tavaana.org/en/content/1960s-70s-american-feminist-movement-breaking-down-barriers-women (accessed May 16, 2014). "Rights for Women." Rights for Women. http://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/rightsforwomen/AfricanAmericanwomen.html (accessed May 16, 2014).

Web. 02 May 2014. Richardson, Elaine. "'She was Workin Like Foreal': Critical Literacy and Discourse Practices of African American Females in the Age of Hip Hop." Discourse & Society 18.6 (2007): 789-809.

Toni Cade Bambara’s Black Female Champions It is well known from historical accounts, novels, poems, movies, and other sources that blacks have been abused, neglected, and mistreated in American society. In addition, a great deal has been written about the lives, hardships, and obstacles of black men. Black women, however, have long been relegated to subordinate societal roles in relation to white men and women and black men. Black women have been viewed as monsters and suffered distortions of their image. Toni Cade Bambara, in her writings, has helped to change the image of black women.

Before starting, I think it will be a good idea to define what stereotype is because it has some effect in the movie. Stereotype is the thought or image of a particular person. In the case of black women some stereotypes are “overbearing, too outspoken, strong, angry, gold diggers, materialistic, oversexed, have lots of children, and unintelligent,” and even also “mammy stereotype.” Not all of these are the case for Delilah; she repr... ... middle of paper ... ...story 14.3 (2002): 505. Humanities International Complete. Web.