“Bend over to the front, touch your toes, bounce that ass up and down and get low!” blasts the latest rap song that seems to get a substantial amount of airtime. This particular song instructs a woman on how to perform an erotic strip tease. These lyrics are a small fragment of the images conveyed of Black women to audiences domestically as well as internationally. The American medium which includes radio, television, film, and other forms of advertisement continues to produce degrading, misleading, and destructive images of Black women. These images become unrelenting negative stereotypes that weaken the Political credibility of Black women in the White dominated patriarchic society.

Cultural images of African American women based on stereotypes are at the very foundation of the problem of African American women’s limited access to societal resources and institutions (Jewell, 1992, p. 12). Stereotype as used here “is an imitation, a copy of something of someone that is, by means of the media machinery, held up first as THE symbol or symbols to the exclusion to others; and then repeatedly channeled out to viewers so often that in time it

Just as some forms of media have purposely generated defaming images of African American women, some mediums have indirectly done the same. For example, John Singleton’s Boyz n the Hood depicts the inner-city African American male as disrespectful of African American females, calling them “hoes” and “bitches.” Making such statements continues the process of devaluating African American women, and contributes to negative societal perceptions of African American women (Jewell, 1992, p. 51). Historically, the sexuality of black women has been portrayed as wanton. When the word “black” is combined with “bitch,” it relegates a black woman to a profoundly inferior position, grounded in the devaluation status of being both black and female. It is a poignant reminder of her societal status (Bell, Nkomo, 2001, p. 142). This isn’t saying that John Singleton is disrespectful to Black women; his film however, indirectly affirmed the notions people of other ethnicities may have had about the Black woman. Even though this film may have been a tool to reveal how society has influenced and condoned this disrespect of African American women, the outcome seemed to have an adverse affect. One of the objectives of cultural imagery is to legitimize and perpetuate stereotypes, as well

Some topics in this essay:
African American, Black Woman, Clark Jewell, John Singleton, african american, american women, african american women, black women, jewell 1992, Bell Nkomo, , black woman, Boyz Hood, cultural images, images african, images african american, jewell 1992 51, women jewell, women jewell 1992, societal status, 1992 51, american women jewell,