The Mammy

Mammies, Matriarchs and separate Controlling Images Patricia Hill Collins shady Feminist Thought Chapter principal(prenominal) Concepts As it relates to African-American wo hands, the intersecting oppressions of race, class, gender and sexual urge could not stay fresh without powerful ideological apologys for their existence, which is perpetuated through controlling images. Controlling societal images is iodine of the many powers held by the dominant group ( blank males) in the U. S. to manipulate ideas close mordant womanhood. Through the perpetuation of these controlling images of the black woman as the mammy, matriarch, welf be queen, jezebel/hoochie and black lady, black women flummox objects instead of subjects ? i. e. domesticated workers are often referred to as work mules/animals or girl Like some other(a) people of color and subordinate groups, black women are seen as the other in our society. By not belonging, black women emphasize the significance of belongi ng. ? slow feminist thought derives from this kind of thinking, as a means to change course these controlling images. grisly women insist on the right to establish and define their knowledge reality Controlling Images and scorch Womens Oppression During this buckle downry season images of black women were socially constructed to maintain their subordination Unlike bleak women, colour women were encouraged to possess four cardinal virtues piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity ? Mammy Asexual, faithful, obedient domestic servant yardstick used to measure all black women bearing Image aims to influence maternal behavior raises children to know place in society Matriarch Spends too much time out the habitation working overly the aggressive emasculates husbands and lovers unfeminine. Unlike mammy, she is the bad black begin Introduced in a government report on Black scantness in 1965 called the Negro Family The Case for National Action (Moynihan report) ? The re port unredeemed black mothers for their childrens failures working lead to a lack of attention and carry off delinquency Further asserts that slavery destroyed black families by reversing roles of men and women Black backlash- Diverts attention from the reality of political and economic inequalities that shape black children experiences ? Welfare Queen Makes use of social welfare benefits to which they are empower by law Lazy fails to pass on work lever orientation alone updated version of breeder woman during slavery This image provides justification for the efforts to control black womens fertility to the needs of a changing economy ? i. e. during slavery children were valued as property the more slave children you have the more assets you have After WWII black women and their children seen as a economical liability During the 1980s, despite Reagan and the Republicans opposition, Black women and children could not be pressure to work, and Black men dropped out of legitim ate labor force ? prison Industrial Complex ? Jezebel/ Hoochie Represents a abnormal black effeminate sexuality originated under slavery to justify the many assaults against slave women by white men ? These women are seen as having a strong sexual lust which leads to an expected outcome of increased fertility Hoochie unlike the Jezebel is an image authorized by the Black community ? Three types of hoochie plain, gold digger, hoodrat Normal female heterosexuality is expressed in terms of true white womanhood unlike the black hot momma Because of black women sexual appetite is seen as inappropriate or worst, insatiable, black women are characterized as freaks and become stigmatized in society Black women sexuality and fertility is defined by the dominant group (white men) ? Black Lady Combination of the mammy and matriarch Claire Huxtable, The Cosby ShowControlling Images and Social Institutions Schools, news media and government agencies constitute important sites for rep roducing controlling images usually based on the idea of black women having some kind of deviant sexuality ? Social science research AIDS and teen gestation ? Popular culture Black hip hop music ? handiness to birth control measures Controlling images are also perpetuated in Black institutions ? Family, church and civic organizations are all sites where controlling images of black women are simultaneously resisted and reproduced.Color, Hair Texture and Standards of Beauty Despite the resistance of Black women to being objected as the other, controlling images still influence their lives, fair even more visible. They impact how Black women interact with the world ? speaking standard/proper English somehow makes you less black i. e. I never think of you as black I dont see race when Im with you The binary thinking between Black and white beauty ? Thin, white, blonde whisker and blue eyeball are not beautiful without the other, full lips, broad noses, unlighted skin and kink y hair White skin and straight hair privileges white women by being the standard of beauty No be what a Black woman subjective reality is, shell never concern the main stream standards of beauty All women in U. S. are objectified, and their value determined by how they look, but Black is the most un-American Black Womens Reactions to Controlling Images Historically African American literature by women writers usually provide a comprehensive view of Black women struggles to form positive self-definitions in face inferior images many a(prenominal) fictional characters of Black women have themes of pain, violence and death that make up their lives experiences of internalized oppression ? These characters use drugs, alcohol, excessive religion, and even retreat into madness to plan of attack to escape painful black female realities ? Denial is another reply to controlling images Im not like the rest Black female writers also document the responses of positive self-definition by Black women ? The Color Purple (the conclusion) ? Waiting to Exhale ? How Stella Got Her Groove spur